The state's new open-records law has been hailed as a "huge victory for openness and accountability," a "giant step" that will thrust it "from the bottom of the heap in open government to near, or at, the top."

For local government officials, who must comply with Act 3 when it takes effect in January, it will mostly be business as usual, they say.

"I don't think it's going to affect us much," said David W. Kratzer Jr., the assistant manager of Warwick Township. "We don't get many requests, and in dealing with requests now, we're very responsive."

Bob Krimmel, the East Hempfield Township manager, feels the same.

"I think, overall, you have to make a real good-faith effort to get people in five days the information," he said. "We already do that."

Kratzer and Krimmel were among some three dozen municipal officials from Lancaster County who attended a Tuesday night workshop held by media experts and government associations.

Overwhelmingly, officials here feel confident they will be able to comply with the new law when it takes effect, because they already had been meeting many of the requirements of the new law.

But they had some questions about the specifics — how the state would handle disputes, for example, and how to redact certain private information such as Social Security numbers.

"They were good questions; you can tell they are concerned about making sure all the procedures are followed," said Elam Herr, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors and one of the forum instructors.

"There was nothing like, 'Well, we have this situation where ...' We're not hearing that," said Herr. "I think they realize that a lot of what was in Act 3 is what they've been doing for the last several years."

The Pennsylvania law, which passed in February and will take effect in January, provides that all government records beyond a list of exceptions are presumed open to the public. The current law limits public access to a narrow list of public records.

The Legislature also created the Office of Open Records, which is designed to set policies for state and local government agencies and handle disputes between citizens and government officials over what should be released.

Under the new law, many of the General Assembly's records will be open to public inspection, as will records of the court system. The new law also will provide for access to 911 tapes under certain circumstances, and it require state contracts — including legislative grants — to be posted online.

At the same time, Social Security numbers, bank-account data, medical records, criminal-investigation records and other information widely accepted as private will remain so.

Among the questions raised by local officials Tuesday was how to handle requests for records that include some of that private information. They are instructed to redact the information but otherwise comply with the request.

Another question dealt with creating an open-records officer in each town. "A lot of the municipalities already had a person who met the criteria, who handled these requests," said Herr. "They just didn't have that name."

Soon they will.

Others dealt with how the newly created Office of Open Records would handle disputes between governments and those requested documents. Would the office issue advisory opinions, and could they be relied upon like case law? How will the office, now the first line of appeal instead of county courts, function?

At this point, Herr said, it is too early to say.


Staff writer Tom Murse can be reached at tmurse@LNPnews.com or 481-6021.