As the evisceration of House Bill 443 continues, attention has turned both inside and outside the legislature to Senate Bill 1, whose main sponsor, Senate Majority Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware), has called passing meaningful open records reform his number 1 priority. Senator Jim Ferlo (D-Allegheny), who has sponsored a competing open records bill, SB 765, has demonstrated that this issue crosses partisan lines with his praise of the changes Sen. Pileggi has made to improve SB 1.
• State Sen. Jim Ferlo today commended Senator Pileggi and the members of the Senate State Government Committee for their efforts to improve the Open Records bill sponsored by the Majority Leader and referred to as Senate Bill 1.
“What started out as a fundamentally flawed Open Records law can now be best described as landmark reform in our Commonwealth expanding the people’s right to know what elected officials are legislating, regulating and spending,” Ferlo said. “I am pleased to see that many of the provisions that I have been pushing for are being incorporated into Senate Bill 1.”
Senator Ferlo had introduced Senate Bill 765 that mandates stronger provisions for public records accessibility including the presumption that records are public. Ferlo’s bill is also in the State Government Committee and has the broad support of citizen advocacy and open government groups, such as the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, among others.
Senate Bill 1 is being amended in the State Government Committee to substantially improve the bill. Perhaps most importantly, the changes will provide for a presumption that records are public and cover all three branches of state government.
“Certainly the amendments to Senate Bill 1 represent an improvement. Until we pass the best bill possible, I will remain vigilant to make sure that any debilitating amendments are defeated.”
• Senate bill offers hope in fight for open-records reform
This is the third Opinion piece this week urging Pennsylvania lawmakers to correct last week’s misstep in the House of Representatives that would have sent open-records reform backward.
And, there’s good reason.
It is widely recognized that Pennsylvania has one of the worst open records laws in the country. The so-called reform movement this year in the state Legislature was poised to change that unhappy distinction.
But House Bill 443, as revised last week in the House, would actually make access more difficult in Pennsylvania and would make Pennsylvania government more closed than ever before.
In the latest developments in Harrisburg, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) on Monday released Senate Bill 1 with some encouraging amendments.
“We believe that the bill, as proposed to be amended, would be a positive step toward more openness and accountability in Pennsylvania government,” said Tim Williams, president of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.
“Although we are continuing our review of the specific exemptions, the bill would create the presumption of access in Pennsylvania,” Williams continued. “It would establish a clearinghouse to assist the public with records issues and increase penalties for bad faith violations.”
On Friday, Williams wrote: “House Bill 443, as originally proposed by Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fayette), was a good bill. It created the presumption of access to agency records and contained a list of exemptions for certain documents that required protection, including medical records, documents that would disclose ongoing police investigations, and homeland security-related documents.
“But when the House State Government Committee voted to amend the bill, they completely replaced Rep. Mahoney’s bill with language that would close much of Pennsylvania government and rushed the entire process through in less than a day.
It is widely recognized that Pennsylvania has one of the worst open records laws in the country. A 2002 survey by the Better Government Association ranked Pennsylvania’s open records environment 48th out of the 50 states. The Keystone State tied with Alaska, and only Alabama and South Dakota were considered worse. House Bill 443, as amended, just might get us to 50th place. If this is reform, we don’t want it.”