On June 23, 2022, the OOR testified at a Senate State Government Committee hearing regarding legislation that would amend the Right-to-Know Law.
Office of Open Records
Greetings from Liz Wagenseller, Executive Director
Hello, blog readers and fellow supporters of government transparency and accountability, As the newly appointed Executive Director I am honored to lead such a vital office in Pennsylvania.
We should be eternally grateful for the work of my predecessor, Erik Arneson. From his critical involvement in the drafting the Right to Know Law to leading the OOR to new levels, he is truly a legend in the movement to improve accountability and transparency in government.
I am already greatly impressed by the dedication and drive demonstrated by the staff at OOR. They clearly believe that their work is not simply a job but part of a mission to make Pennsylvania work better for everyone.
The article linked below provides more details about my background and vision for OOR.
Sincerely,
Liz Wagenseller
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/01/pennsylvania-open-records-office-director-liz-wagenseller/
New Citizens’ Guide to the RTKL and Sunshine Act
The OOR’s Citizens’ Guide to the Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act is an introduction to these two laws, both of which promote government transparency.
The Citizens’ Guide has been completely rewritten and the new version is available now.
The RTKL, also known as the open records law, grants access to public records. The Sunshine Act, also known as the open meetings law, ensures access to public meetings.
The Citizens’ Guide, a 12-page PDF, includes sections on how to file a request, agencies subject to the RTKL, fees under the RTKL, how to file an appeal, and more.
2 New Draft Sample Forms for Public Comment
The Office of Open Records has posted two new draft sample forms and is seeking public comment on both.
The Right-to-Know Law and other statutes make various records public, including certain records from law enforcement agencies and county coroners. The OOR often dockets appeals involving these types of records. In an effort to help these agencies provide information under the RTKL, and to help requesters across the state receive more uniform responses, the OOR has prepared these two sample forms.
- Coroners’ Public Information Report – Sample (PDF)
- Coroners’ Public Information Report – Sample (DOCX)
Law enforcement agencies and county coroners would not be required to use the forms, but doing so could help reduce the workload related to responding to RTKL requests. (These forms do not represent the totality of information available from these agencies, but they do represent some of the most commonly requested information.)
Public comment on the draft forms will be accepted through Monday, Feb. 8, 2021.
The best way to comment is via email to openrecords@pa.gov or by using the form available on the Contact page at the OOR website. Comments can also be submitted via postal mail (Office of Open Records, 333 Market Street, 16th Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17101-2234) and fax (717-425-5343).
OOR to Post Final Determinations from District Attorneys
Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law gives county District Attorneys the responsibility of appointing an appeals officer to decide RTKL appeals “relating to access to criminal investigative records in possession of a local agency of that county.”
District Attorneys have been doing this since the RTKL went into effect at the start of 2009. Until now, there has been no effort to provide a central location where all of those decisions can be found.
Yesterday, the Office of Open Records sent letters to all 67 District Attorneys requesting that they forward to the OOR copies of any Final Determinations issued by their offices — including past and future Final Determinations — so that they can be posted to a new page on the OOR website.
We believe this new page will be a tremendous resource for agencies, requesters, and District Attorney appeals officers. The target date for making the page go live is Monday, Feb. 1.
Court Filings Update – New Email Newsletter
I’m exited to announce that the Office of Open Records will soon start sending a new email newsletter called Court Filings Update — and you you can sign up for it now.
The newsletter will be sent regularly, generally multiple times each week, and it will include information about appeals and associated documents filed in the Courts of Common Pleas, the Commonwealth Court, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
We expect to send the first Court Filings Update newsletter by the end of March, hopefully sooner.
The Court Filings Update newsletter will be sent separately from the OOR’s Daily Final Determinations Update (which lists and links to recent Final Determination issued by the OOR) and the OOR’s general email newsletter.
You can manage your subscriptions to all three newsletters here.
Pageviews on OOR Blog Surged in 2020
The first post was made to this Office of Open Records blog on June 25, 2015. Since then, as executive director of the OOR, I’ve posted here about a wide variety of topics related to the OOR, court decisions, legislation, RTKL training resources, and much more.
Pageviews on this blog have been relatively consistent through the years:
- 5,718 in 2015
- 17,526 in 2016
- 9,860 in 2017
- 9,608 in 2018
- 10,163 in 2019
In 2020, however, pageviews surged — to 42,280.
The single biggest reason for that increase is the fact that this blog is where we posted the official OOR COVID-19 advisories regarding the Right-to-Know Law and the Sunshine Act. (Posting the advisories here made it easier to edit them as events warranted.)
The pages on this blog with the most views in 2020 were:
- The Sunshine Act and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) – 17,774
- The RTKL and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) – 10,117
- Blog Home Page – 7,881
- Act 77 of 2020: Guidelines Published by the Office of Open Records – 885
- Right-to-Know Law Case Law Index – 645
One thing this data makes very clear is that this blog has become an important part of keeping the public informed about issues related to the RTKL, the Sunshine Act, and government transparency.
NOTE: All data for 2020 is through and including Dec. 31, 2020.
OOR Posts Updated Draft Regulations
The Office of Open Records has posted an updated draft of its regulations.
The current draft regulations, the previous draft regulations, and information about the regulations and the regulatory process can be found here.
Court Orders Sunshine Act Training
The Court of Common Pleas in Westmoreland County recently ordered officials from the City of Monessen to attend Sunshine Act training provided by the Office of Open Records.
In the opinion and order, Judge Harry F. Smail, Jr., discussed a public meeting held by the City at which “there was absolutely no opportunity for public comment on the motions to fire the city solicitor, to hire the new city solicitor, to terminate the city administrator, to hire the new city administrator, to restrict access to city cameras, to rescind a Sewage Authority Board appointment and to advertise for the vacancy on the Sewage Authority Board.”
Those actions, Judge Smail said, “are facially apparent violations of Section 710.1(a) of the Sunshine Act.”
As a result, Judge Smail ordered — and we believe this is a first-of-its-kind order in Pennsylvania — that “Defendants Councilmembers of the City of Monessen and Defendant Mayor Matt Shorraw … attend a Sunshine Act training through the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, to be scheduled … within thirty (30) days of the date of this Order of Court.”
The order was dated Dec. 11, and the OOR has been contacted by the City of Monessen to schedule the mandatory training session.
If you’d like to schedule training with the OOR, mandatory or otherwise, take a look at our training calendar and then contact us. We provide training on the Sunshine Act and the Right-to-Know Law.
Federal Court Decision (FOIA) on Information in Databases
Earlier this month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit published an interesting decision related to accessing information in government databases.
The decision, in the case of The Center for Investigative Reporting v. United State Department of Justice, held that “the use of a query to search for and extract a particular arrangement or subset of existing data from the [Firearms Tracing System] database [maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives] does not require the creation of a ‘new’ agency record under [the federal Freedom of Information Act].”
The court’s decision contains a lot of good discussion about this important issue, mostly starting on page 37, such as: “[I]f running a search across these databases necessarily amounts to the creation of a new record, much government information will become forever inaccessible under FOIA.”
Importantly, the decision is in line with existing Pennsylvania case law regarding the Right-to-Know Law.
For example, in Gingrich v. Game Commission, the Commonwealth Court held: “Providing data from an agency database does not constitute creating a record.” And in Department of Environmental Protection v. Cole, the Commonwealth Court held: “An agency can be required to draw information from a database.”
In our training sessions for requesters, the Office of Open Records often discusses this issue. You can find more about the RTKL and information in government databases on slides 29 to 32 of this presentation, and you can listen to me discuss the issue here.
Open Records in Pennsylvania 