passopenrecords.org

PA Open Records Challenge submissions keep rolling in! They run the gamut from the good, the bad, and the ugly. We’ll start with the good. These are the participants’ stories in their own words.

On Tuesday, September 18, 2007, I went to the Lock Haven Police Department, located in Clinton County, and requested to see, or attaint a copy of, the 24-hour police call logs. The clerk pushed a stack of papers bound on a clipboard towards me. She informed me that they are not permitted to give out copies of the logs. I questioned the woman as to if the papers were actually the 24-hour call logs, causing somewhat of a misunderstanding. She responded by telling me that the County Commissioners office handles that and would most likely not permit me to have those records. The woman was referring to the emergency calls that go through the dispatcher. I said that I understood and proceeded to look through the available documents. As I looked through the documents bound to the clipboard, I realized that they were, in fact, the papers that I requested.

I was instructed to go to the local police station and obtain (or attempt to obtain) their 24 hour call logs. I did the assignment in my hometown of Brookville, Pa I went into the local police station and found the secretary at her desk. I introduced myself as Angela Abell and then proceeded to ask her for a copy of their 24 hour call logs. She immediately told me that I would have to speak to the chief of police and directed me to his office. I have to admit that I did feel a little intimidated about talking to the chief of police. I introduced myself to him and proceeded to once again ask for a copy of their 24 hour call log. He began asking me questions like where I was from and what year I graduated from the high school. I told him that I was a local and graduated in 2003. I am not sure how relevant these were to the situation but I answered them. He then started explaining to me why he felt uneasy releasing certain information in order to protect his officers and the individuals involved. He then asked me if I was from a newspaper. In return I politely asked him if he needed to know that information in order for me to obtain the records I was requesting. He then referred back to his uneasiness of releasing certain records to the media. He said, “it is important to cooperate with the press because then they will get your stories right and portray them correctly, but at the same time I have a duty of protecting my officers and certain individuals.” I then told him that the information would not be released. Shortly after I was walking out of the police station with their 24 hour call logs in my hand. Although, before handing them over he did look through the call logs to make sure that there was not any information that would be of potential alarm if let out. I was not asked for identification to verify that I was a Pennsylvania resident. That may have been because I was from the town and it is not large by any means.
Overall, I did not think that assignment was that difficult. It was fairly easy to obtain the records that I was requesting. I understand where he was coming from with not being able to reveal certain information, but overall he was very cooperative.

My assignment was to retrieve the minutes from the last two public meetings of my municipality, school board, or board of trustees. Since I live in Williamsport, I went to the Williamsport City Hall to get the minutes from the last two city council meetings. I went into the City Clerk’s office where I met Stephanie Mitchell.
Stephanie is apparently one of Pennsylvania lone bright spots. My experience with her was nothing short of pleasant. In the 5 minutes I spent with her, she tried to save me money, offered me coffee and peanut M&M’s and made a joke about a sign hanging on her wall.
When I asked for the minutes, she told me that if I have access to the internet I can find them on the city website, which is free. If I wanted hard copies she would have to charge me 25 cents per page. The sign on the wall said 30 cents for legal-sized copies but I wasn’t going to argue. I opted to get the hard copies just to prove that I was there to get them, which cost me $2.75. While she was making the copies she asked me if I would like a cup of coffee or any peanut M&M’s out of the dish on her desk. I politely declined. When she saw me looking at a sign hanging on the wall that jokes about her hectic office hours she told me I was lucky to have caught her in the office. Two minutes later the copies were made, I had my change and was on my way.
I was kind of hoping to catch a little bit of resistance but that was not the case. It would have been fun to make a bit of an argument when the law was on my side. I was never even asked for ID. Maybe they brought her in from another state.

I requested information regarding to the contract of a school superintendent, township manager, or county executive. I visited the Loyalsock Township School District Building in my hometown of Loyalsock Township in Williamsport, Pennsylvania to request the contract of our school superintendent

When I went in, I spoke to the desk attendant and requested to view the contract of the superintendent. He asked me why I wanted to view the document and I asked him if that information was needed in order for me to access the document. He told me it wasn’t needed to access it, but they ask anyway for general purposes. He then followed that up by asking me if I was doing this for a school assignment, which I told him that I was since I was told to not lie about it if they directly ask.

He then told me he couldn’t directly give me access to the documents because the receptionist that usually deals with it was out to lunch, so I left my contact information for them to get back to me. Within the next hour I received a call from the receptionist, who told me I’d need to make an appointment to come down to see the contract, so I set up a time for the next day. The next day when I went down to view it, she brought me back and let me view the document until I was finished with it

I went to the Avis Municipal building to get the minutes from the last two town meetings. When I approached the receptionist, she asked what I was looking for them for. I responded by saying, “Will the answer to that determine whether or not I can see them?” She said absolutely not, and went and got what I asked for. I asked her if I could have copies, and she obliged.
Overall she was very helpful, and outside of the one question she did no protest at all.

For my FOIA assignment, I went to the local township building. I requested the minutes from the last two public meetings. The response was that September’s minutes wouldn’t be available for public viewing until after they are approved at the next council meeting. I was offered to look at August’s minutes. No identification was needed to prove residence because the documents were open to the public. The cost of the process was $0.25 a copy and $2.00 per document. When I first went inside the building the woman seemed a little skeptical as to why I wanted to see the records, but did not question why. She was very nice and willing to give me access to any public record available. After I was told I was able to view the documents I then proceeded to tell her that it was a class assignment and she said that it is very easy to obtain public records. Which in this case, I would agree because I didn’t have to show any proof of residence for Pennsylvania.

I am a student at Lock Haven University, however, I grew up in Lancaster County. So, my job was to go to the county treasurer’s office and ask to see how much the chairman of the county board of commissioners paid in property takes during 2006. I went to the office while I was home on a Friday. I walked in and approached the desk which was occupied by a nice lady. I asked her if for the property tax records for the the chairman of the board, Dick Shellenberger . She looked me over and I was a little bit nervous but she didn’t give me any problems. She then gave me a record of the chairmans property tax payments for 2006. I looked it over to make sure it was the correct information. I thanked her for her time and then left. So, my attempt was successful and the lady was totally cooperative.

On September 20th 2007 I was successful in gaining access to the Minutes from the last two public meetings of the Keystone Central School District located at 110 E Bald Eagle Street, Lock Haven, PA 17745. The clerk inquired as to why I wanted to see it to which I responded that I was doing research about the local school system. I showed her my Lock Haven School ID and she let me look at the records.

We have more stories to share, and will be posting them early next week. Stay tuned!

We’ve also received word that our contest worksheet wasn’t loading - so I wrote it up as a blog post here.