Many thanks to Nick M. for providing the PowerPoint presentation of the 2015 Office of Open Records Annual Training Forum. Our oh so transparent wonderful municipality is in violation of many of these slides.
Slide 4 Who is our new Agency Open Records Officer (AORO) now since Steve Feller's resignation? Has the Office of Open Records been notified?
Slide 6 This one is for my appointed commissioner, Coleen Vuono. She likes to questions the motive of the Requester.
Slide 8 TEXT MESSAGES, phone records, security camera recordings. We were never able to see the alleged deer corral sabotage, recorded by Merlin Benner's Wildlife Specialists.
Slide 10 Agencies can give out information without requiring the requester to file a RTK. However, verbal requests cannot be appealed by Requestor.
Slide 14 Records in Possession of Third Party Contractors are Subject to Right To Know Requests. Think White Buffalo!
Slide 17 Cannot charge for redactions.
Slide 18 No surprise charges.
Slide 22 An agency (Mt. Lebanon) can make records accessible if public interest favoring access outweighs any interest favoring withholding. Locations of deer killing sites?
Slide 25 Appoint an alternate AORO. Post RTK requests with responses. By being open, this will reduce the amount of similar RTK requests.
Slides 26-31 deal with the Appeals Process. Remember that the burden of proof is on the Agency. The Requester provides the information listed on Slide 27.
Slide 35 lists the contact information for the Office of Open Records.
Our sleazy government needs a refresher course. They have put me (and others) through the wringer on a daily basis, on so many levels.
Isn't slide 10 a little tricky:
ReplyDelete"Slide 10 Agencies can give out information without requiring the requester to file a RTK. However, verbal requests cannot be appealed by Requestor"
So if the Open Records person verbally states s/he will get you the info and then doesn't.... you are out of luck if time is a factor.