Anonymous right-to-know requests now prohibited in Connoquenessing Township
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Residents of Connoquenessing Township who need to file a right-to-know request will need to put their own names to it as of Wednesday, Aug. 7.
At their monthly meeting that night, the board of supervisors voted to prohibit anonymous right-to-know requests. According to township solicitor and local attorney Andrew Menchyk of the Stepanian & Menchyk law firm, the township is following in the footsteps of other municipalities in Western Pennsylvania who have voted on similar resolutions.
“The township, along with numerous other entities around Western Pennsylvania, have received anonymous right-to-know requests in the recent time frame,” Menchyk said.
Pennsylvania’s “Right-to-Know” law, which took effect in February 2008, allows residents to file a request to obtain government records, and requires government agencies to prove why they should be entitled to withhold records if they so choose. However, municipalities can choose to deny anonymous right-to-know requests, if there is a resolution in their own books which gives them that power.
In recent months, a major source of anonymous right-to-know requests has been FOIA Buddy, a website which aims to streamline the process of generating and submitting right-to-know, Freedom of Information Act, or other similar requests from government agencies. Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records, which oversees right-to-know requests, believes that FOIA Buddy is a legitimate operation.
“There is no indication that FOIA Buddy is part of any phishing, scraping, or scamming activities,” wrote the OOR in a blog post that was written in response to numerous inquiries from Pennsylvania agencies. “The OOR recommends that agencies review their internal policies regarding the acceptance of anonymous RTKL requests. If an agency has decided to not accept anonymous requests, that policy should be prominently posted on an agency webpage.”
While Menchyk did not specifically mention FOIA Buddy as a source of any anonymous requests it received, he said that the new resolution would relieve a lot of headaches for the township.
“Obviously, right-to-know requests can present a financial and administrative burden on any municipality,” Menchyk said. “The goal is to minimize both the administrative and financial burden.”
