Pending Legislation
Jun 8th, 2007 by dani_k
There are currently several bills circulating in the Capitol that would revise PA’s current open records legislation. Click on the name of the bill to see the full text in either a text or pdf format.
In the Senate:
SB765
Introduced by Senator Jim Ferlo. The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association supports this bill. It begins with the presumption that records held by public agencies are public records and lists 20 categories of records that are not subject to disclosure (including medical records, student records, records that would threaten domestic security, police investigative records, and more.)
SB1
Introduced by Senator Dominic Pileggi. This bill , as introduced, did not include the presumption that records held by public agencies are public records (with certain categories of records exempted) - has pledged to revise the bill to include the presumption. Stay tuned…
In the House:
HB443
Introduced by Representative Tim Mahoney. This legislation creates a new Right to Know Act that tracks, in large part, PNA’s “Brighter PA” initiative. The PNA has concerns about provisions that criminalize the “misuse” of public records, place significant restrictions on “commercial use,” and lengthen the time for agency responses to records requests. The PNA supports the creation of an “Office of Access” to handle certain administrative appeals, however we do not believe that the Office of Access should take the place of agencies in responding initially to open records requests.
SB765 introduced by Jim Ferlo, it appears, is the only sensible and honest bill being put forward.
SB1 by Dominic Pileggi tells the story of this Senator…He should not be in a position of representing the people of PA. As a comparison the former Senator Rick Santorum made a statement to a group of senior citizens that our tax money wasn’t what paid his salary and so he wasn’t necessarily obliagated to the people. You know the rest of the story, he is history.
HB443 by Rep. Tim Mahoney is just as scary as Pileggi’s ideas. He wants to stifle everyone with the idea of retribution and prison. Who would ever want to voice an opinion under him!
I live in Drexel Hill and new zoning proposals are in the works without input from the people and everything about the proposal is secretive. If the residents understood what is being proposed, they would stop this new zoning bill. That is why we should have open records and truthfulness so the people could make the decision for new laws. The people who are elected to represent us are not doing their jobs. They become pompous, self-rightous and power happy as they make themselves wealthy on the backs of the tax payor they are supposed to be representing. People please take the time to look into this matter because cheating is going on in the recorder of deeds office as well as the tax assesment office and the zoning office.