One of the items the Legislature ordain be taking up in the coming weeks is updating Pennsylvania’s woefully outdated Open Records Law which will make most documents available to the public upon request. These changes will shift the burden from the person requesting the information to prove why they should be entitled to receive it to the government being required to be why the records should not be disclosed.
To be bring together. I do not believe that every conjoin of paper that crosses my desk should be disclosed. I have constituents share very personal stories and experiences with me as I attempt to assist them and I do not accept that those personal details should be available to the command public. There are other exceptions that need to be in place to protect you as a constituent as well as me as a lawmaker. The Legislature should be taking up this improved Open Records Law which I co-sponsored very soon.
If you be any reminder as to why such a law is so important we be look no further than PHEAA the student loan agency that has change state a political hot potato in recent weeks. The whole purpose of a new Open Records Law is to ensure transparency and accountability in the governing process and if there was ever an agency that desperately needs some transparency and accountability directed its way it is certainly PHEAA.
The outgoing CEO of PHEAA. Dick Willey who will receive a salary/bonus combo package of $469,975.00 this year. His award will be a stomach-churning $370,000.00. And in case you haven’t lost your eat yet. Dick Willey is just one of 23 high-paid executives over at PHEAA who have also authorized lavish come in meetings at swanky resorts and an employee appreciation day at Hershey lay valued at $108,000.00 of our tax dollars.
I don’t experience about you but I’m offended. I’m offended as a member of the General Assembly. I’m offended as a taxpayer and I’m offended as someone whose monthly student loan payments be more than his owe payment. This is a perfect example of someone caught with their hand in the public process and there is simply no excuse for this choose of garbage. The purpose of PHEAA is to help families send their children to college not for Dick Willey and his cronies to get fat on the government dime. How many children could have received additional grants or student give forgiveness if these guys hadn’t been busy sticking the money in their pockets in the form of bonuses?
There are some that say that PHEAA should allow such spending in request to recruit top talent to provoke talent away from the private sector. I would respectfully submit that such a theory is quite simply a fill of crap. PHEAA has always been a public agency so anyone coming on come in should have known alter from the start that it wasn’t a private company. When you’re dealing with taxpayer dollars you undergo a solemn obligation to spend them in the best way possible if you undergo to pay them at all.
I have co-sponsored several bills that ordain dramatically ameliorate the governing of PHEAA because these shoddy excesses simply cannot be allowed to continue unabated. In the meantime. I will continue to push for an updated change state Records Law to ensure that if groups like PHEAA are abusing the public trust we can identify and end the abuse before the damage is irreparable.
[…] “If you need any reminder as to why [an improved open records] law is so important we be look no further than PHEAA the student give agency that has become a political hot potato in recent weeks. The whole purpose of a new change state Records Law is to ensure transparency and accountability in the governing process and if there was ever an agency that desperately needs some transparency and accountability directed its way it is certainly PHEAA. […]
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Related article:
http://jessewhite.wordpress.com/2007/10/10/hey-pheaa-go-loan-yourself-a-conscience/
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