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Thursday, June 07, 2012

Court Rules Governor's Schedule Safe From Prying Eyes

A sharply divided Commonwealth Court has ruled that the Governor has no obligation to produce his daily schedule, at least to the extent that doing so would reveal "predecisional deliberations." This 4-3 decision comes in response to an open records request made by Associated Press reporter Mark Scolforo. Previously, the state Office of Open Records had ruled in favor of disclosure.

Interestingly, both the Majority and Minority Opinions are written by judges from the Lehigh Valley. Renée Cohn Jubelirer, who wrote on behalf of four judges, is a former South Whitehall Township Commissioner who served as an attorney for Lehigh County. Writing for the Minority, Robert "Robin" Simpson is a former Northampton County judge.

While acknowledging that the Right-to-Know is designed to prohibit secrets, scrutinize the actions of public officials, and make them more accountable, Judge Jubelirer reasons that compelling disclosure in this case would "eviscerate" the "predecisional deliberation" exemption. In this case, the matter was remanded to the state Open Records Office for an in camera determination whether the records excluded really would reveal inside baseball.

But Judge Simpson, noting that the Governor's Office had already submitted an Affidavit, concludes that Jubelirer's decision creates a "new, time-consuming process" that "rewards vagueness and burdens requesters."

I suspect this case is headed to the Court of Final Error.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 7, 2012 at 6:55 PM

    These people are employees, Daily schedules should be public record

    Maybe they don't want citizens to see who their meeting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 7, 2012 at 11:25 PM

    Request for the Governors daily schedule is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. If there were a would be assassin out there he could easily get the Gov. I'll agree that this Gov. is an idiot but no way should he put his life on the line on a daily basis to some lunatic fringe or fringes. Get real. The only one that would demand his schedule are protesters or assassins.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 7, 2012 at 11:40 PM

    not when or where, but what?

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 8, 2012 at 7:07 AM

    Of course the bosses of this employee, (the tax payers) have no right to know what he does during a workday. Its not like bosses in the private sector want to know what their employee is doing during the work day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 8, 2012 at 6:59 PM

    To anon-11:25,

    Who would want to do that?
    He's doing more for the opposite side in his current post.
    He comes across as weak and out of touch with the average resident.
    He could be a one term wonder.

    ReplyDelete

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