April 2009 Archives

 A man named Keith Knauss of Kennett Square filed a right-to-know request asking Unionville-Chadds Ford School District for access to its master schedule for students, teachers and classrooms, with unique identifiers in place of student names.

 The district denied him, the office of open records granted his appeal, and the district has taken it to Chester County Common Pleas Court.

 In its filing, the district makes some rational points as to why it shouldn't have to release the schedule. This, however, does not seem to be one of them:

 "Ms. Parker and Mr. Hug -- both experts in their fields -- are of the opinion that disclosure of the Schedule to the public would be reasonably likely to result in a substantial and demonstrable risk of physical harm to or the personal security of an individual; thus, the Schedule is exempt from public access under the RTKL."
 The Schedule, it says, would reveal when large numbers of students were gathered, and "A person seeking to harm as many students as possible would be aided by such information."

 Seriously? That appears to say that there is an existing death threat to the students and/or faculty at district schools, and that to release the schedule would allow someone to carry out mass murder. (Note the language "substantial and demonstrable risk of physical harm.")

 I suspect if that were true, we'd all know about it, because the school would have had to have taken safety precautions well before someone requested access to the school schedule. Not to mention that it wouldn't take access to a schedule for someone to figure out when schoolkids would be at lunch.

 But maybe it's a sign of the times. Maybe all school districts operate under constant fear that there is someone waiting to do their students harm. If so, that's sad. And it doesn't seem to be a necessary argument in this case, given the district's other stated reasons why the schedule shouldn't be public.

 Your thoughts?

Daily Record/Sunday News staffer Ted Czech reports in today's paper that although the state's new open records law (read it here) makes it possible for residents to get 911 time-response logs -- and thus assess the performance of their emergency responders -- York County's definition of a time-response log makes it impossible to do that.

 The county decided it would not include addresses, or even geographical locations, in its time-response logs. (We've appealed the county's decision to the state's open records office.)

 Czech's discovery of that fact, and the response to it, has prompted some fascinating reaction from county officials, others quoted in the story and people who have read his story:

 1. A reader commented that perhaps the county won't release the addresses over concern for patient privacy, cites the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act, and suggests we invest in a scanner if we want to know the addresses.
   
    First, we have scanners (as do many others in York County). But you can't compile a database from listening to scanner calls that would allow you to assess response times over a particular geographic area, or during a particular time frame, etc. The county does, as part of its function, and residents have a right to that information.

Sunday's York Daily Record/Sunday News carries a story written by Jon Rutter, a reporter at the Lancaster Sunday News, about the problems a York County family had when they bought a puppy from a kennel last year.

The Campbell family filed a complaint against the kennel, whose owners could not be reached for comment. There is no indication of why the Campbells' puppy was sick or whether the kennel had anything to do with it.

But their story is a reminder that if you're ready to buy a dog, there are resources that can help. One is the state agriculture department's online listing of kennel inspections. You can search by county, city, zip code, kennel name or kennel type, or any combination.

 You'll get results showing you names and addresses of kennels, the type of license, when it was issued, whether the kennel is open or closed (and if closed, whether it was voluntary) and links to the actual inspection reports.

 The reports will show you categories in which a kennel passed and failed, and include notes from the inspector. They can help you decide whether to even visit a kennel; or help you know what to look for if you do go.

 If you're interested in more on the topic of dog welfare and kennels, Rose Hayes of the YDR/SN's staff moderates a blog on pets  that includes entries on kennels here, here and here. (And there are more; you can find them by putting "kennels" in the search bar on the blog's home page.)

So, I'm reading USA Today Friday morning and I run into an article about bird strikes.

Birds colliding with aircraft have been big news since a US Airways Jet in January was forced to ditch in the Hudson River after a bird took out two of its engines.   

The article claims that, for the first time, the Federal Aviation Administration has released data on bird strikes. 

Yet, in May 2003, the York Daily Record published an article, reported by me, about bird strikes that had plagued both HIA and Capital City Airport between 1990 and 2002.

I didn't use the term "first time" in my article. Now, I'm thinking that, maybe, I should have included those two words into my story.   

 Updated York-area numbers:

Between Jan. 1, 2003,
and Dec. 31, 2008, Harrisburg International Airport in
Dauphin County notified the
Federal Aviation Administration that airplanes that took off
from and landed on its run
ways struck 146 animals, according to the FAA's Bird
Strike Database.
  
