passopenrecords.org

• Patron: someone who gives money or other support to somebody or something . . . or, in a rarer definition, a patron was a slave master in ancient Rome who freed a slave but retained some rights over him or her.

• Patronage: the appointments or privileges that a politician can give to loyal supporters . . . or support or kindness offered in a condescending way.

• Patronizing: treating somebody as if he or she is less intelligent or knowledgeable than you.

Both “patronage” and “patronizing” come from the same root word – patron.

That’s something worth keeping in mind during the debate over open records.

Why?

Because patronage is very much at issue in why public records need to be open to the public . . . and in particular, why the records of the legislature must be defined as public records, something they are not under current Pennsylvania law. What are we supposed to call the $360 million in the state budget that is earmarked for special projects in individual legislators’ districts other than patronage? As Marc Levy of the Associated Press wrote, the legislators have refused to say where they put the money and “they don’t have to tell anyone.”

And what word other than patronizing better describes Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler’s attitude toward the public when he told the House State Government Committee that his decision not to release data on the state’s bridges to the public was a “judgment call.”

As PennDOT spokesman Joe Struzzi had said earlier, “There’s a fear that the general public might not understand what those numbers mean.”

We have had enough of this kind of thinking. It is time to return public records to the public domain.

Urban Warrior | Is Harrisburg ready to open its secret files?
By Chris Brennan
My first full-time newspaper job 15 years ago required me to walk to the Pottsville police station every day at 9 a.m.

The police chief would scan crime reports and tell me what he thought I needed to know.

Then I moved to Florida, where police left the crime reports in a pile for all to read and even made photocopies for a quarter.

Guess which state made it easier to tell readers about crime and other important public issues.

I was thinking about that last week when the Pennsylvania Senate’s chief clerk issued his quarterly report on employees and independent contractors. I know, I know - it sounds boring. But these reports help spell out how millions of your state tax dollars are spent.

Or, at least, they used to.