Journalist, citizens press Pennsylvania lawmakers for stronger sunshine law

By Phillip Taylor
Special to
The Freedom Forum Online

10.13.00

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When word leaked that the newest board of supervisors for Hemlock Township, Pa., had wiped away a huge surplus by awarding themselves fat construction contracts, Judy Snyder and a dozen other citizens took action.

But Snyder said their efforts to get township documents were blocked at every step. Even after her election last year as county auditor, Snyder found that she couldn't get access to records.

Threats of court action enabled the citizens group to secure enough records to discover that the township's $373,000 surplus had become a $117,000 debt in only three years.

But the search for records in Hemlock has proven to be costly. Snyder says the group has resorted to selling soup and chicken dinners to raise more than $24,000 in attorney's fees and copying costs.

"I have been refused access as a resident, a member of a citizens group and now as an elected auditor," Snyder said. "If this law does not apply to any of these categories, who does it protect?"

Snyder wants Pennsylvania lawmakers to revamp the state's 43-year-old Right to Know Act — one she refers to as the government's "right to N-O." And it appears that could happen.

The state Senate held hearings Oct. 4 on Senate Bill 1333, sponsored by Stewart Greenleaf, R-Willow Grove. Greenleaf says he hopes his bill will create a feeling of openness in Pennsylvania government.

The bill came in response to last year's Keystone State Secrets report that found that nearly one of every three public-records requests was denied. In this first survey of the law, reporters from 14 newspapers filed 410 requests and were refused 122 times.

Researchers found that police officials denied records requests 77% of the time. State police officials refused all such requests. School principal salary records were denied by 32 of the 118 districts in the state.

Kara Dolphin, government affairs director for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, blames the government's inaccessibility on an ancient law. Enacted in 1957, the Right to Know Act only promises access to "accounts, vouchers or contracts" and "minutes, orders or decisions."

And because the law is 43 years old, it makes no reference to new technology and electronic records. An absence of such language, Dolphin said, has enabled many agencies to refuse access to any records.

"It's pre-Watergate, so you can imagine how it's an antiquated law that needs a complete overhaul," Dolphin said in a telephone interview. "And it still says that citizens have the burden of proving that the records should be open."

Rebecca Daugherty of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said the Pennsylvania law stands with a similar one in New Jersey as the weakest in the nation.

"It's an ugly, ugly law," said Daugherty, who directs the committee's Freedom of Information Service Center. "But I think they are really serious about this bill. I think they are going to change it."

In hearing testimony, Susan Schwartz, Pennsylvania sunshine chair for the Society of Professional Journalists, said she became involved in access issues because of difficulties in getting records for even the most routine stories.

Schwartz noted that in 1997, police in Columbia County delayed issuing press releases about the rape of a 14-year-old girl. When police finally released a report four days later, it included a description of an unusual tattoo. The suspected rapist was arrested the next day.

John Bull, president of a journalists group called the First Amendment Coalition, said news organizations understand that a balance must be struck between openness and privacy. But, Bull said, the law leans too much toward government secrecy.

"Too often, government has acted as though it is the master rather than the servant of the public," said Bull, an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer. "We have a long history of government begrudgingly giving even partial access to public documents."

Snyder said her effort to secure records has helped her learn that her hometown of Hemlock isn't the only government body that "doesn't want the people to know what it is doing, or believes ... the taxpayers won't understand."

"If there is nothing to hide, why should we not be able to know what our government is doing?" she asked.

Related

Lawmakers move to revamp Pennsylvania's open-records law
House passes bill to update state's 44-year-old statute, which is considered one of the weakest in the nation.  03.26.02

Governor signs bill revamping Pennsylvania's open-records law
State's 44-year-old public-records act had been considered one of the weakest in the country.  07.03.02

FOI researchers give Rhode Island, Pennsylvania poor marks for access
Freedom-of-information studies find that municipal and law enforcement officials often refuse to comply with state public records laws.  05.03.99