The (Carlisle) Sentinel, Oct. 8

More sunshine is needed

When we talk about access to government information, the conversation in recent months has been focused on things like warrantless wiretapping, disclosure of CIA interrogation techniques through governmental leaks and other such issues that have led the news recently.

What isn't talked about until it's too late is access to information regarding issues that are closer to home. Might a recent municipal tax increase be related to a lawsuit that was not settled in your community's favor? Did you know there was a bomb threat at your child's public school at the time it occurred? Are contracts in your local school district being awarded to vendors with family relationships to administrators or school board members?

These don't sound like particularly unique stories, so you might assume such information is easily discovered. But if you live in Pennsylvania, this isn't necessarily true.

Pennsylvania's laws governing open meetings and open records leave a lot to be desired. For one thing, if you ask for information and an official body refuses to cooperate, the burden is on the citizen to prove he or she has a right to the information.

That's completely the opposite of the law in most other states. Resolving such a dispute usually requires a trip to court in the company of attorneys experienced in this area of law. That's an expensive and unlikely proposition for an individual citizen -- and that situation encourages some officials to brush off all such requests.

As Sentinel readers are aware, the fate of a local Dickinson School of Law campus hung in the balance as the Penn State University Board of Trustees, meeting as quietly as it could, attempted to move the entire school to University Park in violation of a purchase agreement requiring the university to keep the law school in Carlisle “in perpetuity.”

It was a combination of judicious leaks from inside the institution and a series of court actions that headed off what might have been an institutional sneak-away of a kind not seen since the Baltimore Colts tiptoed off to Indianapolis two decades ago.

Governmental bodies are required to meet in public, but they are known to use various dodges like the “informational meeting” or “executive session” to discuss business out of the public's earshot. Executive sessions are only for discussing truly confidential matters such as an individual's personal employment record, litigation or collective bargaining, but officials often succumb to the temptation to discuss non-executive business in these sessions.

As for the “informational meeting,” many public officials believe they can get together and talk about anything they want as long as they don't hold a vote. But such meetings can lead to votes being held without discussion -- defeating the purpose of the public meeting requirement.

And even if a citizen catches a municipal board or council in the act of violating the Sunshine Law, penalties are rare, and the punishment is only a $100 fine.

The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association is running an organized campaign called “Brighter Pennsylvania” to call attention to the shortcomings of the law and to encourage lawmakers to strengthen citizen access to information, which in turn will improve public accountability. The association is calling for a stronger definition of what constitutes a public document and a public agency, creation of a review board so access disputes don't have to go to court, and meaningful penalties that will discourage officials from refusing records requests in a frivolous manner.

Pennsylvanians have so far demonstrated an appetite for reform in this current election season, if the results of the primaries are anything to go by. Enacting the reforms sought by the PNA would be an excellent way for the next session of the General Assembly to show it intends to satisfy that appetite.

The people who don't want you to have this information might tell you that this is just a newspaper thing. But it's really about your right to know what your government is doing.

[BACK TO HEADLINES & DEADLINES HOME PAGE]