But Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D\u2019Agostino, testifying on behalf of the County Commissions Association of Pennsylvania, said that \u201cwithin 15 years of implementation\u201d it became clear to counties that the law needed to be updated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe environment in which the law operates today is very different from that which was envisioned at the time it was passed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While requests used to be for individual records, now the shift was toward \u201clarge-scale data extraction\u201d and \u201ccommercial data mining\u201d that required \u201can extraordinary breadth of records,\u201d said D\u2019Agostino. Some commercial enterprises even repackage the information and sell it, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was once a simple document retrieval may now require retrieval records from different systems, coordination across multiple departments, legal review and careful redaction of confidential information,\u201d he said. \u201cAll this must be completed within strict statutory timelines, regardless of the size and complexity of the request.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
D\u2019Agostino supported charges for commercial requests as well as a \u201cblackout period\u201d around elections to keep administrators free to focus on Election Day, rather than records requests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other identified issues for governments<\/p>\n
Ron Grutza, the senior director of government affairs with the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs, echoed D\u2019Agostino\u2019s remarks about charging fees for commercial requesters. He also emphasized the need to address so-called vexatious requests<\/a> \u2014 or bad faith public record searches designed to tie up officials \u2014 and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen someone has an ax to grind, especially with smaller boroughs and townships, they know that they can shut down the office for a week or so by sending these complex requests,\u201d said Grutza.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Stakeholders said that AI, in particular, has disrupted the system, flooding government agencies with lengthy or burdensome submissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe incursion of AI \u2026 is affecting all government and, frankly, all representational bodies,\u201d said Delloso. \u201cI was in union representation (and) suddenly members are handing in grievances that are AI generated with long-standing, extinguished cases that have no appeal and no bearing on their particular grievance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Senate Bill 431<\/a>, authored by Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery), would allow agencies to reject requests \u201cautomatically generated\u201d by technology like AI if they have a \u201creasonable suspicion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Grutza said that his association supported the proposal, which also allows denials for requests that contain links and documents if the responding officer \u201cbelieves that downloading \u2026 could pose a cybersecurity risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Barriers to public access<\/p>\n Melissa Melewsky, an attorney with the Pennsylvania News Media Association, assists journalists throughout the commonwealth \u2014 including the Pennsylvania Capital-Star \u2014 with Right-to-Know requests and public access.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the 2008 law is a \u201csignificant improvement,\u201d Melewsky warned about continuing efforts to exempt entire subject areas from public scrutiny, which could \u201cerode the Right-to-Know law (and) risk death by 1,000 cuts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s obviously not something we want to see happen here in Pennsylvania,\u201d said Melewsky.\u00a0<\/p>\n And though request deadlines are strict, members of the media may often seek records informally \u2014 only to be diverted to the Right-to-Know process for \u201cplainly public\u201d documents like meeting minutes, contracts and salaries, said Melewsky.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those documents are often granted a 30-day extension, which Melewsky said should be reserved for \u201cspecial circumstances but, in practice, has become (a) standard operating procedure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Some public documents could be proactively disclosed, she continued, which could reduce the burden on local governments and maintain public access. Additionally, some public entities share files as PDFs, rather than machine-readable documents or databases, limiting their usefulness for public analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was once a functional data set, in effect, becomes a static printout,\u201d said Melewsky. \u201cThat\u2019s not a neutral, administrative choice. It materially alters the records and diminishes its value to the public \u2026 the risk is only increasing as government agencies rely more heavily on databases and data-driven systems to manage their operations.\u201d<\/p>\n Melewsky also said that the state\u2019s criminal investigation exemption was one of the broadest in the nation and creates a significant barrier.\u00a0<\/p>\n At left, Melissa Melewsky, an attorney with the Pennsylvania News Media Association, describes public access barriers before a committee on March 23, 2026. (Photo by Whitney Downard\/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)<\/p>\n \u201cAs written and interpreted, Pennsylvania\u2019s criminal investigation exemptions shield most law enforcement records even long after cases are closed and resolved. This includes even basic incident reports, which were public under the prior, more restrictive law,\u201d Melewsky said.<\/p>\n And as traditional police blotters are phased out, she said, \u201cthe result is that the public often has no meaningful access to basic information about criminal activity in their community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat wasn\u2019t the intent of the Right-to-Know law, and it\u2019s something that could be meaningfully addressed by the legislature,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Non-criminal investigative exemptions can include inspection reports for child care facilities or nursing facilities as well as infrastructure safety records. According to the Office of Open Records 2025 report, non-criminal and criminal investigative records were the top two cited exemptions<\/a> in filed appeals.<\/p>\n Melewsky also cautioned against the \u201cvexatious requester\u201d label, noting that available data doesn\u2019t indicate it\u2019s a widespread practice and it could limit public scrutiny.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA requester who persistently seeks information could be characterized as vexatious simply because the requests are inconvenient or uncomfortable,\u201d said Melewsky.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pennsylvania legislature last overhauled the state\u2019s open records law, known as Right-to-Know, nearly two decades ago. Now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66719,66718,28,30,692,29,66717,66720],"class_list":["post-146336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-david-delloso","tag-open-records-law","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-legislature","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-public-records-requests","tag-public-scrutiny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/56cf9a3c891b9f45257c832cdb979dbc.jpeg\"\/)
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