Open Record Officer

The Township hereby designates Donna M. Asure as the Township Open Records Officer.  The Open Records Officer may be reached at:

Forks Township
1606 Sullivan Trail
Easton, PA 18040

Phone: 610-252-0785
Fax: 610-252-2081

dasure@forkstownship.org

Requests

Your request should be made in writing addressed to the Open Records Officer on the Standard Right-to-Know Law Request Form. This form is also available at the Township Municipal Office. Please mail, email, or drop off your request form.

Township Grant or Denial of Request

Some documents contain protected information under the Right to Know Law, and these documents, or portions of them, may not be considered Public Records. The Open Records Officer will send a response to you in writing, explaining the information required under the law, including any special measure that may be required to protect the township documents from the possibility of theft, damage, and/or modification; if a denial, the reason for the denial; if more time is required, then the Township shall follow the procedures set forth under the Right to Know Law. You may be required to pay a fee or fees as set forth here below.

Fees

You will be required to remit fees to the Township for the costs of your requests. These may include twenty-five cents per copy per page per side. The certification of a record cost is one dollar per record. Specialized documents such as blueprints, color copies, non-standard sized documents, and the like, shall cost the actual amount for the reproduction. If you would like to have documents mailed to you, the cost of postage will also be assessed. If your request will amount to one hundred dollars ($100) or more, you will be required to remit the fees in advance. 

Inspection, Retrieval, & Duplication

After the Open Records Officer has communicated to you about your request and fees, you can make arrangements with regard to inspection, retrieval and duplication of any and all documents that are deemed to be public records. If your request does not require any special handling, then the documents can be viewed and/or duplicated at the Municipal Building during established business days and hours, except for any days that the building may be closed. 

The Open Records Officer will work with you concerning any request that may require special viewing and/or duplication for any reason, including but not necessarily limited to the size and/or volume of the documents requested.

Information Regarding Appeals

You must file an appeal within 15 business days of the Township's response or writing 15 business days of a deemed denial.

You may file an appeal in writing if your written request is denied or deemed denied by the Township. Send the appeal to:

Office of Open Records
333 Market Street, 16th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101-2234

Phone: 717-346-9903
Fax: 717-425-5343

When a request is denied as seeking exempt criminal investigative records of a local agency, appeals may be filed within 15 business days of the agency's response with:

Northampton County District Attorney's Office
669 Washington Street
Easton, PA 18042

Phone: 610-829-6630
Fax: 610-559-3035

Your written Appeal must state the grounds upon which you, the requester, assert that the record(s) requested is/area public record(s), and you shall state the grounds that the Township has stated for delaying or denying your request.

Enactment

The Township intends that this Policy shall implement the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law and if any aspect of the Policy is not consistent or is not included herein, then the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law controls. This policy has been duly enacted by the Board of Supervisors of Forks Township by means of Resolution.

Transparency in Coverage Rule

Readable files will be available after July 1, 2022. This link leads to the machine-readable files that are made available in response to the federal Transparency in Coverage Rule and includes negotiated service rates and out-of-network allowed amounts between health plans and healthcare providers. The machine-readable files are formatted to allow researchers, regulators, and application developers to access and analyze data more easily.

Audio Video Requests

Under Act 22, a request for an audio or video recording in the possession of a law enforcement agency must be made within 60 days of the date the recording was made. Requests must be submitted via personal delivery or certified mail (§67A03).

A written request must be submitted to the Agency Open Records Officer (AORO),  Donna Asure, Township Manager.  The request is not officially received until it is personally delivered to the AORO, or when it is marked as "delivered" by certified mail.

The request must include:

1. The date, time and location of the event recorded;
2. A statement describing the requester's relationship to the event recorded; and
3. If the recorded incident took place inside a residence, the request must also identify every person present at the time of the recording, unless unknown and not reasonably ascertainable.
4. Once a request is filed, the agency has 30 days to respond, although the requester and agency can agree to an extension.

See attached form below.