Reader’s Viewpoint: Let the Sunshine In, PA

Longtime journalist says Keystone State’s right-to-know law lacks teeth, urgency

By Submitted Report
The Tube City Almanac
March 18, 2025
Posted in: Commentary-Editorial

(Tube City Almanac file photo)

Ann Belser is publisher of Print, a monthly newspaper serving Pittsburgh’s East End, and volunteers as chair of the board of directors of Tube City Community Media Inc. After receiving a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she moved to Squirrel Hill and was a staff writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for 20 years. She writes:

March 16 marks the start of Sunshine Week in the Keystone State.

In Florida, the Sunshine State, where public access to records is baked into just about every law, every week is Sunshine Week.

But here in Pennsylvania, we might as well have the keystone sitting on many records that should be public.

Most police records are closed and the Right to Know Act gives public bodies five days to respond to a request for information, at which point they always say they need more time, and then another 30 days beyond that to produce records. Generally, from a news point of view, interest tends to die after a month or so.

Pennsylvania also has a Sunshine Act, which requires most meetings by government boards and elected officials to be open to the public. But the Sunshine Act is anemic, too, and boards also find ways to get around it.

When a firm called Education Resource Services was putting together a Facilities Utilization Plan for Pittsburgh Public Schools, the consultants wanted to meet with the members of the school board, but not during a school board meeting.

Instead, according to emails obtained by our newspaper, Print, through a Right To Know Act request, the board met with the members in July in what they called “small group check-ins” — two, three or four people at a time — in order not to violate the Sunshine Act.

I don’t know if that is a common occurrence. I don’t know what they talked about. There aren’t minutes publicly available for the meetings. But it was clearly set up so that the board never had a quorum.

Without asking for all of the schedules of every board member of every agency, it is hard to know who else does this and how often.

While violations of the Sunshine Act can result in both civil and criminal penalties, according to a reporter’s manual published by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, “The law must be enforced by the public.”

What that means is that it is up to the public to file a civil complaint within 30 days of the violation and it is up to the plaintiff in the case to prove that a violation has occurred. If a violation has occurred, a judge can invalidate any action taken as a result of the meeting and award the plaintiff their attorney’s fees.

To criminally charge a violation, a person would have to file a private criminal complaint against elected officials with a magistrate, and that would be reviewed by the district attorney’s office, which would decide whether to prosecute the action.

Frankly, that is a lot of work for little reward. I think if I am going to complain about a violation of the Sunshine Act, I should at least be able to get the $10,000 the anti-abortion informants are getting in Texas.

I can’t imagine too many people will risk losing money that they pay to a lawyer to complain about a meeting without a strong media to do it for them.

Similarly, we need better open records. The phenomenon called “Florida Man” — the tendency of wacky crime stories from Florida to go viral on the Internet — is not because people in Florida are wilder than people everywhere else (or maybe they are).

The real reason we know about the bizarre actions of people in Florida is that all police reports and body camera footage are open records that are available for public scrutiny.

When you hear news about what is happening in the Allegheny County Jail or get police news that isn't released by officials who are trying to shine the best light on their agencies, it took some real shoe-leather reporting to get that information.

Similarly, Pennsylvania is one of the states that does not allow cameras in the courtrooms. The state doesn't even allow individuals to tape record proceedings — which, on a good note is at least a boost to the court stenographers.

In this time in the life of our nation, Pennsylvania should show leadership in opening up our public records and make our Sunshine Law more enforceable.

I also hold the incredibly unpopular opinion that we should raise state taxes in order to make sure the public services here remain as strong as they were before federal cuts. We could create our own medical insurance system, call it ShapiroCare, the way that Massachusetts did.

In that vein, why can’t state funding supplant, if not completely replace, the funding for our research universities. If we start our own way to fund drug research, then we can at least partially own any drugs developed and license them, with a portion of the proceeds going into the state budget. The same with student loans; Pennsylvania could loan out money to students, in a non-predatory manner unlike other student loans, for our kids to go to universities in our state.

Pennsylvania is a commonwealth. Let’s start thinking that way. We can be the state we want our nation to be.

This editorial originally appeared in Print’s March 2025 issue. Ann Belser may be reached at print@eastendprint.com.

Tube City Community Media is committed to printing viewpoints from residents of the McKeesport area and surrounding municipalities. Commentaries are accepted at the discretion of the editor and may be edited for content or length.

To submit a commentary for consideration, please write to Tube City Online, 409 Walnut St., Suite 200, McKeesport, PA 15134, or email tubecitytiger at gmail dot com. Include contact information and your real name. A pen name may be substituted with approval of the editor in those cases when revealing the person’s true name would jeopardize their safety or welfare.

Originally published March 18, 2025.

In other news:
"Drivers Ask Board for…" || "Dollywood Operator Pu…"