More Right-to-Know Law appeals were filed in 2016 involving local agencies in Allegheny County — including the county itself, school districts, municipalities, etc. — than in any other county.

This comes as little surprise, since Allegheny County is home to about 130 municipalities and more than 40 school districts.

The top five counties by this measure were Allegheny (119), Montgomery (76), Philadelphia (70), Luzerne (64), and Bucks (60).

The map below examines — in as fair a way as we’ve been able to develop — the relative impact of RTKL appeals on all of the agencies within each of Pennsylvania’s counties.

Still, it’s important to remember that a relatively small number of appeals filed involving agencies within a small county (Clarion County has about 40,000 residents) can make the impact look more significant than it really is.

Note: These maps illustrate workload; the data doesn’t necessarily correlate to the quality of agency responses to Right-to-Know requests within a given county. There are many factors to consider in evaluating agency responses and determining why a given number of appeals were filed. For example, it’s quite possible that one or two incidents could spike the number of requests (and potentially appeals) at a given local agency. Also, larger population areas tend to have more requests filed, often with more nuanced issues involved. It’s also useful to remember that the Office of Open Records has no way of knowing how many appeals are simply granted by agencies. That data is not collected on a statewide basis.