California University of Pennsylvania (the “University”) petitioned the Commonwealth Court for review of a final determination made by Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records (OOR) in January 2017. The final determination held that records relating to the University’s investigation of a structural failure in an on-campus parking garage were recoverable. The Commonwealth Court affirmed in part and vacated and remanded in part the ORR’s final determination. Specifically, the Commonwealth Court held that the University failed to show that certain records were exempt from disclosure under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law (the “RTKL”) as records of a noncriminal investigation or as records of predecisional deliberations. However, the Commonwealth Court did remand potentially privileged records to OOR for an in camera review.
Tag: OOR
This case required the Commonwealth Court to construe the Right to Know Law (RTKL), 65 P.S. §§ 67.101–67.3104, together with the Pennsylvania Voter Registration Act (VRA), 25 Pa. C.S. §§ 1101–1906. The court affirmed a decision by the Office of Open Records (OOR) and held that the RTKL does not govern the disclosure of voter registration information because the VRA and the Pennsylvania Department of State’s (DOS) pertinent regulations expressly establish the procedures for making that information public. As such, the DOS may require compliance with the VRA and relevant regulations even if such a request is submitted under the RTKL.
In this interlocutory appeal from a decision of the Office of Open Records (OOR), the Commonwealth Court held that government entities withholding information subject to a Right-to-Know Law (RTKL) request must provide affidavits with sufficient information to demonstrate why the information is non-disclosable or OOR has broad discretion to order in camera review of the information at issue.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s (“DRN”) request for the release of information collected by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (“DEP”) Bureau of Radiation Protection was denied by the Commonwealth Court this week.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has determined that the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) can withhold the home addresses of individuals residing with former judges and law enforcement officers, but could not categorically exclude information for members over age 60.
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