Right-to-Know Law

Draft Update to Standard RTK Request Form

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

The Office of Open Records (OOR) is required by Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law (RTKL) to “develop a uniform [request] form which shall be accepted by all Commonwealth and local agencies” (Section 505(a) of the RTKL).

We’ve developed a draft update to the Standard RTK Request Form and we want to know what you think. The goal is simple: Improve the form by making it more useful and easier to understand for both agencies and requesters.

Please take a look at the draft update, compare it to the existing form, and share any comments or suggestions by Sept. 30, 2018.

Note: When the update is finalized, the PDF version of the form will be a fillable PDF, just as the current form is. The draft version does not include that feature.

Draft Update to the Standard RTK Request Form – draft as of Sept. 13, 2018

Current Standard RTK Request Form – as of Sept. 13, 2018

Contact the OOR to share your thoughts

Oct. 11 in Harrisburg: RTKL Training for Requesters

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

The Office of Open Records is hosting a training session on Thursday, Oct. 11, at our office in Harrisburg which will focus on Right-to-Know Law (RTKL) issues of importance to requesters.

Topics to be covered include how to write a good RTKL request, accessing information in databases, significant deadlines in the RTKL, how to appeal a RTKL denial, and more. There will also be time for questions and answers.

Sign up here to join us on Oct. 11.

NOTE: This training will be most useful for interested residents and members of the media. It will be of limited value to agency employees and agency attorneys.

If you’re interested in this kind of training but can’t join us for this event, the presentation used in the training will be posted to this blog, we’ll be providing additional requester training sessions (including webinars) in the future, and we’ll be creating more YouTube videos focused on requester issues.

Visit the OOR website for more information about upcoming OOR training sessions and to subscribe to the OOR’s email newsletter.

Two RTKL Presentations at Temple University

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Yesterday, I returned to my alma mater Temple University to speak to two journalism classes about Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law.

It was great to be back on campus (so much construction!). Both classes, one with undergraduate students and one with master’s students, had outstanding questions, and I greatly appreciate the invitations.

(If you’re a journalism professor in Pennsylvania, let me know if you’d like me to speak to your class and I’ll do my best to make it happen.)

Here are the PowerPoint presentations I used:

Temple University – Prof. Jillian Bauer-Reese – Sept. 4, 2018 (PPTX)
Temple University – Prof. Jillian Bauer-Reese – Sept. 4, 2018 (PDF)
Temple University – Dr. Logan Molyneux – Sept. 4, 2018 (PPTX)
Temple University – Dr. Logan Molyneux – Sept. 4, 2018 (PDF)

Twitter Thread: RTKL Deadlines

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Here’s a Twitter thread I posted recently exploring deadlines under the Right-to-Know Law.

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Twitter Thread: RTKL Procedural Issues

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Here’s a Twitter thread I posted recently exploring some common procedural issues which arise under the Right-to-Know Law.

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Presentation to Committee of Seventy Interns

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Earlier this week, a group of interns from the Committee of Seventy visited the Office of Open Records in Harrisburg to discuss the Right-to-Know Law and the OOR.

It was a great discussion, and I very much appreciate them visiting. Here’s the presentation I used to help frame the discussion:

Committee of Seventy Interns – July 31, 2018 (PPTX)
Committee of Seventy Interns – July 31, 2018 (PDF)

Presentation to CCAP Solicitors’ Conference

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Earlier today, I took part in a discussion about the Right-to-Know Law at the 2018 CCAP Solicitors’ Conference in Harrisburg.

Other participants included attorneys Craig J. Staudenmaier and J. Stephen Feinour from Nauman Smith. The panel was moderated by J. Chadwick Schnee, Berks County’s First Assistant Solicitor.

It was a great discussion, and I very much appreciate the invitation.

The discussion covered a fairly wide variety of topics, but the presentation I prepared focused on the Office of Open Records’ survey of Agency Open Records Officers (AOROs) and the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee’s separate survey of AOROs:

CCAP Solicitors’ Conference – May 4, 2018 – PPTX
CCAP Solicitors’ Conference – May 4, 2018 – PDF

LBFC Report: Recommendations

/ Liz Wagenseller / 3 Comments

Open records_logo stackedThe report released today by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee entitled “Costs to Implement the Right-to-Know Law” includes eight recommendations, four for the General Assembly and four for the OOR.

I support all eight recommendations (one, as noted below, with some reservations). In more detail:

LBFC Recommendations for the General Assembly

Recommendation: Require agencies to provide AORO contact information to include name, telephone number, email address, and physical address to the OOR annually or whenever there is a change in the information.

Response: The OOR currently collects this information on a very informal basis. However, a statutory mandate for agencies to provide AORO contact information to the OOR, combined with technological improvements already in development (i.e., an online AORO database), would allow us to proceed in a far more efficient manner.

Recommendation: Require agencies to prominently post required RTKL information on their websites and specifically define AORO contact information to include the name, telephone number, email address, and physical address of the AORO.

Response: Like LBFC, the OOR has found that it can sometimes be difficult or impossible to locate AORO information on an agency website. In addition to supporting a new statutory requirement that the information be “prominently” posted, the OOR will continue to emphasize this as a best practice in our training.

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