record assignment

I asked Heinz public relations department for their CRS report. CRS stands for Corporate Responsibility Report. I wanted to see exactly what the report was about. I thought I was going to recieve a brief documentation, but to my surprise, I opened my mailbox to a large manila folder. Inside, was a 37 page publication covering all aspects of the report. The basics of the report is how Heinz is working on beoming a more responsible corporation and is concentrating on the safety of the enviroment

Open Records Challenge 2007

I reviewed the open record laws and tried to contact the office to my old superintendent. When reading the assignment I realized in light of the recent weather if theres anyone I want to get info from it would be the person who used to decide if we got snow days! The superintendent is Linda Firestone. I tried to obtain some sort of a contract involving her duties as a superintendent. When I called they seemed kind of confused as to why I wanted anything considering I wasnt under their school district anymore. I said I needed it for class and wont be using it for anything published and that it was just a type of survey. The lady in the office said she would get back to me and took my name and telephone number down. But she never did. She was very polite but she didnt really seem to want to be bothered with the information I wanted.

My open records experience

When I read the assignment I thought it would be easy to go get the minutes from a school board meeting. I was also interested in seeing the minutes from the meeting because of some rumors floating around my town. I called to request them and no one answered. I called again the next day and the women said she would get back to me when she got them together. I left her my name and number. By the time she got back to me, I was already back to school.

Open Records Challange

For the assignment I contacted the City Clerk's Office of Pittsburgh to obtain the minutes for the last two city council meetings. When I called I requested the minutes and was asked to wait a moment. The woman on the phone, Denise Wilson, called me maam and was very polite. In less than a minute she had acquired the information, telling me they are available on their web site. I asked for her name, which she gave readily and without question.

The experience was painless. I had already found their website to look for the appropriate number to call and followed links to find the minutes for the last two minutes. Although she did not give me the exact site, I had not requested it and if prompted I'm sure she would have provided me with the information.

I was surprised she didn't want to know my name or why I was calling. I expected her to be rude and resistant in giving out the information. It was refreshing not to be met with these reactions.

In my JRNL 328 News Reporting class, we've been discussing the difficulty surrounding accessing public documents. I was told that accessing police logs were among the hardest documents to obtain, which piqued my interest. For another story, in order to "localize" the soon-to-be amended statewide Right to Know Law, I contacted the campus police with a request for their 24-hour logs. I was told to make a formal inquiry in person, but was not interrogated or treated suspiciously. I had fewer problems than the Indiana Gazette reporters who covered the Right to Know Law in 2005 and did the same thing -- perhaps because they'd set a precedent and knew how to deal with document requests.

Open Records Assignment

I decided that I wanted to find the minutes from the last two public school board meetings. I thought calling the school district's office would be my best bet. I talked to a secretary and introduced myself as a resident of the school district. I asked her what I wanted to know, and she kindly directed me to a website. The minutes from all of the public meetings were right there.

PA Open Records Challenge

I decided to start backwards when I answered the three different questions put before us. I figured that the third question would be easiest, since I knew from high school that everything goes onto the internet. It was very easy to find and I have included the link to our school board website where you can see all of the minutes from the school board meeting. The link to where they can be found is: https://www.boarddocs.com/pa/mctsd/Board.nsf/Public?OpenFrameSet . I think that had the topic been more controversial it may have been more difficult to find the information.

For the second question, it was very easy to find out who my representatives were and then it was easy to find out whether or not they had signed. Both Senator Jane Earll and Representative John Hornaman have signed and supported the Pass Open Records legislation.

For the final question all I had to do was find out the rank of Pennsylvania and I just googled the rank and found that Pennsylvania’s rank is 48 out of 50. The only two states that are worse are Alabama and South Dakota and Pennsylvania tied with Alaska.

