Are Secret Funding Letters Open Records?
Jan 18th, 2008 by JamieB
Rendell Reveals Secret Funding Letters; Proposed Open Records Bill May Be Misnamed
Peter L. DeCoursey of Capitolwire.com broke the intriguing story headlined above this week about a series of letters that Gov. Ed Rendell has sent to various organizations in which he promised money for projects . . . on the condition that the Legislature subsequently approved the program and/or the funding.
Apparently none of those letters was shared with any legislative leaders.
Now the question has arisen whether these letters would be public records under the pending new law.
I’ll throw that open to readers for comment.
A few interesting things to note:
• Despite the secrecy of the letters, Rendell said last week, “I have no problem if these become open records in a new law. . . . it’s expenditure of funds.”
• Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Chester), the main sponsor of Senate Bill 1, insisted that such correspondence would be a public record under either the House or Senate drafts of the pending bill. Both the House and Senate versions presume “that all records of the executive branch and local governments are public,” he said, “and then list a number of exceptions to that general rule. Because none of the exceptions would cover this letter, it would be a public record.”
• While Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery) said the letters should be public records, he said that an arbitrator might not agree.
• But Arneson disputed that point: “The definition of a ‘record’ in Senate Bill 1 does not include any provision for ’subsequent’ documents making earlier versions non-public. Our analysis is that such a letter would be a record available to the public, and would continue to be so even if it is later confirmed, modified, or rescinded by a later letter or some other document.”
Read the entire article . . . and tell us what do you think.
Are Secret Funding Letters Open Records?…
PassOpenRecords.org asks if letters from Governor Rendell promising state funds to a variety of projects would be considered open records. They are looking for readers to comment on that question….
The records or letters on any use of state funds should be considered a open record. However, here comes the catch 22; whereas, let us say they allow such records to be open to the public, how will one be able to find it or know what to look for. The Legislators plans are to form a NEW DEPT, central open records office which will determine what is open/not open according to law. Of course what will occur is the law will have open gray areas, as to, allowing the latter dept to either say yea/nay. The real issue here is the legislators are determining what we can/can’t see; whereas, it will be in their best interest not to show & tell all. Maybe a better way, is to constitutionalize the law with specifics as to what must be a open public record. The latter would make current/future legislators think twice before trying to fund a project for family members, friends, or special party groups, and would probably eliminate patronage programs like the PTC.