Unknowing policy: The state’s lawyers act to stymie public scrutiny

Pennsylvanians have a strong interest in government transparency. The problem is that the Corbett administration apparently doesn't think so. If it did, lawyers representing the state would not have been in Commonwealth Court Tuesday to defend the indefensible.

The commonwealth's lawyers were there to speak on behalf of what amounts to a mockery of the state Right-to-Know law ó a policy that encourages public employees nightly to prune the number of emails they keep. The deleted emails are backed up by state servers for just five days before being permanently purged ó thus excluding any legal review.

This newspaper and others have sued, asking that the court stop the outrageous policy of destroying emails so soon and order that they be preserved for at least two years. On Tuesday, the commonwealth argued that the 2008 Right-to-Know law still gives the state the right to set its own records retention policies. Continue>>>
======