'This is my corner'

Opinion
Page 6 Tuesday, March 16, 2010
news@bhpioneer.com
Open records still a work in progress
EDIT%R's N%TE+ Sunshine
Week is a national initiative to
open a dialogue about the
importance of open government
and freedom of information. The
Black Hills Pioneer will be recognizing
the national movement
by publishing nationally syndicated
columns informing the
public on strides media outlets
have made.
!Y KIM DE !O)R!ON
It#s a pretty good law. But having
a good law and having a universally
good 8open government:
attitude across the state
are two different things.
Pennsylvania#s new 8Right to
?now Law: took effect Ban. 1,
200G, more than a year ago. Has
it been successfulJ It depends
whom you ask and how you
measure success when it comes
to citiKens being able to keep
track of what their government is
doing.
The new law gives everyone
the right to see and copy records
held by all local and state governments
and agencies across the
state. That#s thousands of municipalities,
counties, school districts,
universities, bureaus,
departments, commissions,
boards and other public entities.
There is no way to track how
many requests for records have
been submitted under the new
law, or how many of those
requests have been granted or
denied.
All we can measure is the
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number of appeals that have
been made under the new law to
the state Office of Open Records
— the new state agency charged
with deciding who is right when
those asking to see government
records believe
they have been
denied for no good
reason.
The Office of
Open Records
received 1,1QG
appeals in its first
year, the vast
maRority from citi-
Kens trying to get
information from
their town or county
government or
school district. The
new law created
this office, and that
is reason enough to
celebrate, as now people have
somewhere to turn when they are
told they have no right to know
what their government is up to.
But it#s far from a perfect system.
One of the biggest problems
is that when the OOR sides
with citiKens and grants access to
records, the government agency
may fight that decision by going
to court — forcing the citiKens to
defend themselves against taxpayer-funded
government attorneys.
It#s to be expected, of course,
that any new law must be tested
and refined through the courts.
There are many provisions of the
Right to ?now Law that do need
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interpretation and clarification.
But the state Rudicial system
must find a way to make it easier
for people who, by simply following
the law and exercising
their Right to ?now, find themselves
in court,
going head to head
with the government
on public
records issues.
It#s also frustrating
that local governmentcompliance
with the new
law still is so spotty.
The
Pennsylvania
Freedom of
Information
Coalition#s online
forum handles
more than V00
inquiries a year
from people — citiKens and
elected officials alike — who
have questions about the state#s
open records and open meetings
laws. And it#s clear from the
questions and problems being
posted that the new law has done
little in some parts of
Pennsylvania to open up official
attitudes and understanding.
Another clear indicator that
the message has not yet gotten
out to all is our online audit of
every county in the state. The
new law requires all public agencies
to post Right to ?now information
on their websites, if they
have one. Four things are
requiredW The contact informa-
tion for the agency#s openrecords
officerX the contact information
for the state Office of
Open RecordsX a form which
may be used to file a requestX and
the policy and procedures for
handling requests.
It#s very disheartening that
more than a year after the law
took effect, less than half of
Pennsylvania#s counties are in
full compliance with this requirement.
Out of the YY counties with
Web sites, only 2[ (]1 percent)
are obeying the law by making it
easy for people to find out how
to get government records.
(Actually, not all of these
counties make it easyX as long as
all the required information was
posted, we counted a county in
full compliance, even if the
information was hard to find or
difficult to understand.)
Fifteen counties (2] percent)
have absolutely no right to know
information online, at least not
that we could find after a reasonable
amount of searching.
Even more disturbing is the
number of counties posting information
that is clearly wrong or
outdated. Centre County offers a
form that asks if the requester is
a resident of Pennsylvania, which
is no longer a requirement for
open records requests. Clearfield
County states there is a `[ fee for
each 1Q minutes it takes to
retrieve or redact records, a fee
that is not permitted under an
Office of Open Records directive.
Three counties — Delaware,
Fulton and Mercer — state that
they issue their own decisions on
appeals, although under the new
law only the Office of Open
Records has the authority to hear
appeals when people disagree
with a local agency#s denial of
records.
We can be sure that the rate of
compliance on the municipal
level is even lower, given that so
many of our smaller townships
struggle to do much more online
than provide an address and
phone number for the municipal
office.
So, there is still much to be
done. Although our law is much
improved, and in many ways
provides a model of public
access, it will be years before
open-government thinking
becomes second nature to all of
our public servants. While
Rudges, and perhaps the
Legislature, continue to work out
some of the kinks in the law, citi-
Kens can help the cause by learning
about their rights to access
under the new law, and holding
their government agencies
accountable for following
through.
Kim de Bourbon is executive
director of the Pennsylvania
Freedom of Information
Coalition, a nonprofit group that
helps citizens understand and use
the state's open records and open
meetings laws through its Web
site at www.pafoic.org.
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