Office of Open Records – History of OOR Appeals with Bath Borough

OOR Appeals at a Glance

All appeals listed are closed. Select a docket for the full record and documents.

OOR Docket Details	Year	Borough Docket Details
AP 2026-2665	2026	View Docket
AP 2026-1222	2026	View Docket
AP 2025-1943	2025	View Docket · Requester Court Petition
AP 2025-0522	2025	View Docket
AP 2024-0001	2024	View Docket
AP 2023-2949	2023	View Docket
AP 2023-1633	2023	View Docket
AP 2023-1598	2023	View Docket
AP 2023-1083	2023	View Docket
AP 2023-0032	2023	View Docket
AP 2022-2675	2022	View Docket
AP 2020-0745	2020	View Docket

The Right-to-Know Law (RTKL), Act 3 of 2008 contains Section 1308, which states the following agency prohibition: “A policy or regulation adopted under this act may not include any of the following: 1) a limitation on the number of records which may be requested or made available for inspection or duplication. 2) a requirement to disclose the purpose or motive in requesting access to records.” Agencies such as the Borough, covered under the RTKL, have no choice in the number of records that may require retrieval and/or duplication (unless otherwise exempt or not authorized under the Act). Nor can the agency manage the request based on the Requestor’s intended purpose for using the documentation. Because of this, and the fact that the RTKL is absent any protections against vexatious requestors, (requestors that repetitively seek voluminous records lacking specificity and/or appeal decisions of the agency for record(s) they are not otherwise entitled) the result leads to months of conflict between an Agency and Requestor. When these conflicts arise, it is costly to an agency. In Bath’s case, the taxpayers bear the financial burden NOT the Requestor(s). In particular, extensive costs related to legal review and response is required when defending an agency’s initial position to deny records, throughout the entire appeals process. These are some of the amendments to the RTKL the public consented too when the act was amended in 2008. Since 2008 the Borough has been party to 12 appeals before the Office of Open Records. Nine were filed by Mr. Long, all since 2022. (As of August 2026.)