passopenrecords.org

Knock on wood, and pardon my Beatles reference, but it looks as though we’re here to stay…

Our press conference was extremely well-attended and well-covered.

Sen. Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, Sen. Jim Ferlo and Rep. Tim Mahoney all spoke about their bills and the need for reform. Rep. Josh Shapiro, the co-chair of the Speaker’s Reform Commission and Rep. Babette Josephs, the Chair of the State Government Committee, both spoke about the House’s commitment to open records reform, and Rep. Josephs caused quite a stir when she used our podium to announce Wednesday’s State Government Committee, dispelling rumors that open records reform was going nowhere. Citizen Beverly Shenck, of Butler, spoke about her 4 1/2 year legal battle with her township, and our own Jamie Blaine wrapped things up.

Several other legislators were in attendance to show their support for open records reform, including Sen. Mike Brubaker, Sen. Jeff Piccola, Rep. Glenn Grell, Rep. Jerry Nailor, Rep. Debereh Kula, Barry Kauffman of Common Cause Pennsylvania and Bonita Hoke from the League of Women Voters were there, too. And you can’t have an open records reform event without Kim DeBourbon of the Freedom of Information Coalition. Honestly, I really hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.

You can read the press release from yesterday’s event here.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Harrisburg Patriot-News, the Scranton Times-Tribune, the Carlisle Sentinel , the Bucks County Courier Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covered the event. Whew! That’s just the news coverage - on the editorial page, the Allentown Morning Call wrote about open records reform along with the Uniontown Herald Standard and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

And we also announced the winners of PNA’s Open Records Challenge: Alan Trexler a student at Lock Haven University, and Bob Spurdle, a resident of Wayne. Congratulations to both.

Remember, if you want to see open records reform, we need your help - contact your legislator today and urge them to vote for open records reform.

Beverly Schenck summed up what a lot of us are feeling when she told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “I don’t want a bill that’s simply there to make it look like they’re doing something. I want some actual action. The more exceptions, the more opportunities there will be for [government officials] to deny access to information people should have.”