The new Open Records in Pennsylvania podcast is now available on iTunes.
If you use iTunes to manage your podcast subscriptions, please check it out:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/open-records-in-pennsylvania/id1028924040
Author: Liz Wagenseller
OOR Filing in PSEA Case
One of the most-watched Right-to-Know Law court cases involves the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the issue of agency employees’ home addresses.
As part of the case, the Office of Open Records recently filed this brief. Full disclosure: It’s a 110-page PDF.
(The most recent court filing in the case was made by the Supreme Court on June 17, 2015, when it issued an order continuing the injunction entered on July 28, 2009, as modified by the March 15, 2014, order.)
The Supreme Court has not scheduled argument as of this posting.
Open Records in Pennsylvania: The Podcast
I’m very pleased to announce that the first episode of the Open Records in Pennsylvania podcast is now available.
I interviewed George Spiess, who works for the Office of Open Records and has provided training on the Right-to-Know Law and the Sunshine Act all across Pennsylvania. We talked about some of the common questions he hears, some common mistakes made by requesters, and much more. And we did it all in 12 minutes flat.
Subscribe:
Open Records in Pennsylvania podcast on iTunes
Listen:
Download:
Episode 1 of the Open Records in Pennsylvania podcast
If you have ideas for future episodes of the podcast, I’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts in the comments below, tweet to @ErikOpenRecords or @OpenRecordsPA, or send an email to openrecords (at) pa (dot) gov.
Theme music by Pennsylvania’s own John Austin.
Commonwealth Court: MVR Videos Are Public
Commonwealth Court today issued an opinion (Pennsylvania State Police v. Michelle Grove) holding that “video recordings of interaction between law enforcement officers and members of the public in a public place” are not exempt from disclosure and, thus, are public records under the Right-to-Know Law. Such recordings are commonly referred to as dash cam videos or MVRs (“mobile vehicle recordings”).
Senior Judge James Gardner Colins authored the opinion, which held that “as documentation of law enforcement officers’ conduct in carrying out their duties, MVRs are at the core [of] the RTKL’s purpose of enabling the public to ‘scrutinize the actions of public officials, and make public officials accountable for their actions'” (quoting Pennsylvania State Police v. McGill, 83 A.3d at 479).
The case was remanded to the Office of Open Records for further review related to the audio component of one of the videos and Pennsylvania’s Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, aka the Wiretap Act.
More coverage:
Record-Breaking Month in June
The Office of Open Records received more appeals in June 2015 than in any previous month — and it wasn’t even close.
We received 313 appeals last month, eclipsing the previous record of 244 in September 2013.
Because I’m a bit of a stats geek, here’s a look at the top 10 busiest months in the history of the OOR (note that two of the top three are from this year):
- June 2015 — 313 appeals received
- Sept. 2013 — 244
- April 2015 — 241
- Oct. 2013 — 240
- Aug. 2013 — 235
- Aug. 2012 — 231
- April 2013 — 222
- Dec. 2013 — 221
- July 2013 — 220
- March 2012 — 217
In the first half of 2015, the OOR received a total of 1,181 appeals (an average of 197 per month). If that pace continues, 2015 will be the second-busiest year to date in terms of appeals received.
One strong trend that’s not changing is that the complexity of appeals is increasing. As both requesters and agencies become more knowledgeable about the Right-to-Know Law, the issues that arrive at the OOR on appeal tend to be more intricate and require a greater time commitment for deeper levels of legal research and analysis by our attorneys.
Senate Bill 411 Advances
Senate Bill 411 (sponsored by Sen. Dominic Pileggi), legislation which would amend the Right-to-Know Law, was approved by the Senate State Government Committee (chaired by Sen. Mike Folmer) today.
This bill will make a number of improvements to the law. This cosponsorship memo, circulated by Sen. Pileggi, includes a good summary.
SB 411 was amended to include, essentially, the contents of Senate Bill 412 (sponsored by Sen. John Blake), which will make much more information from Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities — Temple (as a Temple grad, I always list the Owls first), Penn State, Pitt, and Lincoln — easily accessible online. A technical amendment was also adopted.
This is the first step in the legislative process for SB 411, so there’s a long road ahead. It’s almost certain that additional amendments will be considered in the future.
The Office of Open Records
The Office of Open Records was created by Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law (sometimes referred to as the Open Records Law), Act 3 of 2008.
As the OOR’s Executive Director, I’m passionate about the mission of our office: to enforce the Right-to-Know Law and to serve as a resource for citizens, public officials, and members of the media in obtaining public records of their government.
My plan for this blog is to highlight issues related to Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, along with other topics related to government transparency and open government.
If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear from you. Post a comment below, tweet @ErikOpenRecords, or send me an email.
For those who may be interested, here’s a bit of background: At the time the Right-to-Know Law was written, I worked for Senator Dominic Pileggi. I was deeply involved in drafting Senator Pileggi’s bill (Senate Bill 1) which was eventually signed into law by Governor Ed Rendell. After the law was enacted, I worked closely with Executive Director Terry Mutchler and other OOR officials to ensure that the office was independent and had the resources it needed to operate. Prior to working for the Pennsylvania Senate, I was a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News.
Open Records in Pennsylvania 