Posted in Open Records on Mar 13th, 2008 No Comments »
• The Pittsburgh Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is hosting the Region 4 Conference – “Digital Democracy” tomorrow and Saturday (March 14 & 15) at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh.
One of the panel discussions will be on “Open Records Laws: Forum & Update,” which will compare open records laws in Pennsylvania, […]
Posted in Open Records on Mar 12th, 2008 No Comments »
Some officials need a change of attitude
So recently opined the Reading Eagle, noting that bringing real transparency to state and local governments in Pennsylvania will require not just opening public records but changing official attitudes as well.
The example, as reported initially by the Patriot-News of Harrisburg, involved the refusal by officials of Dauphin County to […]
Posted in Open Records on Mar 11th, 2008 No Comments »
I know that everyone wants to focus on the feel-good news. We have a new open records bill, passed unanimously by the Senate and the House and signed with some – not a lot, but some – fanfare by the governor. And that’s fine.
But it doesn’t hurt to remember why we needed a new law […]
Posted in Open Records on Mar 10th, 2008 No Comments »
Just a coincidence, no doubt, but PennFuture, the environmental advocacy organization, last week issued a press release headlined “Give us the Splendid Sun,” which called for the passage of SHB 1 . . . .No, not Senate Bill 1, the open records bill that Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) ushered through the legislative process […]
Posted in Open Records on Mar 7th, 2008 No Comments »
Stop me if this sounds familiar, but an editorial in the March 4th edition of the Nashua, New Hampshire, Telegraph, discusses that state’s efforts to get a better right-to-know bill passed. In New Hampshire they appear to combine our state’s Right-to-Know (which covers open records) and Sunshine (which covers open meetings) laws . . . […]
Posted in Open Records on Mar 6th, 2008 No Comments »
Organizations that will be affected by the new open records terrain in Pennsylvania are moving to make sure their members understand the coming rules.
This is a good sign.
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association announced a couple of days ago that it will present a series of Web conferences on: ‘Open Records: The End of Right-to-Know as […]
Posted in Open Records on Mar 5th, 2008 No Comments »
As big a victory [the] enactment of a new Pennsylvania open records law is for the media, wrote the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in an editorial, the biggest winner is the public.
The new law ensures greater and easier access to public records, which means the public will be better able to monitor how taxpayer dollars are spent […]
Posted in Open Records on Mar 4th, 2008 1 Comment »
Thomas Hylton, who won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for his editorials in the Pottstown Mercury, recently wrote a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer in which he argues that one critical – and relatively simple – next step in government transparency is to put public information on the web in formats that are easy to access […]
Posted in Open Records on Mar 3rd, 2008 1 Comment »
Several people and organizations have asked questions and made suggestions about what happens now – that the opens record law as passed but will not go into effect until January 1, 2009. This is a very important question – both in term of making sure that a law it took us 50 years to get […]
Posted in Open Records on Feb 29th, 2008 No Comments »
. . . For Open Records Law
Much attention has focused on the difference Pennsylvania’s new open records statute will make in the conduct of state politics, but local governments will have to make adjustments as well.
“The complexities of the newly revised law raises numerous issues for virtually every governmental entity in the commonwealth,” said Guy […]