HARRISBURG - A major bill to overhaul the state open records law is nearing introduction as the number of appeals of record access decisions made by state and local governments is skyrocketing.
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9, Chester, could introduce a bill as early as this week to address a host of issues that have cropped up since the law took effect in 2009.
Mr. Pileggi's bill will stipulate that the open records law applies to records relating to third-party contractors, including "any public records of the agency relating to the contract," according to a bill co-sponsorship memo.
The state Supreme Court ruled last year in SWB Yankees LLC v. Wintermantel, on an appeal by The Times-Tribune, that records kept by a government contractor are public if the contractor is performing a governmental function and the records are directly related to that function.
The court upheld lower court rulings that the company that owned the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees must release bids on a concessions contract awarded to a sister company in 2009. The bids should be public because SWB Yankees LLC performed a government function for the Lackawanna County Multi-Purpose Authority in seeking bids for a new concessionaire, the court ruled.
The Senate bill will also address setting a new fee for requests by commercial firms for information, specifying what records prison inmates can request, clarifying that campus police and local development agencies are covered under the law, allowing agencies to petition the court for a protective order against "unduly burdensome" requests and stipulating that if a public record exists in a specific computer file format, the agency must provide the record in that format upon request.
Mr. Pileggi has said that another hot open records issue - bringing Pennsylvania State University and the other three state-related universities under the open records act - will be handled either in separate legislation or as a later amendment to his bill.
Calls to end the exemption for the state-owned universities have been made since the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal surfaced at Penn State in late 2011.
Meanwhile, the Office of Open Records, which decides whether a record is a public record, is warning that it doesn't have the staff or money to keep pace with the increasing workload.
The office's seven attorneys handled a record 2,188 appeals last year compared to 1,159 in 2009.
Gov. Tom Corbett has proposed $1,411,000 for the office in fiscal 2013-14, a $37,000 increase.
The OOR has asked lawmakers to approve a $1.8 million budget to meet its obligations under the open records act.
"The (governor's) proposed budget will result in a retreat from the General Assembly's goal of transparent and honest government while at the same time cost the commonwealth more as agencies, lawmakers and courts are forced to compensate for an underfunded Office of Open Records," said Executive Director Terry Mutchler.
The growth in appeals is due to the public's increased attentiveness to the what, how and why surrounding the actions of its government, added Ms. Mutchler.
More than half of the 2012 appeals came from citizens, with 31 percent from inmates, eight percent from businesses and four percent from the media.
"This is a citizen-driven law," said Ms. Mutchler.
Some of the appeals last year involved inspection reports of school cafeterias, the cost of agency investigations into sexual harassment allegations and records showing how property tax assessments are determined, OOR said.
Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com