RIGHT-TO-KNOW LAW DRAMATICALLY RESTRUCTURED
by
Christopher J. Hartman

On February 14th Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law a dramatic restructuring to Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law.  This action responds, in part, to the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s list of “must haves” submitted in Aug. 2006 as a part of a campaign called Brighter Pennsylvania.

The types of documents previously denied for reasons of protecting public interests remain basically the same, but the reform relieves citizens of the burden of proving a record is “public.”  Now the government agency must show a record fits under one of the 30 exceptions before it may deny access.  Agencies must also appoint an Open Records Officer who “receives the request, tracks the progress in responding, and issues an interim and a final response to the requester.”  This should help agencies centralize and streamline these requests.  The act also introduces heightened civil penalties for bad faith denials of access to public records up to $1500 along with a $500/day fine for failure to provide access after a judicial decree.  Additionally, the act routes all non-criminal appeals through the newly formed state Office of Open Records.