14-1 . . . and onto the full Senate
Jan 29th, 2008 by JamieB
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 (D- Philadelphia) cast the dissenting vote.
House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, expressed confidence yesterday that the chambers would send a final version to Gov. Ed Rendell for his signature this week.
In general, the Senate and House versions are designed to subject more records to public review and give citizens a better chance in court when challenging a government rejection of an open records request.
Leaders of both chambers say they are committed to an overhaul of Pennsylvania’s 50-year-old Right-to-Know Law, widely regarded as one of the nation’s weakest freedom-of-information laws.
However, the chambers have disagreed over various aspects of the bill, such as whether birth dates should be made public and whether people should get an edge in court when appealing a denial of a legislative or judicial record.
House and Senate leaders have been negotiating for more than a month to settle differences between open-records proposals from each chamber.
Some of the major changes in the latest version of the bill would:
• Keep dates of births on court documents and other records public.
• Allow courts to decide whether 911 recordings or transcripts should be public.
• Require lawmakers to make public any correspondence with a registered lobbyist.
• Create an Office of Open Records within the state Department of Community and Economic Development, with a director appointed by the governor to a six-year term.
• Make the effective date Dec. 31, 2008.
Sen. Richard Kasunic, D-Fayette County, said it was embarrassing for Pennsylvania to have one of the weakest laws in the nation regarding public access to government documents.
“What we are doing is moving toward the point of opening up records for all Pennsylvanians,” said Kasunic, who serves on the Rules Committee. “If everything is up and up as it should be, why shouldn’t it be open? Why should we hide anything?”