passopenrecords.org

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 priority and are talking about having a bill with teeth on Gov. Ed Rendell’s desk by the end of this week:

“Open records will be our main priority next week,” Eric Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware), the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 1, told the Scranton Times. “Hope to get it all the way done and send it to the governor.”

• In the other house and across the aisle, House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene), for years an opponent of open records reform, has come a long way in a year. “I’ve been knocked off the donkey, he said in early 2007 of his sudden conversion. “I’ve seen the light.” In early 2008 he told the Herald-Standard in Uniontown: “If we had had an open records law (covering the legislature), this [bonusgate] probably would not have happened.”

• Candidates of both parties are embracing the issue:

Former State Rep. Larry Roberts has announced he will seek his old legislative seat from Freshman Tim Mahoney, who has pushed hard for open records reform. In fact, said Roberts, Mahoney has been “a one-issue candidate.” But Roberts added he would open even more records than Mahoney is seeking to do and called the issue one of “my top two priorities.”

Magisterial District Judge Richard Alloway, a Republican seeking a Senate seat in Franklin County, recently said, “I have no problem with open records law. I have nothing to hide. It’s all public info.”

On the other hand, we aren’t there yet . . .

• “They (the House) spent an entire year working on open records and didn’t change their own rules regarding open records,” Tim Potts of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania told the Herald-Standard. “We made a request in the beginning of October for records of per diems and salaries for 2006. We are still waiting for our appointment to come to Harrisburg and sit in the closet and look at them.”

• “Political activist Gene Stilp lost his attempt to force the state auditor general to conduct audits of the General Assembly’s financial affairs,” wrote Ken Schaefer, chairman of Vote for Integrity.

“Voters should know that the independent accountants’ report states, in part, that the ‘report is not intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than the Audit Advisory Commission.’ This means that the leadership of the General Assembly does not want anyone else to see the report.

“Consider these matters involving legislators:

• The attorney general’s ‘bonusgate’ investigation.

• The indictment of Sen. Vincent Fumo (D-Philadelphia) on numerous public corruption counts, including alleged personal use of taxpayers’ money.

• The indictment of former Rep. Frank LaGrotta (D-Lawrence) for payment to relatives for work alleged not to have been performed.

• Widely publicized leadership spending for what many believe is campaign-related polling.

• Widely publicized extravagant spending for meals and entertainment by various leaders.”