passopenrecords.org

The following is a column by Mitch Olszak, the Editorial Page Editor of the New Castle News, and reprinted with his permission

State open records laws are put to the test

There¹s an open secret about open records in Pennsylvania.
Here it is: The commonwealth¹s right to know laws are among the weakest in the nation. Not only is public access to public information thwarted by legislation and court rulings, the rules that do exist carry virtually no teeth.
What¹s the penalty for violating the state¹s open records laws? There really isn¹t one, other than possible embarrassment.
The New Castle News has been waging a long and, so far, successful court battle to force the New Castle Area School District to cough up legal fees over the district¹s botched effort to conceal details of a court settlement related to its school uniform policy.
Such financial penalties are extremely rare in Pennsylvania, and the cost falls upon the taxpayers, not the officials responsible for breaking the rules. More practically, however, violations of the law never reach that point. Most people simply give up or don¹t know the procedures they are required to follow for an open records request.
For some time now, various organizations have been pushing for stronger open records laws in the commonwealth. Among the leaders of this effort is the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. The PNA has set up a Web site, www.passopenrecords.org, devoted to the push for tougher right to know laws.
Recently, the PNA kicked it up a notch by creating what it calls the Open Records Challenge. By accessing the Web site, individuals can download rules and a worksheet that allow them to participate in a statewide test of public records availability. It¹s a contest of sorts, with participants eligible to win local newspaper subscriptions.
Basically, those taking the challenge are to approach a government entity and request public records. The results are to be reported back to the Web site.
Not surprisingly, word of the contest hasn¹t gone over too well with organizations representing local governments and school districts. And they are firing back at the PNA, arguing that current open records laws are effective, and the PNA is trying to create an issue by imposing a burden on local officials who are now forced to contend with unnecessary open records requests.
If hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians were taking up the Open Records Challenge, these government organizations might have a point. But participation in the program is nowhere near that level.
The purpose of the challenge is not to gum up the works of local government. It merely seeks to make the public more aware of how difficult it can be to obtain information that ought to be readily available.
Although open records laws are designed to serve all citizens, journalists become quite familiar with them. And in Pennsylvania, reporters know perfectly well that the theory of open records falls apart when it comes to actual practice.
It¹s not at all unusual to encounter government officials or office workers who treat public records as personal property. These folks are slow to release records, or they completely refuse to do so. They¹re much more interested in knowing why the records are being requested than in complying with the law.
Local government organizations can deny this reality all they want. But it¹s just one consequence of weak open records laws in Pennsylvania. In this state, citizens have been kept in the dark for so long that they don¹t know what it¹s like with the lights on.