As Pennsylvania legislators realize that the existing Right To Know Law needs to be amended, they are acting to correct the flaws and loopholes being abused.
HB 283 is addressing the problem of businesses using agency resources as a means of generating leads to sell their products, or to create contact lists. West Easton received approximately 5 such requests last year.
Rep. Justin Simmons (R) submitted HB 283 in January of 2019. It took a year to reach the Floor, for a vote that will occur tomorrow.
Notable in his statement is the awareness that small communities are being overwhelmed with a large volume of RTK Requests. It is a good indicator that HB 1931, a Bill that addresses the vexatious requester problem will also find its way to the House Floor for approval.
From Rep. Justin Simmons:
“I am very pleased to report that my Right-to-Know legislation, House Bill 283, passed on second consideration this week with a vote of 193-1. It will face a final vote on the Floor next Tuesday, Jan. 21.
As we all know, the resources of our local government offices are limited. These offices, sometimes staffed by as little as one full-time employee, may be overwhelmed by a large volume of Right-to-Know requests made for commercial purposes. Additionally, taxpayers, who pay the salaries of these local government employees, may be shortchanged when those employees must dedicate substantial amounts of time and energy to fulfilling public records requests from business enterprises, some of which are located in other regions of the Commonwealth or even out-of-state.
Under my proposal, each requester will be required to indicate whether the request is being made for a commercial purpose. This legislation would also empower local and state agencies to charge search, review and duplication fees when responding to public record requests made for a commercial purpose.
The fees must be reasonable and cannot be established with the intent or effect of excluding individuals from access to records but should instead deter businesses from using these offices as corporate research firms at the taxpayers’ expense.
This legislation is designed to balance the importance of the general public’s right to know with the value of preserving the ability of our local governments to juggle their many responsibilities and serve their taxpayers.“[emphasis added]
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
