Pennsylvania Right to Know Law

Sunshine Laws
Open Records laws
Open Meetings Laws
How to Make Records Requests

Sunshine Headlines
Across the Country or by State
Major Records Requests

Sunshine Legislation
2010
Sorted by State, Year and Topic

Sunshine Litigation
Sorted by State, Year and Topic

Sunshine Nuances
Private Agencies, Public Dollars
Deliberative Process Exemption

The Pennsylvania Right to Know Act, also known as the Pennsylvania Sunshine Law, is a series of laws designed to guarantee that the public has access to public records of governmental bodies in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act legislates the methods by which public meetings are conducted.

Prior to 2008, the Pennsylvania Right to Know Act was widely regarded as one of the worst in the country, partly because the pre-2008 law presumed that government records were not public, unless someone who wanted the record could establish otherwise. A new law passed by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Ed Rendell "flipped the presumption". This new law went into full effect on January 1, 2009 and it states, in sharp distinction to the previous law, that all documents will be presumed to be open to the public unless the agency holding them can prove otherwise.

To learn more about how to make a public records request in this state, please see: Pennsylvania FOIA procedures

Relevant legal cases

See also: Court cases with an impact on state FOIA

Here is a list of lawsuits in Pennsylvania. For more information go the page or go to Pennsylvania sunshine lawsuits.
(The cases are listed alphabetically. To order them by year please click the icon to the right of the Year heading)

Lawsuit	Year
Harristown Development Corporation v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania	1992
Judge v. Pocius	1977
Pennsylvania State Police v. Office of Open Records	2010
Pocono Record v. ESU Foundation	2010

Proposed changes

See sample transparency legislation at the Sunshine Standard

2011

See also:Proposed reforms in state sunshine laws, 2011

Here is a list of transparency legislation for Pennsylvania in 2011. This list contains a random collection of 15 bills from the state. For the full list please see Pennsylvania transparency legislation.

Rating	Bill	Current Status	Progress	Information
b	House Bill 108	Current Status:c (Referred to State Government Committee)	f	House Bill 108, introduced to the House of Representatives by Representative Richard Geist which would increase public access to procurement information through public records law. The governing body would be required to post on their website any written determination made by the contracting officer five business days prior to executing the contract. ^[1]
a	House Bill 215	Current Status:c (Referred to Judiciary Committee)	b	House Bill 215, introduced to the House of Representatives by Representative Matthew Baker which would prohibit the disclosure of birth dates under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law. It would also allow parties to seek redress if their birth date was shared under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law. ^[2]
a	House Bill 364	Current Status:c (Referred to State Government Committee)	b	House Bill 364, introduced to the House of Representatives by Representative Rosemarie Swanger which would add the home address of a law enforcement agency employee to the list of records that cannot be obtained under public records law. ^[3]
a	House Bill 485	Current Status:c (Referred to State Government Committee)	b	House Bill 485, introduced to the House of Representatives by Representative Rob Kauffman which would prohibit any person who has been convicted of a felony offense from requesting records from the Department of Corrections. It would also extended the period of time allowed for a records request that falls under this qualification to allow for research. ^[4]
a	Senate Bill 247	Current Status:c (Referred to State Government Committee)	n	Senate Bill 247, introduced to the Senate by Senator Dominic Pileggi which would create open records rules for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, allow for redaction of any agency's banking information, and adjusts the time periods allowed for public agencies to respond to requests based on the form of submission. ^[5]
a	Senate Bill 323	Current Status:c (Referred to Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure Committee)	n	Senate Bill 323, introduced to the Senate by Senator Robert "Tommy" Tomlinson which would provide punishment and prohibit the unlawful procurement, sale or receipt of telephone records. It would allow for law enforcement and other government agencies to utilize phone records in emergency situations but otherwise forbid phone companies from giving information out without the consent of the customer. It would also require telephone companies to set up systems to protect customer information from being shared. ^[6]
b	Senate Bill 361	Current Status:c (Referred to Public Health & Welfare Committee)	n	Senate Bill 361, introduced to the Senate by Senator Bob Robbins which would make birth records public after 100 years and death records public after 50 years. These records would be maintained by the state archives. ^[7]
a	Senate Bill 551	Current Status:c (Referred to State Government Committee)	n	Senate Bill 551, introduced to the Senate by Senator Edwin Erickson which would create rules for "commercial purpose" of obtaining records, but would disclude scholarly, scientific or other non-profit research. This bill would also make a minor change to the fees allowed under public records requests which would be a quarter hourly rate plus 20% for commercial records requests. ^[8]
a	Senate Bill 625	Current Status:c (Referred to State Government Committee)	n	Senate Bill 625, introduced to the Senate by Senator Edwin Erickson which would establish the Pennsylvania Public Integrity Commission whose duties would include investigating corruption in all levels of government. The commission would then be required submit reports of corruption to a joint commission of the House and Senate Judiciary committees in an open session. The commission's opinions would be a matter of public record and could be published periodically but may be requested to have identifying information redacted by involved parties. These opinions would be published and sent free of charge to each county's law library. The commission would be required to hold two public meetings a year, at least one of which would be outside Harrisburg. Economic Interest forms created by the commission would be considered public records open to inspection. ^[9]
a	Senate Bill 864	Current Status:c (Referred to State Government Committee)	n	Senate Bill 864, introduced to the Senate by Senator Jay Costa which would add birth date to the list of redacted or exempted records. ^[10]

2010

See also:Proposed reforms in state sunshine laws, 2010

Here are a list of 30 random bills from Pennsylvania from 2010. For a full list, please see Pennsylvania transparency legislation.

We have no current bill pages for Pennsylvania from 2010. This may be due to incomplete research. To add pages, please view ourproject page, WikiProject Proposed state sunshine legislation.

2009

Main article: Proposed reforms in state sunshine laws, 2009

SB 105 Pennsylvania Taxpayer Transparency Act This bill would direct the Office of Budget to create and maintain a free and searchable budget database website.
SB 107 Pennsylvania Governmental Salary Information Act This bill would require the state Treasurer to post salary information for all state employees on a public website.
SB 101 Increasing Penalties for Sunshine Laws violations
SB 109 Taxpayer-funded advertising disclosure
SB 110 Improving Information in state plane logs.

Transparency report card

A 2008 study, BGA - Alper Integrity Index, conducted by the Better Government Association and sponsored by Alper Services, ranked Pennsylvania #25 in the nation with an overall percentage of 52.00%. ^[1]

A 2007 study, Graded state responsiveness to FOI requests, conducted by BGA and the NFOIC, gave Pennsylvania 53 points out of a possible 100, a letter grade of "F", and a ranking of 22 out of the 50 states.^[2]

A 2002 study, Freedom of Information in the USA, conducted by IRE and BGA, ranked Pennsylvania's law as the 48th worst in the country, giving it a letter grade of "F".^[3]

Features of the law

Compare States: Sunshine variations: Click on the heading to compare your state's law to other state's transparency laws.

Declared legal intention

The new law that went into effect on January 1, 2009 stated, "Unless otherwise provided by law, a public record shall be accessible for inspection and duplication by a requester in accordance with this act." ^[4]

What records are covered?

Pennsylvania law defines records as, "Information, regardless of physical form or characteristics, that documents a transaction or activity of an agency and that is created, received or retained pursuant to law or in connection with a transaction, business or activity of the agency." ^[5]

Exemptions

See EXEMPTIONS: What you can’t have from the Youngstown Vindicator, November 16, 2008 and Pa. Right-to-Know law contains 30 exceptions from the York Daily Record, December 22, 2008.

Deliberative process

What agencies are covered?

Pennsylvania law explicitly includes all branches of government at both the state and local level. ^[6]

Legislature

The legislature falls under the definition of public body found atPennsylvania Chapter 3 and is subject to the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law.

Privatized governmental agencies

Under Pennsylvania law, private entities which were created by a public body and perform a public function are considered public bodies and subject to the Right to Know Law.^[7]

Public universities

Status: Explicitly exempt^[8]
Popular Exemptions
Research	Donors	Examinations	Course Materials

Certain universities within Pennsylvania fall under the definition of "State-related institution" which is explicitly not included in the definition of "Commonwealth agency" that defines which entities are subject to the law. These include:

(1) Temple University.
(2) The University of Pittsburgh.
(3) The Pennsylvania State University.
(4) Lincoln University.

