Richland approves revisions to Right to Know policy

Richland Township’s Right to Know policy for public records was up for review during the Nov. 16 board of supervisors meeting.

At the meeting, township solicitor Emily Mueller clarified that only real change to the policy is the special projects manager — currently Natalie Thiess — is now the open records officer. The current land use administrator and the administrative assistant to the township manager will serve as alternate open records officers.

This means that the designations for the open records officer and its alternates depends on who is serving as special projects manager, land use administrator and administrative assistant to the township manager at the time.

During the meeting, resident Mike Griffin requested for the board to table consideration of revisions to the Right to Know policy until the next meeting, so that more of the community could read over the policy and understand it.

Griffin took issue with references to requesters having to comply with township policy. He disagreed with the proposed removal of language within the policy, as well as the redaction of information from public records mentioned in the policy.

“There are some concerns about redacting information from public records, how that’s done and how we’re notified, and how we know that that redaction was necessary and appropriate,” Griffin said.

Township solicitor Emily Mueller said that state law does always supersede local policy.

“The second point, which I think is important with respect to Mr. Griffin’s request for tabling: our policy mirrors the state law. So even if we were to table it, the same provisions that are in the state law that are in our policy still apply,” Mueller said.

She brought up the matter of deleting a line about redactions from the township policy.

“My reason for deleting it is because the policy is meant to be an overview. It’s just a matter of how much information we think helpful to provide a synopsis of the main points,” she said.

Township manager Dean Bastianini acknowledged the possibility of reinserting the deleted line about redactions. Supervisor Donna Snyder made a motion to reinsert the line. The board approved the motion unanimously.