Staff writer
Harrisburg attorney Craig J. Staudenmaier likens Pennsylvania's new open records law to the tie and suit he wore to a Right-to-Know seminar sponsored by the Washington County Bar Association and Washington & Jefferson College's Pre-Legal Society: black and white and gray.
"There's going to be more gray than black and white," said Staudenmaier of the open records law, which goes into effect Jan. 1.
Still, says Staudenmaier, a leading legal authority on right-to-know issues in Pennsylvania, the law is a significant overhaul of the 57-year-old version that has been one of the worst in the country for decades and makes government more transparent.
Staudenmaier, a graduate of W&J, provided an overview of the new law at his forum, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: An Introduction to the New Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law."
About 50 W&J students, attorneys, media members and others turned out to get up to speed on the new law.
Staudenmaier pointed out the most important part of the new law: A governmental record will now be presumed open unless the agency that holds it proves otherwise. Under the previous law, considered the worst behind only Alabama and South Dakota, it was left to individuals to prove that records they sought - other than the few that fell within narrow guidelines - were open to public access.
"We have been at the bottom of the barrel," said Staudenmaier. "The open records law is light years ahead of where it was. If we apply and interpret it in the spirit in which it is meant, we will be light years ahead."
The new open records law also creates a state office to assist people with document requests and establishes a uniform procedure to appeal denials and deal with disputes.
Staudenmaier was instrumental in Penn State University and PHEAA cases, in which he argued that salaries of Penn State employees, including Joe Paterno, should be public and shed light on improprieties in the state-run student loan agency. He is the 2007 recipient of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence and general counsel to Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition.