passopenrecords.org

and other reasons we need open records reform.

• From the Herald-Standard in Uniontown

“If we had had an open records law (covering the legislature), this [bonusgate] probably would not have happened.” Those words come, not from a good government or media advocacy group, but from the House majority leader [Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene].

Turns out the situation regarding House Democrats’ award of bonuses was so murky that even DeWeese was fed – and erroneously believed – bad information by those to whom he had delegated responsibility. Initially, DeWeese said he was told 712 Christmas bonuses totaling $400,000 had been awarded. He later found out that nearly five times that amount had been doled out by those he trusted to run the show.

What does it say about the secret workings of Harrisburg when staff can pawn off bad information to the boss? Perhaps DeWeese now realizes that he, too, could have benefited from easy access to what clearly is public information.

If DeWeese didn’t know what was going on right beneath his nose in the halls of the Capitol, how can we expect that anyone in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, or Wind Ridge or Khedive, or Masontown or Brownsville, could?

• From the Centre Daily Times in State College

Will 2008 be the year of real reform in Harrisburg?

Some legislators might take issue with that question, saying 2007 was indeed the year of reform. Consider these comments:

“I believe we had more reform in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the last 12 months than we have since the War of 1812,” House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene) told the Associated Press last month.

“They did no heavy lifting,” Terry Madonna, a professor and pollster at Franklin & Marshall College, told the Associated Press. “If they’ve done anything, the voters have missed it.”

They can start immediately upon return by approving real open-records reform.

Reformers are optimistic. Just listen to Rep. David Steil, R-Bucks, co-chairman of the Legislative Reform Commission: “I think that people may get religion again.”

Religion . . . reform. . . .Somehow Harrisburg needs to restore faith and trust in government. Seems like 2008 is the perfect time. Voters, are you watching?

• From WTAE in Pittsburgh:

A WTAE Channel 4 Action News request to the Pittsburgh Ethics Hearing Board illustrates [why open records reform is needed]. The Ethics Board is refusing to release a secret memo it received from the city law department.

But according to WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Bob Mayo, the secret concerns the law department’s advice about how to obey Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act, which is the law mandating that most government meetings be open to the public.

City Solicitor George Specter said in a response that the memo is “not subject to disclosure under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Act.”

While the current law doesn’t force the Ethics Board to make the memo public, that doesn’t mean they can’t do so voluntarily.

In a message to the board, Mayo wrote: “Respectfully, since the purpose of the Sunshine Law is ‘Sunshine’ – i.e. an open view for the public on the operation of government – I would suggest that the interpretation of how an exemption to the Sunshine Law is being applied should not be confidential.”