Instead, these universities are required to submit an annual report to the government detailing tax information as well as salaries for employees. Other state departments of higher education and community college are included in the law.^[9] In 2013, a bill passed the Pennsylvania House that would close this exemption.^[10]

Who may request records?

Any United States citizen may request public records in Pennsylvania. The law explicitly defines "Requester" as "a person that is a legal resident of the United States and requests a record pursuant to this act. The term includes an agency." ^[11] ^[12]

Impact of Lee v. Minner

In 2006, a federal appeals court (the Third Circuit) in the case Lee v. Minner rejected the constitutionality of Delaware's law that disallowed non-residents from making public record requests.

The Third Circuit's rulings apply to Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and any other state who permits access to only state citizens. As a result, the provision in the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law that prohibits non-residents from access to records is likely to be considered invalid.

Must a purpose be stated?

Pennsylvania law does not require a statement of purpose, and further, explicitly prohibits the creation of a requirement of a statement of purpose. ^[13]

How can records be used?

There is not restriction on the use of records, nor can records be denied based on intended use. ^[14]

Time allowed for response

5 days

Effective in 2009, "The time for response shall not exceed five business days from the date the written request is received by the open-records officer for an agency. If the agency fails to send the response within five business days of receipt of the written request for access, the written request for access shall be deemed denied."^[15]

The government agency may determine that:

The requested records require some redaction.
The records are stored in a remote location so that retrieval will take some time.
Staffing limitations exist.
The agency is uncertain as to whether it is required under the law to provide the records that have been requested and therefore wants to request a legal review prior to making a decision as to whether to fulfill the request.
The requestor did not adequately comply with the policies regarding how to ask for records.
The requestor did not pay the fees associated with the request.
The "extent or nature of the request precludes a response within the required time period"

If the agency decides that one or more of those reasons for not providing the records within the 5-day window apply, the agency is required to provide the requestor with a letter saying why it is going to take more than 5 days. That letter must be provided within the 5 day window.

Fees for records

Copy costs:

In general, the fee structure proposed by Terry Mutchler of the OOR allows for a copying fee of $0.25 per page for executive, county, municipal and school district records. The judicial branch currently charges $1.00 per page for copies and the legislative branch charges $0.50 per page. ^[16]

Search fees:

In November 2008 Gov. Ed Rendell's office released a directive that allows states agencies to charge "a reasonable fee" for searching and retrieving documents. The directive also allows agencies to charge for redacting nonpublic information from copies of requested government documents.

The directive is controversial because the state's Office of Open Records--which was charged in 2008 with coming up with guidelines to govern how the state's new law would be implemented--says that fees should not be charged for retrieval or redaction.^[17]

The director of the OOR says the office is engaging in discussions with the Rendell administration about the new directive because the OOR believes that "When you have a fee structure that allows agencies to charge for the cost of labor, it opens the door to abuse."

Records commissions and ombudsmen:

A Pennsylvania Office of Open Records (OOR) was established in 2008 to assist citizens when they have trouble accessing public documents. Terry Mutchler is the director of the office.

Role of the Attorney General

Attorney General of Pennsylvania

There is currently no provision within the state open records law that empowers the State Department of Law to enforce the right of the public to access governmental records.

Open meetings

"The General Assembly finds that the right of the public to be present at all meetings of agencies and to witness the deliberation, policy formulation and decisionmaking of agencies is vital to the enhancement and proper functioning of the democratic process and that secrecy in public affairs undermines the faith of the public in government and the public's effectiveness in fulfilling its role in a democratic society."^[18]

Notable requests

External links

References

v t e State sunshine laws

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State Records Commissions • Deliberative process exemption • Fees charged • Years of enactment • Who can make requests • Request response times • Definition • Search fees • Concealed carry • Notably high fee requests

Proposed transparency legislation • Proposed transparency legislation, 2010 • Proposed transparency legislation, 2009

	v • d • e State of Pennsylvania Harrisburg (capital)
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