Posted in Open Records on Jan 31st, 2008 1 Comment »
No, that’s not my Super Bowl prediction. That was the final vote in the Senate yesterday in favor of Senate Bill 1, the overhaul of Pennsylvania’s antiquated open records law. It has been a long haul as well as an overhaul, and the process, which began a year ago, is not over yet. The House […]
Posted in Open Records News on Jan 30th, 2008 1 Comment »
From Jan Murphy at the Patriot-News:
Senate passes open records legislation
by Jan Murphy,Of The Patriot-News
Wednesday January 30, 2008, 12:03 PM
With a unanimous vote, the state Senate approved a measure to strengthen the state’s 51-year-old open records law.
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County, the bill’s sponsor, said, “Pennsylvania needs a stronger open records law because transparency […]
Posted in Legislative Agenda, Open Records News on Jan 30th, 2008 1 Comment »
Here’s the body of a press release just issued by the PNA. I have removed contact information to help avoid spamming, but the if you’d like to download the release, click here.
PNA Urges Passage of Senate Bill 1
HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 30, 2008 — The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association urges the Legislature to […]
Posted in Open Records on Jan 30th, 2008 No Comments »
The Associated Press reports that yesterday the Senate made several technical changes to the House version of Senate Bill 1, so the full body did not vote on the legislation as many had hoped. That vote is expected to take place today.
According to the AP: “While the chambers have disagreed over numerous aspects of the […]
Posted in Open Records News on Jan 29th, 2008 No Comments »
The Senate on Monday readied a rewrite of Pennsylvania’s open records law for a vote as senators look for ways to compromise with a House version that passed six weeks ago.
The Senate Rules Committee approved an amended bill, 14-1, and set it up for a potential vote today by the full Senate. Sen. Vincent Fumo […]
Posted in Open Records on Jan 29th, 2008 No Comments »
This is the week, and as we wait for the verdict on open records from our elected representatives, we sill have a lot of questions.
Here’s one: If almost everyone – at least publicly – now accepts that public records are presumed to be open unless they are subject to a specific exemption, shouldn’t the government […]
Posted in Open Records on Jan 28th, 2008 No Comments »
With the new legislative year just beginning, there have been a lot of questions raised about how much “progress” was made in the last legislative year. Fittingly, that conversation often turns to open records. And there are encouraging signs that we are getting there . . .
• Legislative leaders have made the issue a top […]
Posted in Open Records on Jan 25th, 2008 No Comments »
It is true that I am not a lawyer, but I was once an English teacher, and I am having a hard time parsing the language of Senate Bill 1, the pending open-records bill. Take, for example, Chapter 17, on pages 54-57, which deals with state contracts.
Below are excerpts from the bill (the parts […]
Posted in Open Records on Jan 24th, 2008 No Comments »
As the end of January approaches — and with it the promise of an open records bill on Gov. Ed Rendell’s desk — there appears to be broad agreement in the legislature on the fundamental principles of reform, but there are still some important differences over the details. We need to continue to push hard […]
Posted in Open Records on Jan 23rd, 2008 No Comments »
We continue with the discussion of our concerns with specific items in the current version of Senate Bill 1, which the House amended and sent back last December, and which the Senate (we hope) is planning to vote on by the end of this month.
As you might expect, Section 708, which lays out the “Exceptions […]