passopenrecords.org

In Berlin, PA, The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat is trying to obtain a settlement agreement between Berlin’s former police chief and the borough council.

The Lebanon Daily News reports on the challenges facing genealogy researchers in PA.

The Tribune-Review reports that Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato wants to restrict the amount of information available to the public online. The Tube City Almanac is urging their readers to write their council representatives and tell them it’s a bad idea.

We received yet another citizen story from Hooversville resident Jim Toth. Here is his story, in his own words:

I live in Quemahoning Twp, 2000 residents and $550,000 budget 5 employees including 2 supervisors and many of our citizens have begun to question the expenditures of the supervisors.I myself have gotten one real education in open records that the legislature would envy the chance to get.

When the first records were requested the red flags went up immediately, a resolution was passed to require a written request,it included a 50 cent per pg fee,and 10 bucks per hr for the sect to make copies. To date I have spent appx 700 dollars to get copies of checks,meeting minutes,time records,pa and Irs payroll reports.

I have written countless letters to the supervisors and their solicitor to get simple records of the twp. I almost know the open records and sunshine law verbatum. Even to this day I am still denied the twp’s payroll reports for get this , THE SUPERVISORS HAVE MONEY DEDUCTED FROM THEIR PAYS AND PUT IN THEIR CREDIT UNION AND I WOULD BE ABLE TO FIGURE OUT HOW MUCH THEY HAVE SAVED BY DOING SIMPLE MATH FROM THE PAYROLL REPORTS. Myself and others were subject to not being able to talk at monthly meetings and a new meeting resolution was passed to require anyone wanting to speek to submit your questions 10 days in advance of the meeting and request to be on the agenda,so the supervisors can think of some good lies to tell us.

Its been a struggle but we have made the public aware of some of whats been going on such as the top supervisor makes in excess of 63,000 per year plus 7200 dollars truck money and his wife who is sect makes 32,000 per year. It seem the supervisors have loaded the auditors board with appointed wives,sister in laws and close friends to get the things they want. Its all been up hill trying to get our hands on these public records and there has been some records that have been altered were sure due to the amount of delay from the time they are asked for until they are finally produced at a charge to the citizens.

Some basic records just simply do not exsist like time cards,the supervisors keep a hand written time book in pencil to keep track of their comp time and vacation time and sick leave. Its been a real fiasco to say the least,but with some media help and some wonderful word of mouth we’re winning the battle as one supervisor and one auditor who is his wife lost in the spring primary and wont be on the ballot this fall. This open records law needs to be opened up to realy do what it was supposed to do,open up the records not give officals the chance to select what they think we should see.

Did you ever learn some nugget of information and have it come up in your daily routine right away?

That’s what happened to me Friday, when I read that the state is refusing to release polling place information for fear of terrorism, citing Spain’s election day bombings three years ago. Martha Raffaele’s AP story on the lack of polling info was picked up by The Guardian.

Anyway, here’s my story. I moved recently and realized that the address on my voter registration card was incorrect, placing me in a different township, and therefore, registering me at the wrong polling place. With the election coming up, I checked the York County Elections and Voter Registration website’s poll locator to make sure it wasn’t a misprint and then called them to have my voter registration fixed - a very simple process.

I got my card in the mail three days later. Elapsed time, from start to finish: about 10 minutes. I was a bit curious, though, and checked the Commonwealth’s website to see if it as easy from the state level as the local level. Um, not so much.

First you go to the state’s main page and click the “links to state agencies” page. Scroll through the list of 70 or so agencies and click on “State, Department of“. A-Ha! Finally a graphic that says “voting in Pennsylvania!” Click on that - but hmm…still no polling place finder. Click on “Voter Services” and guess what? You can find your polling place if you register for the PA Power Point Portal System!

Okay, I’m technically proficient, so I register. You enter your name and birthdate, a username and password, and then there’s a box that tells you to select your town and county. Since there’s no explanation, and they asked for my birthdate, I assumed they wanted my birth city and county and hit enter. Nope…that’s not right. So I have to go back and change things before I’m fully registered. Hit enter again, and FINALLY…I find my polling information.

About 45 minutes to find the exact same information that my county makes so readily available. And I’m in a generation that’s never even used typewriters! This might not be such a big deal now, but did any of you try to call your county election office in the weeks prior to the last political election? I did, and that was not fun either.

Not only is this information freely available on my county website, Allegheny County has it. And so do Philadelphia County and Dauphin County - but those pages link back to the state site (inward groan…)