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I am pursuing several open records suits against the City and would like to file more. But suing the City is expensive. If you share my desire for a fairer, more effective City government, I hope you will consider making a donation to help offset the legal and other costs of bringing these suits. You can do so by clicking here
I believe it's no accident that Philadelphia ranks near the bottom of the Country when it comes to jobs and schools. Good government depends on open records. If the public can't see what kind of job their officials are doing, officials have no incentive to do a good job.
Why Philadelphia officials treat public records requests with such disdain is a bit of a mystery. They often act as if the public has no business looking at City records. For example, I've been asking City Commissioner Margaret Tartaglione for two years to supply me with a list of registered voters. Read the suit here. Records Commissioner Joan Decker wants to charge me $400 for records I estimate it will cost her $1.74 to produce. Read the suit here.
Pennsylvania's old Right to Know Act contained no deadline for official action and was widely abused by city officals as a result. Here's how the scam worked. Officials argued that so long as they were considering a request, it hadn't been denied. The Courts, to their discredit, accepted this argument. So long as officials said they were considering a request, they were off the hook. The result: officials "considered" requests forever.
On December 26, 2002 Pennsylvania got a new open records law. The new law has several substantial improvements:
Find out more about the new Right to Know Act: