Published: May 08, 2008 01:14 pm            

State’s new open-records czar driven by a passion

Terry Mutchler says she may be the only person taking on a new job that she’s hoping to eliminate through her work duties.

The former journalist is executive director of Pennsylvania’s new Office of Open Records. The office and her position were created with the passage of Senate Bill 1 earlier this year.

That law also brought a much-needed overhaul to our state’s open-records system.

“I almost can’t believe they’re paying me to do this, because I am so passionate about it,” Mutchler told a room full of journalists during a conference last week at Penn State, days after her appointment by Gov. Ed Rendell.

“Hopefully there will come a day when we won’t need an arbitrator to tell us what is public,” she said.

Mutchler says she expects at times to be despised by both the government for which she works and the news media from which she came.

The East Stroudsburg native and Penn State graduate worked as a reporter for the Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, and for The Associated Press in various cities.

She left reporting to earn a law degree, and later was a media lawyer for a Chicago firm. From 2003 until her appointment to the new post in Pennsylvania, she served as public-access counselor for the state of Illinois.

She has accepted a six-year appointment to be the person most responsible for interpreting Pennsylvania’s new public-access law, the highlights of which include:

The stated understanding that government records belong to the public;

The presumption that records are public – a huge step for residents of the state – with the burden of proof falling to an agency wishing to deny access;

Penalties levied on agencies or individuals that deny access to records.

“That Pennsylvania had a presumption that all records were closed is just hard to fathom for those of us who are advocates of transparency in government,” Mutchler said. “But it’s like we’re changing the course of a river. It is too critical for a working government to have a presumption that records are closed.”

She expects to knock heads with the media from time to time, although she says she understands the “watchdog” drive to keep the government accountable.

“I suppose I do have a little more ink in my blood than do most lawyers,” Mutchler said.

She added: “Let me say this – I am not pro press. I am pro open government.”

Mutchler believes her role is even more critical, with homeland security measures closing off many avenues of information.

“We live in a time when the federal government is keeping us from basic information that is critical to the operation of government and to citizens,” she said.

The key, Mutchler says, is making sure citizens understand the importance of an open-records policy, and feel empowered to act on that law by seeking access to the records of their elected officials and government agencies.

Step one for Mutchler is getting a feel for the political landscape in Harrisburg.

“One thing I asked the Rendell administration is, ‘Are you serious about this?’ ” she said.

“It’s kind of like we’re on a blind date here,” Mutchler said. “We’re all trying to be nice, but we don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”

Here’s how she would like it to turn out: Pennsylvanians embrace expanded access to information and learn more about their rights.

She said: “My hope is that at the end of these six years, we can look back and say, ‘Wow, look what we did for the citizens of Pennsylvania.’ ”



Chip Minemyer is the editor of The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 532-5091.

        

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