Today is the first day of Sunshine Week, and the Office of Open Records has traditionally released its Annual Report during Sunshine Week.

The OOR’s Annual Report for 2015 is available here. (Previous reports can be downloaded here.)

Some highlights from 2015 include:

• 2,926 appeals filed last year, a record total.
• 1,794 appeals involving local agencies vs. 1,132 involving state agencies.
• For the first time, the Annual Report provides a county-by-county looks at local agency appeals.
• 5 of the top appellate court decisions involving the RTKL.
• 10 examples of records accessed via the RTKL.
• 54 training sessions conducted across the state for about 1,500 people.
• A look at what the OOR might face in the future.

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. As part of Sunshine Week, I’ll be analyzing some of the data in the OOR Annual Report, along with some data that didn’t make the final report — and more — right here on our blog and also on our Twitter feeds:

• https://twitter.com/ErikOpenRecords
• https://twitter.com/OpenRecordsPA