News from 2009

Municipalities Struggle to Deal with Aged and Deteriorating Infrastructure

Municipalities across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are struggling to address the pressing need to replace and upgrade their aged infrastructure.  The challenge is particularly acute in older municipalities and rural areas where infrastructure such as sanitary sewer and water treatment facilities have exceeded their useful life or are non-existent. On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“ARRA”) in order to provide for… Read On

Nauman Smith Attorney Craig Staudenmaier quoted in Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era

Harrisburg attorney and right-to-know expert Craig Staudenmaier pointed out that the state's new open-records law exempts records holding Social Security numbers from public inspection… Read On

How should an Open Records Officer deal with a request for third party documents?

Around the state, Open Records Officers (“ORO”) are receiving requests for third party documents. For example, a competitor of a home contractor filed a request for blueprints that were submitted to a township through a building permit application. See Maller v. West Manheim Township, AP 2009-0498 (OOR, July 17, 2009). These types of requests are the result of provisions of the new Right-to-Know Law (“RTKL”) which are designed to increase the transparency of government operations… Read On

What Every Lawyer in Cumberland County Needs to Know

Nauman Smith Managing Partner, Craig J. Staudenmaier, Esq. and Partner Guy P. Beneventano, Esq., will conduct a Cumberland County Bar Association seminar to provide the most current and relevant information about the new PA Right-to-Know Law, activated last January and already influencing the way the public interacts with government agencies… Read On

Right-to-Know Update

An Agency's Audio Recordings of Public Meetings are a Public Record..… Read On

Q/A Terry Mutchler, Executive Director, PA Office of Open Records

Right - To - Know Question and Answer session, Craig J. Staudenmaier, Esq. of Nauman Smith and Terry Mutchler… Read On


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