Pennsylvania's Right To Know Law 101

You have the right to remain silent anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law. The right to remain silent is well known in my community. What is not well know is that you have the right to know what is going on with our public resources. You need to know how to obtain the public documents, database, emails, dash cam content that you want. You also need to know that you want to connect with a designated open - records officer in one of these entities:  Commonwealth agency, local agency, judicial agency or the legislative agency to request the information that you would like.

There are limits to what you can request under The Right To Know Law . Attorney Ben Geffen from Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia presented a room full of advocates an informative lecture on the do's and don'ts of the Pennsylvania's Right To Know Law 101 at the United Way. We learned How to file a Right to Know Request with Office of Open Records and with agencies who may not have an Office of Open Records we would contact the human resource office and request to speak with the officer of open records. Bottom line, if you want to request a copy of public records you need to contact the right people with a specific request of information.

Audrey Buglione, Assistant General Counsel, Open Records Officer 215.400.6208 for the School District of Philadelphia was also in attendance with information about obtaining records from our school district. There are laws that trump the Right To Know Laws. For example, we learned that we can't request copies of on going business, such as contracts until the contract has been awarded. Also learned that some contractors copy right their proposals or mark the proposal as confidential. When either of these instance occur the School district has to honor the laws of copy right and confidentiality. If the material has a copy right you are allowed to view the documents, but cannot make copies.

Ben Geffen Presentation

You can view a list of the City of Philadelphia Open Records Offices at
http://www.phila.gov/privacy/pdfs/FinalCityOpenRecords.pdf

For state open records please visit http://contractspatreasury.gov

We also have the Sunshine Act which states: 

Any time a government body (referred towithin in the act as an “agency”)  holds a meeting in which “deliberation” or “official action” by

a quorum of its members takes place, the meeting must be open to the public after public notice

of the meeting. Each of these provisions can be described in more detail. 

We have FOIA, Freedom of Information Act under our federal government that allows you to request copies of federal record, unless it falls under one of nine exemptions which protect interests such as personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement.

Data.gov is the one stop website to find and download free government data in raw, structured formats. Federal agencies are proactively posting data on data.gov, including data that is the subject of frequent FOIA requests.

Federalregister.gov is the daily gazette of government. The Federal Register contains information about new and pending rulemakings and other activities of the executive branch. It is fully searchable.

Regulations.gov is the place to look for and comment on regulatory rule makings.

The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 requires active lobbying registrants and individual lobbyists to file a semi-annual report of certain contributions along with certification that the filer understands the gift and travel rules of both the House and Senate. Registrants and each of their lobbyists who were active for all or part of the semi-annual reporting period must file separate reports detailing their contributions, including FECA, honorary, Presidential Inaugural Committee, Presidential Library and certain payments for event costs. 

If you would like to obtain legal information about non profits you can visit www.guidestar.org 

We have the rights to create laws that protect the people from abusive policies such as the use of excessive force by the police department in our communities. We advocated for body cams so that there is accountability for the actions of those being charged and the police officers. The police unions are fighting the use of body cams and dash cams in the Pa. State Police vs Grove Dashcam. There reasoning for not using the audio of the dashcam is that the audio is protected under wiring tapping laws that are illegal. This mentality reflects the agenda of the deeply rooted racism and above the law mentality of the policing of our communities. If we people of color created a law for them to wear the bodycams then that law needs to be enforced and with no tampering of the evidence. Wearing bodycams or dashcams protects the public and is legal. Wire tapping is an invasion of privacy. Police officers wearing bodycams, do not work for private agencies they work for the public and are paid with our tax dollars. We have the right to demand ethical accountability and view along with hear the video from their body/dashcams. 

“The bottom line is, if you’re white in America, you have no idea what it’s like to be black,” Newt Gingrich declares in 13TH, the new documentary by Ava DuVernay now screening on Netflix. Titled after the Thirteenth Amendment, which legalizes slavery in the case of incarceration, the film exposes the way in which African Americans have been systematically criminalized in order to create and feed the prison industrial complex
Read more at http://www.craveonline.com/entertainment/1138773-ava-duvernays-documentary-13th-exposes-horrors-modern-day-slavery-united-states#CxooIFBRe77QSrmP.99

How is that laws are created to play against people of color and avoided to protect the same people of color? We have the right and responsibility to know the laws and agencies that impact our lives!!