Open Records Law is ignored

Columbia County’s senator’s name is John R. Gordner and he has not signed the open records bill. I sent him email and am awaiting its return. This is the email: Mr. Gordner,

Why have you not signed in support of improving PA's open records law? If you would go to the website out www.passopenrecords.org, you would be able to read up on everything in case you've been to busy. Just to save you time I've quoted a part of the website,

"When it comes to good open records legislation, Pennsylvania runs at the back of the pack — nearly last, in fact.
The Better Government Association ranks us 48th out of the 50 states. Only Alabama and South Dakota have worse laws.
What does it mean to have a weak open records law?
It means government officials do not have to share a good many public records with you, the citizens and taxpayers.
It means school officials can hold off on telling parents about a bomb threat made against an upcoming school event until AFTER the event is over.
It means that government agencies can hold meetings and retreats in secret, without disclosing what was discussed or how much of the taxpayers’ money was spent.
It means the most basic facts, like the salaries public officials earn, can often be kept secret."

Of course no one wants this and PA should be ashamed, as an aspiring journalist I am mortified by this prospect. Please respond with your ideas and please consider signing in support for change.
Carley Lee-Lampshire

He has yet to respond. Also I wanted to attain was the total amount spent on legal fees by my county. First I called the District Attorney for Columbia County (570-389-5656) and informed them of my name and that I was writing a story on how much Columbia had spent on legal fees last year. She did not tell me her name but sent me to another department. I asked for the department’s name twice but I could not understand what she was saying. I explained my name and situation again only to be sent to the payroll office. Norma Buyers of the payroll office was not in so I left her a voicemail with my intentions and my number. I called Buyers back once more and left another message. She also has not responded.
Obviously my county (Columbia) is not really in accord with the open book laws.

I called my high school's district office to get a copy of the superintendent's contract. When I first called, I was put through the secretary, who wouldn't give me her name. She toook my name and number and told me she would call me back. However, she made sure to tell me that she knew that this was public knowledge, so I should be able to get it. She kept asking me why I wanted it. I said I was writing an article, but she still gave me a hard time.

I called write before Thanksgiving break and was out of the country during break. I never recieved a call back from them.

I called again on Tuesday and was given the same treatment. They again took my name and number, but I still have not heard back from them.

Indiana County Humane Society

Walking into the office at the Indiana County Humane Society, I briefly explained my assignment to an employee. After she directed me to the trailer next to the building, I knocked on the door asking to speak to Valerie. Opening the door, I was greeted by a small and very excited pup who was as eager to know who I was as I was eager to get some information.

During a short interview with Valerie Smith, director at Indiana Humane Society, I received their 2006 intake and release statisics. She explained many things to me, including why cats are only to be taken in twice a month, on the first and third Monday of each month. This is because cats can a communicable respiratory disease for which their is no treatment. They are quarantined for two weeks to test for feline leukemia as well. The test for feline leukemia alone costs $50 which makes the cost of a cat ($100) seem like quite the bargain.

I was also informed that the Humane Society has a foster program which provides older animals with homes for free to inside homes, provided that they update the Humane Society on visits to the vet.

Open Records Assignment

For this assignment, I made contacts to get the information for school board meetings from my high school. While looking on the website for contact information, I actually found the minutes from the past three meetings. After printing these out, I still wanted to see if anyone would give me a hard time. I contacted the president of the school board, who happens to be my neighbor, and he was very friendly and soon after contacting him, he sent me a packet of minutes from the past meetings. He didnt even ask me why I needed them, but he told me to cantact him if I needed anything else.

Open Records Assignment

This assignment was rather easy for me because my previous school district, Central Dauphin School District, has all of their school board meeting minutes right on their website. I just had to click and print.

After I got the minutes so easily, I tried to get the annual financial report for Central Dauphin School District. My mom is an employee of the Pennsylvania School Board Association and she was able to contact someone in her office who had the report. He printed it for me and had no hesitation. He said the financial report was public information so there was no problem giving it to me.

I was surprised how easily I got both documents.

Open records assignment: School board meeting minutes

It was actually pretty easy for me to obtain the minutes for the last two school board meetings for Marion Center. I work with a guy (his name is Dan Fleming) who is on the school board. I asked him if he would be able to provide me with the minutes, and it was no problem; he was more than willing to help. He gave me the information I requested the next shift we worked together, without a hassle.

My experience with open records

I contacted the Indiana Borough secretary at 724-465-6691 and asked how I could get access to the meetings from the most recent two borough council meetings. She said that I could come the municipal building and get copies for a price per sheet, though she was not sure how much it would cost. I asked for the office’s hours, and went right away. A woman at the window when I got there told me that I could not get copies in this office, but I told her I was instructed in advance to come there for that purpose. She questioned that, but eventually went to get the woman I had talked to on the telephone earlier, who confirmed that I could get the minutes there. I waited for about 15 minutes while she retrieved them and figured out how much to charge for them. There was an oral agreement about how much the copies should cost, which turned out to be 35 cents per sheet, a total of $2.10 for the two meetings’ worth of minutes. I could not get the secretary’s name when I asked. The office did not put up too much of an argument, but I did feel a bit like an unwelcome nuisance.

Open Recods

It was not very hard to get the minutes from the last two school board meetings or the total amount of legal fees spent by my home school district.
We have learned in journalism class that we need to establish relationships in order to get information easily and effectively. I have done that with the Superintendent and his secretary, the Business Manager and the payroll clerk in the administration office at my hometown school district. Establishing a relationship was not hard, considering the fact that my mom is the payroll clerk.
I have helped the Business Manager, Jennie Ivory, on numerous projects for her Master's Degree. So I naturally went to see her at the office, and asked her for the information needed. She did not have a problem with giving me the information. However, I needed to fill out a request form and there were copy fees that I needed to pay, but it only totaled $4.50.

Obtaining my official records...

I first called the White Township Manager, Larry Garner, to try to obtain a copy of his contract, but he told me he doesn't have one -- he works at his "own free will." So, I then proceeded to call the Indiana School District office to try to get the minutes from the last two school board meetings. The secretary informed me that the minutes were available online on the school district's website and directed me where to go to view them. There were minutes from all of last year's meetings and all the meetings they've had so far this year.

open records - meeting minutes

I called my high school's rival about a half an hour away from my school. When I called the school district, the secretary was very helpful when I asked about the school board meeting's minutes. She told me that the superintendent's secretary (Debbie) would probably be more helpful but she wasn't in and the she told me that I could leave a voicemail for her if I wanted and offered to transfer me. Then she said if I didn't want to leave voicemail I could either check their website, or I could email Debbie and she gave me her address. I checked the website and they did have all the minutes up, dating back to 2004. The secretary told me that if I had any problems that I could call her back and she would help.

She seemed extremely friendly and offered a lot of information and different options. When I asked for the minutes she said, "Oh sure!" She didn't have a problem with the phone call at all and she seemed very helpful.

open records

It was pretty easy for me to get information for the school board minutes. I first went to the schools website, the school district I did was Shaler Area School District. I searched around and found the minutes and their were 8 pages of information. I also found information about the school super intendet, which I also got from the website. So far all my information I gathered is all off the website.
I'm still looking for more information and I will post whenever I fnd more information on different things.

How much dough, Joe?

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in a 4-2 decision that the State Employees' Retirement System must release Joe Paterno's salary.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_539026.html

Great lede!
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_539598.html

Editorial
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_539630.html

Check out these links for information on House Bill 443

Read the bill at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2007&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=0443&pn=0813

Read what people are saying about the bill at http://www.keystonepolitics.com/story/around-capitol/state-house/houses-open-records-bill-still-needs-work-critics-say

Open Records -- Access to Public Documents

The following excerpt was taken from Tim Harrower's textbook, "Inside Reporting: A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism," McGraw Hill, 2007.

"The issues: Shouldn't all government records be accessible to the public? Who gets to decide what's available -- and what's off-limits? Does invoking "national security" simply allow some agencies and officials to operate in secret, free of oversight?
Why it matters: Public officials must be held accountable for the money they spend, the actions they take, the mistakes and corruption they may try to conceal.
What the law dictates: In 1996, Congress passed the landmark Freedom of Information Act, requiring all federal agencies to make most of their records available upon request. Every state has its own version of FOIA covering schools, courts, cops, government, etc.
The confusing gray areas: The law exempts some material from public access: defense secrets, medical files, sensitive law enforcement data, etc. But, most gray areas result from confused bureaucrats and nervous public officials who don't understand or obey the law -- and thus deny or ignore legitimate requests for information."

Twenty-six tudents in two Writing for Print Media Classes at Indiana University of Pennsylvania have decided to challenge Pennsylvania's open record laws by requesting information from public organizations throughout the Commonwealth. They have been invited to share their experiences on this blog.