Pa.’s open records chief awaits Corbett word on reappointment

For Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records director and the Corbett administration, breaking up is hard to do.

Terry Mutchler is Pennsylvania’s open records czar — the head of an agency created in 2008 with the passage of the state’s Right to Know Law, which increased public access to government records.

Mutchler’s six-year term ended last month, and she has every intention of sticking around.

But she doesn’t know if the Corbett administration is looking for a replacement.

“I think any time that you have uncertainty, it makes it difficult to, or more difficult to, do some of the things that need to get done,” she said. “So, for example, the lobbying to get additional money, some of those components, it’s a little tougher.”

Gov. Tom Corbett is giving no indication whether Mutchler should be packing up.

“I’m not even anywhere near making a decision on that at this point,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mutchler has attracted the attention of a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, who have written to the governor to support her reappointment.