passopenrecords.org

There is been strong and pretty much unanimous reaction across Pennsylvania to the changes that were made to House Bill 443 one night last week in the State Government Committee. The reviews, which are sampled here, condemn both the substance of the amendments and the way they were rammed through. Rep Mike Vereb (R-Montgomery), a member of the committee, described what happened this way: “This is a train being operated here and we’re being run over.”

For more reactions, read on.

• Pa. needs sunshine, not a smoke screen
Finally, it appeared as if our elected representatives in Harrisburg had seen the light.
Then, much like the state’s famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, they saw their shadow and decided to climb back into their dark, comfy burrow.

We speak, of course, of one of the bedrocks of our democracy — that our elected representatives do the public’s business in public, not in some smoke-filled back room.

One essential element in that process is the ability of citizens and groups to inspect and review documents that their elected officials use to make some of those very important – and often very expensive – decisions.

The idea is simple, one worth noting, and one worth fighting for — that the public’s business should be done in public.

But it seems old habits die hard.

• One of the most egregious exemptions would allow government agencies to deny requests that are considered burdensome.

It’s hard to imagine any request for information that most bureaucrats wouldn’t consider a burden with which to comply.

• [Society of Professional Journalists] opposes such backward legislation, especially for a state that needs a boost to its open record laws (rated as one of the most secret states by the Better Government Association). The House needs to go back and rework the legislation with input from those who know how it will work on the street. On a positive note, the Senate has a bill in the works that is more consistent with open records laws elsewhere in the country and better protects people’s ability to hold its government accountable.

• In Pennsylvania, Secrecy Prevails…Again?

In a sharp turnaround, two public access advocacy groups are calling for the defeat of an open records bill headed for a House floor vote.

• Open Records Reform Is A Joke

The effort to reform our pitiful open records laws has become an embarrassment. Pennsylvania already has one of the weakest laws in the country and this new effort was gutted, hung out to dry and is now rotting in the sun. From the Election Reform Network:

Since last November there has been a refreshing breeze from Harrisburg with both parties vowing to open up government and institute meaningful reforms. While the jury may be still out on where this is all going, the odor seems to have turned rancid of late at the state capitol with the gutting of sensible legislation that would finally bring Pennsylvania into the mainstream of citizen-friendly state government with a much-improved Open Records or “Right to Know” law.

What it boils down to is that the current version is a great disappointment and we need to urge our representatives to find some backbone and restore the original version of HB 443. What is striking about either bill is that no matter what your priority issue – election reform, poverty, health care, the environment, or even “getting government off of our backs” – this bill is all about it. It’s about the capacity of citizens to rule by overseeing their government through checking the record. Minutia it is, of the most important kind.

• If you read the open records blogs, you already know the sad legislative story captured by one writer in the headline:

Pennsylvania open-records bill gutted with last-minute amendments.

• House Committee Guts Transparency Legislation