Special Announcement: The First-Ever PA Open Records Challenge
Aug 21st, 2007 by dani_k
To illustrate the problems Pennsylvania’s journalists and citizens face in obtaining public records, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, together with this blog, is holding the first-ever PA Open Records Challenge.
The competition begins in mid-August. Participants will be asked to attempt to obtain a document, such as a school superintendent’s contract or the amount of legal fees spent by their town in 2006, using an open records request.
Interested? Check out the complete press release.
Want to play? Read the official Rules first.
To get started, download your own PA Open Records Challenge Worksheet.
Winners will be selected from the completed, correct entries submitted to the challenge, which ends October 5. Grand Prize Winners (2) will receive a one-year subscription to their local newspaper. Ten (10) additional winners will receive Pennsylvania Newspaper Association First Amendment boxes.
We would love if participants would share their stories about their requests for information here on the blog.
The following comment was submitted by user Walt Tilley on the “Join the Discussion” page. I thought it might be useful to post it here as well:
3Walt Tilley
What a shame that the PA Newspaper Association has chosen to burden already over worked and understaffed municipal employees with a game to get information for which the requesters have no need. Your game has the potential of burdening the people who have no control over the law; it is not fair to them. You are wasting tax payer money, so if you feel that taxpayers are already victims under the current law, you are making their situation worse. I am disappointed that the PA Newspaper Association would cheapen the discussion of a serious issue by the use of an irresponsible publicity stunt.
The following response was written by Teri Henning:
On behalf of the Newspaper Association, I feel the need to respond to this post. The open records challenge is not intended to - nor should it - place an unreasonable burden on any particular municipality or public official. The challenge is intended to shed light on public records issues in Pennsylvania, and we intentionally gave participants a wide range of options in making an open records request. Each participant is asked to request only one document, among a wide-ranging list. The record requested could include: the contract of any school superintendent, township manager, or county executive; the total amount spent on legal fees by any township, county, borough, or town for the year 2006; a specific settlement agreement between any municipality and a third person (who must be named); or minutes from the last two public meetings of any municipality, school board, board of trustees or other public agency. Not only are these documents that are clearly public records under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law, they are also documents that should be easily accessible upon request.
In fact, news organizations routinely conduct “open records audits,” to gauge public agency compliance with state open records laws. See, for example http://foi.missouri.edu/openrecseries.html. These audits have been very effective in identifying problems with state open records laws and, in a number of cases, have led to improved open records laws.
This contest is a great idea; my kudos to those who came up with it. Most people want more information from their state and local government units but are a bit intimidated about asking for it. This helps them get their feet wet and I’m sure will invite more citizens into more engagement with their government.