For a recent assignment for my Journalism 220 class at Indiana University of Pennsylvania we were challenged to find information regarding the Open Records Laws in PA. For the first question in regards to the ranking of PA, I googled the survey from the Better Goverment Association's poll in 2002. I found that Pennsylvania ranked 48. Only Alabama and South Dakota were lower than our state.
The second question led us to a website containing the names of legislators who are in support of improving Pennsylvania's open records law. It is categorized by Representatives and Senators alphabetically, and by county. I live in Allentown, PA which falls in Lehigh County. I found that there were 6 legislators in this area. Patrick M. Browne and Robert C. Wonderling make up the Senators. Jennifer Mann, Douglas G. Reichley, Julie Harhart and Carl W. Mantz are the representatives. From the website www.passopenrecords.org, Wonderling and Harhart are on the list for those in favor of improving PA's open records. I e-mailed those who I did not find on the list and received e-mails back from 3 out of the 4 not on the list. The 3 who responded- Browne, Mann and Reichley, all told me that they were in favor but were not on the list. It either was not updated or they have just recently joined the cause. I got no response out of Mantz or his people. When I got responses I felt sort of embarrassed for sending and e-mail almost demanding reason for their lack of support for the law. However, it is only through e-mail so I quickly got over it.
The third and final part of the challenege was to obtain some sort of document (open records request) that should be given to you thanks to the open records law. I attempted to get the contract of the Louise Donohue, the superintendent from my high school (Parkland) in Allentown. I did not receive a reponse to my request, which was quite frustrating not only for the assignemnt but because I could not get a reponse from my own high school. The challenge was now over for me. Despite my e-mail debacle and the lack of response from Parkland I enjoyed the challenge. Hopefully our legislators can get our state out from near the bottom of the list in rankings.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
PA open records
I was instructed to investigate the state of public records in Peters township to better understand the hardship journalist go through everyday.First, I googled the Better Government Association's 2002 survey of state open records laws. I found that Pennsylvania ranked 48. Only Alabama and South Dakota ranked lower in the commonwealth. Then I looked up my state representatives on www.passopenrecords.org to see if my legislators have signed on in support of improving Pennsylvania's open records law.I found that John Pippy was my legislator. I did find that he does support PA open records law. I contacted my district to see how I would obtain a copy of the superintendent’s contract. I was somewhat nervous and thought it might be a struggle to obtain such a document. It was to my surprise that they were very polite and more than willing to give me what I had requested. I will say, that I was a little aggravated when I found out that I had to drive home to sign for the document. They refused and said it was against their policy to mail records out. I drove home and went to the municipal building. It was there that I asked the lady at the desk for the records. She already has a copy waiting for me and all I had to do was sign my name on a sheet of paper.
I was instructed to investigate the state of public records in Peters township to better understand the hardship journalist go through everyday. First, I googled the Better Government Association's 2002 survey of state open records laws. I found that Pennsylvania ranked 48. Only Alabama and South Dakota ranked lower in the commonwealth. Then I looked up my state representatives on www.passopenrecords.org to see if my legislators signed in support of improving Pennsylvania's open records law. I found that John Pippy was my legislator. I did find that he does support PA open records law.
I contacted my district to see how I would obtain a copy of the superintendent’s contract. I was somewhat nervous and thought it might be a struggle to obtain such a document. It was to my surprise that they were very polite and more than willing to give me what I had requested. I will say, that I was a little aggravated when I found out that I had to drive home to sign for the document. They refused and said it was against their policy to mail records out. I drove home and went to the municipal building. It was there that I asked the lady at the desk for the records. She already has a copy waiting for me and all I had to do was sign my name on a sheet of paper.
