The last time a FOI audit was conducted in Pennsylvania, it wasn’t too great

Following on to the post below, I checked the National Freedom of Information Coalition’s website for their library of FOIA audits.

According to that link, two previous open records compliance audits have been conducted in Pennsylvania.

In 2001:

“Curious” Jay Young, an Altoona Mirror reporter, posed as a “curious citizen” and asked for records from 40 local and state government agencies. Young found that reponses to his requests met with confrontations and threats. Even requests for court records, which are routinely available to the public, were denied half the time. Overall, compliance with requests was dismal, with only 42 percent of the agencies finally providing records.

and 1998:

14 newspapers banded together to question officials in all of Pennsylvania’s counties. The reporters found that, overall, requests were denied 43 percent of the time.

Maybe the Pennsylvania Local Government Council read the same old reports before they decided that it’s a terribly bad idea–bordering on outrageous–for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association to suggest that citizens might give the idea of filing an open records request a whirl.