Document Citation: 65 P.S. § 67.506

Header:

PENNSYLVANIA STATUTES
TITLE 65. PUBLIC OFFICERS
CHAPTER 3A. RIGHT-TO-KNOW LAW
CHAPTER 5. ACCESS

Date:
08/31/2009

Document:

§ 67.506. Requests

(a) DISRUPTIVE REQUESTS.--

(1) An agency may deny a requester access to a record if the requester
has made repeated requests for that same record and the repeated
requests have placed an unreasonable burden on the agency.

(2) A denial under this subsection shall not restrict the ability to
request a different record.

(b) DISASTER OR POTENTIAL DAMAGE.--

(1) An agency may deny a requester access:

(i) when timely access is not possible due to fire, flood or other
disaster; or

(ii) to historical, ancient or rare documents, records, archives and
manuscripts when access may, in the professional judgment of the
curator or custodian of records, cause physical damage or irreparable
harm to the record.

(2) To the extent possible, the contents of a record under this
subsection shall be made accessible to a requester even when the record
is physically unavailable.

(c) AGENCY DISCRETION.-- An agency may exercise its discretion to make any otherwise exempt record accessible for inspection and copying under this chapter, if all of the following apply:

(1) Disclosure of the record is not prohibited under any of the
following:

(i) Federal or State law or regulation.

(ii) Judicial order or decree.

(2) The record is not protected by a privilege.

(3) The agency head determines that the public interest favoring access
outweighs any individual, agency or public interest that may favor
restriction of access.

(d) AGENCY POSSESSION.--

(1) A public record that is not in the possession of an agency but is
in the possession of a party with whom the agency has contracted to
perform a governmental function on behalf of the agency, and which
directly relates to the governmental function and is not exempt under
this act, shall be considered a public record of the agency for
purposes of this act.

(2) Nothing in this act shall be construed to require access to any
other record of the party in possession of the public record.

(3) A request for a public record in possession of a party other than
the agency shall be submitted to the open records officer of the
agency. Upon a determination that the record is subject to access
under this act, the open records officer shall assess the duplication
fee established under section 1307(b) and upon collection shall remit
the fee to the party in possession of the record if the party
duplicated the record.