I contacted my district to see how I would obtain a copy of the superintendent’s contract. I was somewhat nervous and thought it might be a struggle to obtain such a document. It was to my surprise that they were very polite and more than willing to give me what I had requested. I will say, that I was a little aggravated when I found out that I had to drive home to sign for the document. They refused and said it was against their policy to mail records out. I drove home and went to the municipal building. It was there that I asked the lady at the desk for the records. She already has a copy waiting for me and all I had to do was sign my name on a sheet of paper.
My experience with PA Open Records has been a good one.
I wrote a letter to the superintendent at the Homer-Center School District requesting his current contract. Within several days, I had a copy of the contract. However, at first I thought it was going to be disappointing. For some odd reason, I had trouble getting a hold of the superintendent and his secretary. I kept getting transferred to the secretary's voicemail. So, I left a voice mail and didn't get a call back; I started to get worried.
However, I guess in the end, I got what I had requested in a timely-fashion and have no real complaints except run-around I got trying to get a hold of the superintendent (and his secretary).
I wrote a letter to the superintendent at the Homer-Center School District requesting his current contract. Within several days, I had a copy of the contract. However, at first I thought it was going to be disappointing. For some odd reason, I had trouble getting a hold of the superintendent and his secretary. I kept getting transferred to the secretary's voicemail. So, I left a voice mail and didn't get a call back; I started to get worried.
However, I guess in the end, I got what I had requested in a timely-fashion and have no real complaints except run-around I got trying to get a hold of the superintendent (and his secretary).
Mifflin County
My experience with PA Open Records in Mifflin County was pretty unsuccessful. I first called the Superintendent office to get the address of the Right to Know Officer because I wanted information on the salary and budget of the Superintendent I was told there was no such officer and to submit my paper work to the Superintendent himself. After I mailed the letter and did not get a response I called the office and was told the paper work was probably sitting on his desk waiting for him to review.
I then changed my focus to getting property records so I called Mifflin County courthouse where I was again told by everyone working there that there was no such thing as a Right to Know Officer, but was given phone numbers to call for the different offices I may have wanted to get information from.
If people working in buildings that should have a Right to Know Officer don't know about it, the public obviously does not either.
I then changed my focus to getting property records so I called Mifflin County courthouse where I was again told by everyone working there that there was no such thing as a Right to Know Officer, but was given phone numbers to call for the different offices I may have wanted to get information from.
If people working in buildings that should have a Right to Know Officer don't know about it, the public obviously does not either.
Fairview School Open records
At first I was uneasy about undertaking this "open records challenge." I figured that no public official wanted to waste their time Xeroxing old documents for me and that my request would be shoved aside until the last minute, however, I was plesantly suprised at the reception of my request.
I started out by doing some research to find out who the "right-to-know" officer was at my old high school, Fairview. The school's website said that all open records requests should be sent to the superintendnet, Mr. Larry Kessler. Now, Mr. Kessler has been the superintendent at Fairview for a number of years, including the ones which I spent in the school, which has an enrollment of less that 600 kids. He and I have met, to say the least, for that matter he still strikes up a conversation with me whenever I run into him around town, he's a pretty nice guy afterall. Now, asking Mr. Kessler for a copy of his contract, as option #1 instructs, seemed rather rude to me. Thus I settled on option 2, which is a request for the documents showing the total amount spent on legal fees by the school district from the previous year.
I mailed my request on March 31st, including my address here at school, my cell phone number, and my E-mail address in the letter so they could easily contact me. Well, about 5 days later, Ed Barnes, Fairview School District's bussiness manager, called my Mom instead of me. You can imagine my poor mother's shock when this fellow, whom she also knows rather well, calls her house looking for me and carrying on about legal fees. It took some real reassuring on my part that I was not in any trouble and that we didn't need to call a lawyer.
Finally, everything got straightend out and Mr. Barnes mailed a rather thick envelope stuffed full of legal receipts from the 06-07 school year to me. He included a very nice letter instructing me to feel free to call him personally if I had any problems or if I needed any more information.
