Open records news from around the state
Dec 13th, 2007 by dani_k
Once again, we have a plethora of news stories from around the state which demonstrate just how bad our current open records law is.
In Lower Macungie Township, according to the Morning Call , an activist group is calling on “township supervisors to publicly release independent audit reports of township financial records from 2005 and 2006.”
The township discovered in 2006 that $2.5 million in sewer funds were missing, allegedly stolen by a then supervisor and township employee. The group fears that more problems would be revealed in the audits.
In Lackawanna County, the Scranton Times-Tribune reports, the county “finds itself on a thinning list of Pennsylvania counties that not only make real estate tax records available on their Web sites, but also make them searchable by the property owner’s name, a degree of access that troubles some judges and others in sensitive public positions.”
Centre Daily Times editor Bob Heisse writes in his column about a Penn State student who’s searching for open records as a condition of her internship with Democracy Rising PA. If you were at the FOIC forum in Pittsburgh, you’ll remember Tim Potts speaking of the student’s work - who could forget that a FOIC request to the House’s Chief Clerk received a response that read:
“You should be aware that the Pennsylvania Legislature is not subject to the right-to-know law. Therefore, we reserve the right to deny information on a case-by-case basis, with regard to our rules. … It can take several weeks to compile requests. Certain information is available by email, but looking at your topics, they may require that you visit to review information. Some information will be available to remove from the office at the cost of 50 cents per page.”
In Lansford, the Morning Call reports that the borough requires a “typed, written request” for information which can take “as long as five days to process.”
Tony Phyrillas wrote on his blog about a Chester County School district that has charged a resident $344 for copies.