Open Records Challenge- Lehigh County, PA

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.