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Wednesday, June 01, 2011

21 Lehigh Valley Municipalities in Violation of Right-to-Know Law

Yesterday, I told you that Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law [RTKL], effective since 2009, requires every municipality with a webpage to post the following information:
(1) Contact information for the open-records officer.
(2) Contact information for the Office of Open Records or other applicable appeals officer.
(3) A form which may be used to file a request.
(4) Regulations, policies and procedures of the agency relating to this act.
I was right about that, but when I claimed that neither Bethlehem nor Northampton County includes this information on their webpages, I was dead wrong. We can all have different opinions, but facts are facts, and I got it wrong. So I apologize for leading you astray.

After going to confession to some Fake Rev who wanted me to roll on the floor and start shaking, I decided to impose my own penance. I have looked at every municipal webpage I can find in the Lehigh Valley, and here's what I've learned:
(1) Every Lehigh County municipality now has its own webpage;
(2) I am unable to find webpages for six Northampton County municipalities;
(3) 35 Lehigh Valley municipalities contain the required RTKL information;
(4) 21 LV municipal web pages, 13 of them from Northampton County, have never implemented the RTKL information required by state law.
Below are the dirty details.

Municipal Webpages Complying with RTKL:

Allentown (RTKL link here).

Bethlehem City (RTKL link here).

Bethlehem Township (RTKL link here).

Catasauqua (RTKL link here).

East Allen Township (RTKL link here).

Emmaus Borough (RTKL link here).

Easton City (RTKL link here).

Forks Township (RTKL link here).

Freemansburg Borough (RTKL link here).

Hanover Township (RTKL link here).

Hanover Township (Lehigh County) (RTKL link here).

Heidelberg Township (RTKL link here).

Lower Macungie Township (RTKL link here).

Lower Milford Township (RTKL link here).

Lower Mount Bethel Township (partial compliance) (RTKL contact info only).

Lower Nazareth Township (RTKL link here).

Lower Saucon Township (RTKL link here).

Lynn Township (RTKL link here).

Macungie Borough (RTKL link here).

Nazareth Borough (right on the home page)

Northampton Borough (RTKL link here).

North Whitehall Township (RTKL link here).

Palmer Township (RTKL link here).

Pen Argyl Borough (RTKL link here).

Plainfield Township (on home page).

Salisbury Township (RTKL link here).

Slatington Borough (RTKL link here).

South Whitehall Township (RTKL link here).

Upper Macungie Township (RTKL link here).

Upper Milford Township (RTKL link here).

Upper Nazareth Township (on home page)

Upper Saucon Township (RTKL link here).

Washington Township (Northampton County) (RTKL link here.)

Whitehall Township (RTKL link here).

Williams Township (RTKL link here).

Municipal Webpages at which I could find no RTKL information:

Alburtis Borough

Allen Township

Bath Borough

Bushkill Township

Coplay Borough

Coopersburg Borough

East Bangor Borough

Fountain Hill Borough

Hellertown Borough

Lehigh Township

Lowhill Township (But the Township began video-taping its meetings in January 2011).

Moore Township

North Catasauqua Borough

Roseto Borough. But this page does have a very nice poem.

You America, are not Roseto,
But I, Roseto, am America.

Tatamy Borough

Upper Mount Bethel Township. (Caveat, I am unsure whether this is really a municipal web page, or what the hell it is. It also runs ads and has a business directory.)

West Easton Borough

Wilson Borough - Amazingly, this municipal web page does contain a now-defunct link to Lou Pektor's Dixie lofts.

Wind Gap Borough

Washington Township (Lehigh County)

Weisenberg Township

Municipalities with no webpage:

Bangor Borough, Chapman Borough, Glendon Borough, Portland Borough, Stockertown Borough, Walnutport Borough.
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14 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 1, 2011 at 6:26 AM

    Ho Hum...........

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 1, 2011 at 11:27 AM

    Bushkill Township updates their site every 3 to 5 years. They may get to it yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. brendaJune 1, 2011 at 12:25 PM

    Is Lou still kicking around ideas in Bethlehem, or is he still waiting for the Dixie grant?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bernie O'HareJune 1, 2011 at 12:27 PM

    He's been in Bethlehem and even Bethlehem Township recently.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 1, 2011 at 5:40 PM

    Bernie, Set up a web site for Bangor!! You never know what's going on in the town and you can put a spot on there for police tips for the drug dealing outside the Serving Spoon at night the cops seem to over look.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 1, 2011 at 6:05 PM

    Ramble ON....

    You better check Tatamy Borough again!

    http://www.tatamypa.org/theborough.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. Union GoonJune 1, 2011 at 6:45 PM

    I recently filled out a RTN in West Easton for a copy of the agreement for the new work release facility. That was 2 weeks ago, and still nothing. Stopped by yesterday and filled out another one. I will let you know how it turns out.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bernie O'HareJune 1, 2011 at 7:00 PM

    Union Goon, If you don't have an answer w/in 5 days, even if that answer is that they will be taking days, your answer is denied and you should appeal it to the OOR now. I hipe you kept a copy of your request. If you have not, you'll have to file again.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bernie O'HareJune 1, 2011 at 7:03 PM

    6:05, Thanks for your link. It is at the bottom and easy to miss, but it is there

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJune 1, 2011 at 7:07 PM

    Bernie...

    you made a point, maybe I should move it elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bernie O'HareJune 1, 2011 at 8:10 PM

    The important thing s that it is there. Remember, I looked at over 50 municipal pages in one day. Someone just looking at Tatamy would be more likely to find it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousJune 2, 2011 at 4:31 PM

    How about the Bangor Fire Department explaining how they crashed their fire truck again.

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousJune 3, 2011 at 1:46 PM

    Bernie,

    On request, we moved the Right to Know document. It is now on the Navigation column. This is for Tatamy Borough of course!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Bernie O'HareJune 4, 2011 at 12:19 AM

    Above and beyond, tatamy. You are to be commended.

    ReplyDelete

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