Thanks to Eric Wise, a reader who's interested in open records issues, for spotting this one:
A resident and a member of the borough council of Hatboro, just outside Philadelphia, want to see a study that examined the borough replacing its electric supplier.
According to a story the Montgomery News, the borough had denied a right-to-know request -- saying in part that it can't find the document. The two requesters have appealed to the state's open records office, which is trying to get the document from whoever has it. But neither the open records office nor the borough has the power to demand the document be produced. The requesters would have to go to court to try to get it.
That sounds a lot like what happened when a York Township resident tried to see a supervisor's e-mails that related to public business. The open records office ruled they were public. But the e-mails were on the supervisor's work e-mail, and the open records office admitted it couldn't force a private company to produce e-mails from its system -- even if they were about public business being conducted by an elected official.
If you're keeping track of loopholes in the new RTK law that limit public access to public documents, put those two on your scorecard.
A resident and a member of the borough council of Hatboro, just outside Philadelphia, want to see a study that examined the borough replacing its electric supplier.
According to a story the Montgomery News, the borough had denied a right-to-know request -- saying in part that it can't find the document. The two requesters have appealed to the state's open records office, which is trying to get the document from whoever has it. But neither the open records office nor the borough has the power to demand the document be produced. The requesters would have to go to court to try to get it.
That sounds a lot like what happened when a York Township resident tried to see a supervisor's e-mails that related to public business. The open records office ruled they were public. But the e-mails were on the supervisor's work e-mail, and the open records office admitted it couldn't force a private company to produce e-mails from its system -- even if they were about public business being conducted by an elected official.
If you're keeping track of loopholes in the new RTK law that limit public access to public documents, put those two on your scorecard.
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