Annual Training in Harrisburg on Oct. 26

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

Open records_logo stackedThis year’s Office of Open Records Annual Training will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the State Museum in Harrisburg.

Senior staff from the OOR will lead this session covering the Right-to-Know Law and the Sunshine Act.

The training will touch on the basics of each law, but additional detail will be provided on recent Final Determinations issued by the OOR, recent Supreme Court and Commonwealth Court decisions, and emerging issues.

This training session is designed to be of interest to both agencies and requesters. Attendees will have ample opportunity to ask questions.

This session is pending approval for 1.5 CLEs.

You can register for the training session here.

CLE at Widener University Commonwealth Law School

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

Open records_logo stackedEarlier today, Charles Brown (Chief Counsel at the Office of Open Records) and I spoke at a continuing legal education at Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg. This presentation was also recorded by PCN for airing at a later date.

We enjoyed the great questions and thank the school for inviting us.

Here’s the presentation I used:

Widener Presentation – Erik Arneson – Sept. 27, 2016 – PPTX
Widener Presentation – Erik Arneson – Sept. 27, 2016 – PDF

And here’s the presentation Charles used:

Widener Presentation – Charles Brown – Sept. 27, 2016 – PPTX
Widener Presentation – Charles Brown – Sept. 27, 2016 – PDF

OOR Adopts New RTKL Fee Structure

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

Open records_logo stackedSection 1307 of the Right-To-Know Law requires the Office of Open Records to establish a fee structure for Commonwealth agencies and local agencies. Section 1310 of the RTKL requires the OOR to review that fee structure every other year.

Today, the OOR adopted a new Official RTKL Fee Structure which can be viewed in its entirety here.

Prior to publishing a Draft Update to the Official Fee Structure this year, the OOR prepared a review of recent appellate court cases and Final Determinations issued since the last fee review in July 2014; a comparative analysis of fees assessed by various Pennsylvania agencies; a review of fees charged by copy/printing businesses located in various cities and municipalities across the Commonwealth; and recommendations for future fee reviews. That nine-page document is available here.

On Monday, Aug. 1, 2016, the OOR published the Draft Update to the Official Fee Structure and solicited public comment on the draft update. The draft update was published on the OOR Executive Director’s blog, with notice being prominently displayed on the Fee Structure page of the OOR website. Notice was also provided to subscribers of the OOR’s email newsletter, as well as numerous times on both the OOR’s Twitter feed and the Executive Director’s Twitter feed.

Public comments were accepted through Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The OOR received nine substantive comments on the Draft Update to the Official Fee Structure. (One comment was received on Aug. 22, 2016, and is included among the nine the OOR received.) Comments were provided by four individual requesters, one attorney, one statewide media organization, and three employees of local agencies.

Continue reading →

PA’s Right-to-Know Law: The Basics – Videos

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

The Office of Open Records has produced four videos, all available at our new YouTube channel.

These videos describe some of the basics of Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law.

Introduction to Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law:

How to File a Request Under PA’s Right-to-Know Law:

How to Respond to a Request Under PA’s Right-to-Know-Law:

How to File an Appeal Under PA’s Right-to-Know-Law:

We plan to produce more videos in the future. If you have suggestions on topics you’d like to see covered, please contact the Office of Open Records or post a comment below.

Presentation to PA Assoc. of Nonprofit Organizations

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

Open records_logo stackedYesterday, I took part in the fall conference of the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations. I hosted a seminar called “New Data Resources” and spoke about the Right-to-Know Law, the open data movement, and related topics.

My thanks to PANO for for inviting me to speak.

Here’s the presentation I used:
Pennsylvania Assoc. of Nonprofit Organizations – Sept. 13, 2016 – PPTX
Pennsylvania Assoc. of Nonprofit Organizations – Sept. 13, 2016 – PDF

Pennsylvania’s Open Data Portal

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

Pennsylvania’s Open Data Portal officially opened last week.

Users can find data on a variety of topics, including:

At this point, datasets are available from eight state departments, including the Department of Community and Economic Development, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Human Services. More datasets are on the way.

As I said earlier this year when Governor Tom Wolf announced the open data initiative, Pennsylvania’s embrace of open data will lead to exciting opportunities for taxpayers, academics, and businesses. Experience in other states and regions has proven that good things happen when the government provides open data — data that’s free to be downloaded, used, and redistributed — in a comprehensive, organized way.

I also hope the state’s open data portal will encourage more counties, school districts, and municipalities to take similar steps. Even if a local agency doesn’t have the resources to develop a full-blown open data portal, making more public information instantly available online has many benefits.

Draft Fee Structure Update – Seeking Public Comment

/ Liz Wagenseller / 3 Comments

Section 1307 of the Right-To-Know Law requires the Office of Open Records to establish a fee structure for commonwealth agencies and local agencies. Section 1310 of the RTKL requires the OOR to review that fee structure every other year.

The OOR has produced a draft update to the Official Fee Structure (PDF) and is accepting public comment on this draft update through August 19, 2016.

To comment, please email FeeReviewOOR@pa.gov or mail your comments to:

Office of Open Records
Commonwealth Keystone Building
400 North Street, 4th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0225

Comments will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, August 19, 2016.

The OOR will review all comments received and will issue a final update to the Official Fee Structure no later than August 31, 2016.

OOR Draft Update to Official Fee Structure 2016-08-01 (PDF)

New Website, New Features

/ Liz Wagenseller / 3 Comments

Open records_logo stackedToday, the Office of Open Records website was completely revamped.

This post highlights five new features on the website, but first a note: You can continue to find all of the same information that’s always been available on the OOR website. The site has been reorganized, but nothing has been removed.

ONLINE APPEALS FORM

There’s a new online form to fill out when you file an appeal with the OOR.

The goal of this new form is to save everyone time and to help ensure that you submit all of the required information. When you click “submit,” your appeal is instantly transmitted to the Office of Open Records. If you enter a valid email address, you’ll also receive a copy by email for your own records.

Continue reading →

Commonwealth Court Weighs in on Large RTKL Requests

/ Liz Wagenseller / Leave a comment

Open records_logo stackedThis week, Commonwealth Court issued a ruling in Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (SSHE) v. Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF).

One of the issues was whether or not the original Right-to-Know Law request submitted by APSCUF to SSHE was specific enough under Section 703 of the RTKL. On that issue, the court upheld the OOR’s finding that the request was specific.

The court then discussed SSHE’s position that, because the request was for such a large volume of records, it couldn’t have responded within the time period established by the RTKL. (SSHE “contends that it was incapable of reasonably discerning whether any exemptions applied to this matter because it neither had the time nor resources to fully review the sizeable volume of records produced by Requesters’ requests in the time-period it was given to do so.”)

Continue reading →