OPEN RECORDS

After years of promising more transparency in government, Pennsylvania has adopted an open records law, effective Jan. 1, 2009, that makes it easier for citizens to obtain documents from state and local agencies.

Unfortunately, the legislation still places the burden on individual citizens to acquire information rather than use the Internet to bring information to the people.

Today, virtually every government record is created on a computer.  Once digitized, it’s a simple matter to make it available on a Web site.  Whole warehouses of information can be stored and accessed from servers that could fit in a storage closet.

Like most Pennsylvania municipalities and school districts, both Pottstown Borough and Pottstown School District operate Web sites.  But it’s up to local officials to decide what to publish.

As time passes, Pottstown Citizens for Responsible Government intends to obtain as much public information as we can and post it on this Web site in a reader-friendly format.  This includes the names, job positions, qualifications, and salaries of borough and school district employees.  Salaries and benefits typically account for 60 to 70 percent of local government budgets.

Our goal is to change the culture of both Pottstown Borough and the Pottstown School District to conduct their business in an open and professional manner. 

We hope our Web site will encourage both Pottstown Borough and the Pottstown School District to clearly explain their mission and services on their official Web sites, accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue of public records.

We believe that, just as competition in the marketplace drives businesses to improve products and productivity, openness and accessibility will drive our local government to become more efficient and responsive to people’s needs.

As Harrisburg attorney Craig Staudenmaier has written in the Harrisburg Patriot-News:

Our Web site is continually evolving, so please check back often.

The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has directed the Pottstown School District to release invoices submitted by its lawyer for legal services during the last five years.
Pottstown Citizens for Responsible Government requested these records on January 6 under the state’s new Right to Know Law.

About a month later, the school district provided 744 pages of legal invoices at a charge of 10 cents per page, but deleted the descriptions of all work performed.
The district’s lawyer, called the solicitor, claimed this “redaction” of information was justified by attorney-client privilege.
 We appealed this redaction to the newly created state Office of Open Records.

On March 3, state Appeals Officer Dena Lefkowitz upheld our appeal and ordered the district to provide the invoices again, this time without excluding descriptions of legal services performed, except for any specific information related to an individual child or employee as allowed by law.

On April 2, the school district provided the invoices to us, but many items had still been redacted.

It is unfortunate that Pottstown’s solicitor is encouraging a culture of secrecy, rather than transparency, in the school district. Even worse, school district officials are spending our money to keep us from knowing how they are spending our money.
Aside from the superintendent of schools, the solicitor is the most important official in any school district.  The solicitor tells school board members what they can and cannot legally do.

The solicitor attends all meetings of the school board and conducts all legal business.

According to the Pottstown School District’s published budgets, the district has paid about $750,000 for legal services over the last five school years.

To see our appeal to the state Office of Open Records, click here.

To see the final determination by the state Office of Open Records, click here.