Controversy arises…
Aug 31st, 2007 by dani_k
The PA Local Government Conference recently sent a letter to Tim Williams, the Executive Director of the PA Newspaper Association, about our blog and the PA Open Records Challenge. The letter, which was also sent to all sponsors and co-sponsors of open legislation reads, in part:
“I am writing on behalf of all of the captioned local government groups in response to PNA’s recent initiatives in creation of an Open Records blog and in staging the “Open Records Challenge.” We are profoundly disappointed with the nature and tone of these initiatives, starting with your throw-away lines in the news release accompanying the Challenge that “many Pennsylvanians aren’t sure how to file an open records request with their local or state government.” and that “Too often, they only find out how difficult the process is when they badly need information, and unfortunately, there’s a steep
learning curve.”
That’s not all they had to say… Read the full letter from PA Local Government Committee.
Tim Williams responded to this letter. Here is an excerpt:
We do not dispute that local government groups such as yours have participated, in good faith, in numerous discussions regarding changing the law. We look forward to continuing those discussions. We also believe, however that if there is to be meaningful reform in this area,it is critically important that a wide variety of voices be hard and a wide range of issues discussed. Obviously, you are displeased with the nature of some of those discussions. We do not apologize for them - they are capturing what is really happening across Pennsylvania.
Read Tim’s full response.
As always, we look forward to hearing our readers’ input on the blog.
Since the PA Local Government Committee presumably has good connections with city and county government officials, one constructive activity they could engage in to promote transparency and citizen trust is to provide training modules for cities and counties in Pennsylvania in how to promote greater citizen familiarity and comfort with the open records process.
If a city sponsored a training day for folks in the city where they could come and learn how to file open records requests, that would surely be helpful.