Guess Who Uses Open Records Office Most?

When I first started reporting 25 years ago, keeping information from the press was almost a sport for some borough councils and school boards. Reporters often felt like we were playing a virtual game of Monkey in the Middle in which we were always the monkey. 

Boards routinely called lengthy executive sessions and when you asked them the purpose of meeting in private they would turn to their lawyers to bail them out with a reason. Some ran municipalities or school districts as their own personal fiefdoms, parceling out information with an imperious air and only if it made them look good. 

No doubt that still holds true for some boards and officials. But returning to reporting after a 14-year hiatus, I’ve seen a sea change in openness, thanks in part to the new Right-to-Know law that went into effect Jan. 1, 2009.

In honor of Sunshine Week (March 13-19), let’s review some of the key improvements in the law.

It’s much better than its predecessor, according to Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, largely because it creates a “presumption of openness.”

True, there are 30 exceptions to that openness but the burden is on the local or state government or agencies to demonstrate why a piece of information shouldn’t be public, de Bourbon said.  You can go to the coalition website at www.openrecordspa.org to get detailed information about it.

Some of the highlights of the 2009 law are:

* In almost all cases, financial records of a government body or agency are open to the public.

* You can request documents by e-mail. In the old days, requests usually had to be made in person or by regular mail.

* You don’t have to tell the agency why you want the records.

* Once a quorum of school directors has seen its board packets – the background information that usually accompanies agenda items – those packets are public information, according to de Bourbon.

* If you ask for information and are turned down, you can appeal to the state Office of Open Records which was created by the law.

The law isn’t perfect, of course, and several of the provisions “are clear as mud,” de Bourbon said. She writes about problems with compliance in a column this week at 

In addition, some legislators are attempting to undermine it; see  for more on that. 

The data on who uses the Right-to-Know make clear it’s not just a pet issue for journalists. In 2009, 90 percent of the appeals of denied Right-to-Know requests came from regular citizens while only eight percent came from the media and 2 percent from government officials, de Bourbon said.

Neat and tidy government makes me nervous. That’s why I’ve enjoyed covering the Saucon Valley School Board on numerous occasions. Sure, there is grandstanding by some board members and probably some behind-the-scenes horse-trading.

But on most issues, you see democracy in all its big, loud glory with lengthy, sometimes raucous debates on what to spend and what to cut, what works and what doesn’t in education.

Audience members, most recently a group of Tea Partiers, weigh in and challenge the board.  You see the thought processes behind decisions that will affect the kind of education Saucon school children receive. It can be messy – and, God help us, long – but it’s not window dressing.

So happy Sunshine Week. Those of us who remember the municipal Dark Ages have a special appreciation for the light.