 During that same time
period, Baltimore Washington
International Airport reported
453 strikes while Capital City
Airport in Fairview Township
reported 10 wildlife collisions.

 

 

 

  For a few months, the Dallastown Area School Board is going to look at putting recordings of its meetings online, and will pare down its written meeting minutes.  
    It's the second public body in the past month or so that has taken up the question or meeting recordings as public records. Last month, residents in North Codorus Township complained about the township's plan to destroy meeting tapes once the written minutes are approved; the residents said the tapes should be kept indefinitely so people could always have access to them.
    Daily Record/Sunday News correspondent Joli Harrington reported from the Dallastown board's meeting last week that instead of issuing seven- or eight-page-long meeting minutes, the board will keep minutes to three pages or less, and the minutes will focus on the board's actions. And the board will explore putting the audio of meetings on the district's Web site.  
    Harrington's story continued:
   
 

The board that oversees public transportation in the  San Francisco Bay Area has drawn up rules that prohibit twittering, blogging or using cell phones at meetings.

Why, you ask, would a board prohibit seemingly innocuous tweets? Click on the jump for the story.

This editorial appeared in the April 19 York Sunday News:

Speaking of following the money, ProPublica.org just let the world know it has unveiled a way to track bank bailout money online. It's here. Definitely worth a look.

This editorial appeared in the April 14 York Daily Record:

Bad habits die hard -- and Pennsylvania has a nasty one.

    No, we're not talking about smoking. Well, come to think of it, we are -- in a sense.

    You've heard of the proverbial smoke-filled room? The place where politicians and assorted bigshots get together, puff on their stogies and make important decisions about how our government and community will be run?

    Those rooms might be generally smoke-free nowadays (progress!), but they still exist -- figuratively, at least. Faced with a public clamoring for information, the pols slam the door shut and hide out in their old boys club.

    No citizens allowed.

    No open-records advocates either, according to Terry Mutchler.

    She's the executive director of the state's new Office of Public Records, an organization set up to referee disputes that arise out of Pennsylvania's new and supposedly improved open records law.

    She was appointed by Gov. Ed Rendell after a big political show of how committed he is to openness in state and local government. "Since taking office in 2003, I've worked very hard to make Pennsylvania open for business," he said. "With the signing of this bill, now it's also open for inspection."

    Except when it's not.

   

People have gathered at sites across the country today for "tea parties," a protest of wasteful government spending. CNN is reporting that more than 300 organized protests were under way in the U.S. today. I can't vouch for the credibility of the crowd estimate, but two people on Twitter say they're at the Harrisburg protest and that there are 2,000 or more people there. (If you went and are reading this, leave a comment here on how it went).

If you're interested in tracking government spending, here are some ways to do it, plus links to some watchdog stories (not necessarily government-based stories) we've done. I believe the point of today's protests is federal spending, but I'll post some links that are more local.

When Gov. Ed Rendell signed the state's new open records law last year, he said, among other things:

•  "Since taking office in 2003, I've worked very hard to make Pennsylvania open for business. With the signing of this bill, now it's also open for inspection."
• "Pennsylvania's business is the people's business except when certain information holds the real potential to harm the public good or a person's privacy."
• "Better access to government documents means a more informed citizenry. The commonwealth will operate better and will be more accountable now that the light of public scrutiny is shining brighter than at any time in our history."

 But this Philadelphia Inquirer story reports that Terry Mutchler, the director of the state's open records office -- who was appointed by Rendell -- is saying that the Rendell administration "is going out of its way to block access to public records." The story says "the situation has gotten so bad that lawyers in Rendell's office have put representatives of every state agency on notice not to even take her calls. Everything has to be in writing, the lawyers insist."

Those would appear to be two very different Ed Rendells.

A Rendell spokesman defends the governor, saying all is not as it's made out to be in Mutchler's letter.

Read for yourself and see what you think.

Another win for open records advocates came from the Office of Open Records this week.

The office ruled that volunteer fire companies are public agencies subject to the state's new open records act.

The case came from a Morris Township, Tioga County, appeal. The township tried to argue that the records sought were not open because the volunteer fire company was a nonprofit agency that is not a state agency.

The office of open records rejected this argument, pointing to a new provision in the law that says those that perform an essential governmental function are subject to the open records act.

There was a short item today on our Web site about two clubs that were charged with violating the state liquor law.

If you'd like to keep track of any establishment that sells alcohol, you should check out an online database from the state Liquor Control Board. It's also a handy site because you can keep track of applications for liquor licenses, if you are so inclined.