Mutchler Encourages Activists On Records Law, With Caveats
From Sunshine Review
January 14, 2009
[edit] Mutchler Encourages Activists On Records Law, With Caveats
"Terry Mutchler, executive director of the new Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, told politicians, journalists and activists yesterday the new open-records law affords them unprecedented access to government documents. But she said that access comes only if Pennsylvanians demand their public officials obey the statute’s spirit.
“There’s a philosophy in this law,” the former litigator said at a symposium held by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Foundation. “And you’re either pro-open government or you’re not.”
Under the state’s Right-to-Know Law, enacted last February when Gov. Ed Rendell, D, signed Senate Bill 1, documents at the state and local levels in Pennsylvania are presumed public unless they fit into one of the law’s exemptions. As a result of this sweeping change, which reverses what reform advocates believed had made Pennsylvania one of the weakest states on transparency, many who want to access the law have been enthusiastically learning about its uses and limitations."
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