As the state's open-records watchdog, Terry Mutchler fields one complaint after another from Pennsylvanians who were denied access to government data by agencies trying to throw up unwarranted roadblocks.
So, Mutchler, executive director of the state Office of Open Records, was watching closely as a crucial challenge to Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know law made its arduous journey through the appellate courts.
At stake, she said, was nothing less than citizens' ability to "get into the door of an agency" to exercise their right to see exactly how state and local governments conduct the public's business.
The wrong decision, Mutchler said, would have "given agencies a green light" to deny anything but the most formal and technically correct request for records.
