Big news concerning Right To Know requests

For those of you interested in filing Right To Know requests, emails sent on personal computers are now fair game.  I just sent an email to our commissioners and school board directors alerting them to this Commonwealth Court Ruling.

Commonwealth Court has ruled that emails sent between borough council members using their personal computers and regarding council business are subject to public disclosure under Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law.
A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed in part, and reversed in part, a ruling by the Venango County Common Pleas Court, which had upheld a decision by the state's Office of Open Records, ordering Barkeyville Borough to turn over emails contained on borough council members' personal computers to the person who requested them.
Commonwealth Court agreed with the trial court's and Office of Open Records' reasoning regarding the emails, but disagreed with the trial court's awarding of attorney fees to the requester.
The open records office had reasoned in its determination that while the emails were not contained on borough computers, the borough still controlled the emails.
The Commonwealth Court, led by Judge P. Kevin Brobson, agreed with this reasoning.

I notified Manager Steve Feller and cc'ed Solicitor Phi Weis of the Commonwealth of PA ruling.
One more quote from the article that I should point out:

"If this court allowed council members to conduct business through personal e-mail accounts to evade the ["right-to-know" law], the law would serve no function and would result in all public officials conducting public business via personal email," Judge Brobson wrote.

This should be very interesting.

Council emails are public business; personal computer emails not exempt

Update January 31, 2012 3:03 pm  I updated lebocitizens.com to include this article as well as links to the municipality's forms and procedures for filing Right To Know requests. http://lebocitizens.com/Lebo_Citizens/Right_to_Know.html