Open government expert discusses transparency, confidentiality

Back when Terry Mutchler was spending late nights at The Daily Collegian or rushing across campus to make an 8 a.m. class, she never imagined she would someday return to speak at Penn State.

On Wednesday, the 1993 graduate, an expert in open government and freedom of information matters, returned to do just that.

Mutchler leads the transparency practice at Philadelphia’s Pepper Hamilton law firm. The firm is at the center of document issues in multiple lawsuits related to the Jerry Sandusky case. She focused her speech not only on the need for transparency in government, but also on the occasional benefits of confidentiality. She said nothing is wrong with privacy when it is warranted.

But too often, she said, government forgets it is supposed to be serving the public and blurs that line between privacy and secrecy.

“The threads of secrecy can also transform into a noose,” she said.

Mutchler is a former investigative reporter for The Associated Press, an attorney and the first executive director of Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records. She spoke to several hundred guests at a luncheon at the Nittany Lion Inn.

“I figured there would be 20 or 30 people. I didn’t think I would be off by a zero,” Mutchler said with a laugh.

She spoke about secrecy from her own experience. While covering the Illinois statehouse for The Associated Press, Mutchler fell in love with a source, state Sen. Penny Severns. The two kept their relationship private for five years. It was disclosed after Severns died of breast cancer in 1998.

Mutchler discusses that part of her life openly now. In fact, her secret relationship is the subject of her first book, “Under This Beautiful Dome,” which came out in 2014.

“What was my romance with secrecy?” she asked. “To me, I find that when you’re around something that is secret, it comes with a notion that you are part of the club. You’re on the team.”

During the question-and-answer session, Mutchler was asked about Penn State’s exemption from the state’s Right to Know laws because of its classification as a state-related university. She said she believed the university’s entire budget should be made public since it includes taxpayer dollars.

Mutchler also noted there is a bill in the state legislature that would open the state-related universities, which also include Temple, the University of Pittsburgh, and Lincoln, to Right to Know requests and “would open more information than what’s been seen in 200 years.” However, she was unsure of the bill’s likelihood of passage.

In a question that drew gasps from the crowd, she was asked her judgment of the actions by Penn State’s board of trustees after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

“This is where I think emotion really does all of us a disservice,” Mutchler said. “It’s very hard to be invited to such a grand place and to speak so plainly, but I think that Penn State goes a little too far in secrecy in that regard.”

She said she believed it stems from “fear of making sure the right thing is done, and not understanding well enough the component that transparency can bring to ensuring that.”

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Open government expert discusses transparency, confidentiality."