Hold government accountable with Right-to-Know Law
I’ve never seen the public more engaged with their government than now.
In the past few years, citizens have spoken out loudly about mask mandates and critical race theory before school boards. They’ve questioned the fairness of the 2020 election. They’ve challenged the decisions of state officials to shut down the economy amid the pandemic.
To dig for evidence supporting their positions, citizens have given the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law quite a workout.
That’s fabulous.
This week is Sunshine Week, a national effort promoting open government and freedom of information. I always celebrate the week by reminding people about the power of the law and encouraging them to use it.
The more people who use it, the better. Public officials must be reminded that what they do is a matter of public record. The Right-to-Know Law is a deterrent to backroom deal making and political gamesmanship.
Now, I think some people are wasting their time trying to prove conspiracy theories about the election being rigged and about students being indoctrinated with critical race theory.
But I’m still glad they are using the law.
The beauty of the law is it doesn’t allow government to consider why someone wants records. Governments must provide records to everyone, without regard to how the information may be used.
The law presumes all records of local, county and state government agencies are public, unless they specifically are excluded. Examples of excluded records are those about security, trade secrets, personal financial information and criminal investigations. It’s difficult to say how many Rightto-Know requests are filed annually in Pennsylvania. No agency tracks that. To get a tally, you’d have to ask each school district, municipality, county and state agency.
One way to gauge the volume is by how many appeals are handled by the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. It adjudicates disputes over access to government files. In 2021, it received the most appeals ever, 2,990.
That’s not only an indication that many people are seeking access to government records, but an indication that they aren’t giving up when the government refuses to hand over documents.
“Citizens are keeping a closer eye on how all levels of public government are acting and are often unwilling to accept an agency’s public remarks as the final
answer,” Office of Open Records Executive Director, Liz Wagenseller wrote in her agency’s 2021 annual report released Monday..
“Based on the record-breaking number of appeals our office decided, the Right-to-Know Law appears to now have a permanent place in the toolbox for active citizens.”
Here are a few shining examples of how the law exposed questionable government actions last year. They are mentioned in Monday’s annual report.
An internal Pennsylvania Turnpike report revealing that $104 million of tolls went uncollected as the agency switched to all-electronic tolling.
Records regarding the termination of two Lancaster police officers for submitting forged COVID-19 vaccination forms.
Documentation that Philadelphia
transferred $5 million in foster children’s Social Security benefits to the city’s general fund.
Inspection reports revealing
229 smoke detector violations at Pennsylvania child care facilities.
Morning Call senior reporter Peter Hall uses the Right-to-Know Law a lot. In the past year he discovered:
Northampton Community College paid a former administrator $185,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging he was not considered for a promotion because he is Black.
Allentown paid $400,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a city resident who alleged police beat him and conducted a sham investigation to cover it up.
There were two previous incidents on a ski lift at Camelback Ski Area where a chair plunged to the ground, injuring a father and two children.
Morning Call Capitol correspondent
Ford Turner used the law to obtain documents that raised questions about how the state tracked drug overdose deaths.
Unfortunately, not all governments are interested in cooperating with people who ask for records.
Sometimes, they ignore requests. Or, they play games, figuring the average citizen isn’t familiar enough with the law to know they are being given the runaround.
It’s not hard to find examples. I found several in the Office of Open Records rulings issued on just one day, Monday.
Locally, Salisbury Township blew off a request.
Joseph Kuzo asked for emails between township workers. The law requires a government to answer a request within five business days. It can take 30 days if time is needed to gather documents or conduct a legal analysis about whether requested documents are public.
Salisbury told Kuzo it would need 30 days. Then it never got back to him.
That means the request was considered to be denied. Kuzo appealed to the Office of Open Records. The township ignored the appeal, too, and Kuzo won his case Monday.
“There is no dispute that the records requested — emails between agency employees — are public records,” appeals officer Erin Burlew wrote.
She ordered Salisbury Township to give Kuzo the records within 30 days, or send him a letter saying the records he asked for don’t exist.
It’s important to know your rights and responsibilities under the law, including how to file a request for records, who to send it to and the timeline to receive a ruling and file an appeal.
That information is on the Office of Open Records website at openrecords. pa.gov, and the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition’s website at pafoic.org/.