The information on the documents was astounding. Some of the proceedings cost less that $100 total, but other instances, such as a termination settlement between the school and the old schoolboard president racked up nearly $4000! A disciplinary hearing for a student, whose name was left unknown, back in January of 2007 cost the district $1,200 just to expell the kid!
I was pleased that it was rather easy to get this information sent back to me with such enthusiasim. I still don't know why they called my Mom, but it all worked out. My only question is if I would have had as easy of a time trying to obtain public records from an institution that I myself was not affiliated with for 8 years.
I started out by doing some research to find out who the "right-to-know" officer was at my old high school, Fairview. The school's website said that all open records requests should be sent to the superintendnet, Mr. Larry Kessler. Now, Mr. Kessler has been the superintendent at Fairview for a number of years, including the ones which I spent in the school, which has an enrollment of less that 600 kids. He and I have met, to say the least, for that matter he still strikes up a conversation with me whenever I run into him around town, he's a pretty nice guy afterall. Now, asking Mr. Kessler for a copy of his contract, as option #1 instructs, seemed rather rude to me. Thus I settled on option 2, which is a request for the documents showing the total amount spent on legal fees by the school district from the previous year.
I mailed my request on March 31st, including my address here at school, my cell phone number, and my E-mail address in the letter so they could easily contact me. Well, about 5 days later, Ed Barnes, Fairview School District's bussiness manager, called my Mom instead of me. You can imagine my poor mother's shock when this fellow, whom she also knows rather well, calls her house looking for me and carrying on about legal fees. It took some real reassuring on my part that I was not in any trouble and that we didn't need to call a lawyer.
Finally, everything got straightend out and Mr. Barnes mailed a rather thick envelope stuffed full of legal receipts from the 06-07 school year to me. He included a very nice letter instructing me to feel free to call him personally if I had any problems or if I needed any more information.
The information on the documents was astounding. Some of the proceedings cost less that $100 total, but other instances, such as a termination settlement between the school and the old schoolboard president racked up nearly $4000! A disciplinary hearing for a student, whose name was left unknown, back in January of 2007 cost the district $1,200 just to expell the kid!
I was pleased that it was rather easy to get this information sent back to me with such enthusiasim. I still don't know why they called my Mom, but it all worked out. My only question is if I would have had as easy of a time trying to obtain public records from an institution that I myself was not affiliated with for 8 years.
PA Open Records
This exercise was easy and helpful. The first thing I did was find the legislators for Montgomery County to see if they were signed on to support the improvement of the PA open records law. Next, I sent out an email to Robert Wonderling, a representative for my county (it turned out, I was contacting the wrong person.) I contacted him for the documents reflecting the total amount spent on legal fees by the Souderton Area School District.
Although he never emailed me back, I recieved a phonecall within the next week. It was his secretary, Danielle Bodnar. She was very nice and helpful, and told me that she had the contact information I needed to obtain the documents I wanted. Ms. Bodnar sent me an email within the next couple of days.
That email directed me to Ms. Brenda Jones Bray, the Director of Business Affairs for Souderton School District. I immediately sent her a letter in the mail, and am still waiting for a response. I received the email April 18, and sent the letter out the following Monday April 21. I have still not received a response because the letter only went out four days ago. I am confident that I will receive the documents I requested within the next few days without a problem. Everyone i communicated with was friendly and resourceful.
Although he never emailed me back, I recieved a phonecall within the next week. It was his secretary, Danielle Bodnar. She was very nice and helpful, and told me that she had the contact information I needed to obtain the documents I wanted. Ms. Bodnar sent me an email within the next couple of days.
That email directed me to Ms. Brenda Jones Bray, the Director of Business Affairs for Souderton School District. I immediately sent her a letter in the mail, and am still waiting for a response. I received the email April 18, and sent the letter out the following Monday April 21. I have still not received a response because the letter only went out four days ago. I am confident that I will receive the documents I requested within the next few days without a problem. Everyone i communicated with was friendly and resourceful.
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