Built around Pennsylvania's transparency laws.
Your residents already have the right to this information. Pennsylvania law puts it in the public record. GovToKnow makes it answerable in plain language.
Right-to-Know Law (RTKL)
65 P.S. §§ 67.101–67.3104Pennsylvania presumes records are public. GovToKnow explains how residents file a request with your Open Records Officer, what your agency's 5-business-day response window means, and when a 30-day extension applies, straight from your published RTK policy.
Office of Open Records appeals
65 P.S. § 67.1101When a request is denied, requesters may appeal to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records within 15 business days. GovToKnow walks residents through the appeal process and deadlines so your staff isn't re-explaining it on every call.
Sunshine Act
65 Pa.C.S. §§ 701–716Meetings of your council, board of supervisors, or commissioners are open to the public. GovToKnow answers questions about meeting schedules, agendas, and public comment from the notices and minutes you already post.
We speak every kind of Pennsylvania municipality.
Pennsylvania has over 2,500 municipalities and no two are governed quite alike. GovToKnow adapts to yours: the titles, the codes, and the officials your residents actually deal with.
Boroughs
Council-and-mayor boroughs, from Main Street to the county seat. GovToKnow uses your borough's ordinances and titles, not generic ones.
Townships
Boards of supervisors and commissioners across Pennsylvania's townships, where most land-use and public-works questions land.
Cities
Third-class cities and beyond, including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh's home-rule charters, each with their own records and departments.
Home rule
Municipalities that write their own charter. GovToKnow reads your charter and administrative code the same way it reads any published record.
Grounded in your records. Aligned with Pennsylvania law.
Every Pennsylvania municipality already publishes the answers its residents are looking for. Your ordinances, your Right-to-Know policy, your meeting schedules and minutes, your fee schedules and permit forms. It's all public. The problem was never availability. It's that a resident with a question at 9 p.m. has to know which PDF to open, which section to read, and how to translate statutory language into a plain answer. Most give up and call the office instead.
GovToKnow closes that gap. It reads the documents your municipality already posts and answers residents in plain language, right on your existing website, 24 hours a day. Ask how to file a Right-to-Know request and it walks through your Open Records Officer, the 5-business-day response window, and the appeal path to the Office of Open Records. Ask when the next board of supervisors meeting is and it answers from your posted agenda, every response cited back to the exact ordinance, policy, or notice it came from, so residents can verify and staff can trust it.
For your office, that means the repetitive procedural calls thin out. The questions with published answers (how do I file, how long does it take, where's the zoning ordinance, do I need a permit) get handled before they ever reach a person. Your Open Records Officer, clerk, and solicitor get their time back for the requests and decisions that actually require professional judgment.
And it stays inside its lane. GovToKnow explains and points; it does not interpret the statute, decide what's exempt, give legal advice, or process an actual request. When a question needs a person, it says so and hands the resident off with the right next step. It's a guide to what your municipality has already made public, not a replacement for the people who run it.
The questions Pennsylvania residents actually type.
Answered from your municipality’s published ordinances, RTK policy, and meeting notices, every time, with a source.
A guide to your records. Not a replacement for your officers.
This is what your Open Records Officer and solicitor will ask about. Here's the direct answer, framed to how Pennsylvania works.
Every answer traces back to public law.
GovToKnow doesn't invent policy. It reads what Pennsylvania and your municipality already publish, and points residents to the primary sources. Here are the ones that govern the answers on this page.
Right-to-Know Law (RTKL)
65 P.S. §§ 67.101–67.3104 · PA Office of Open RecordsPennsylvania Office of Open Records
Statewide RTKL appeals authorityCitizens' Guide to the RTKL & Sunshine Act
PA Office of Open RecordsSunshine Act (Open Meetings Law)
65 Pa.C.S. §§ 701–716 · PA General AssemblyPennsylvania's Sunshine Act, explained
PA Office of Open RecordsMunicipal codes & manuals — boroughs, townships, cities
PA DCED · Governor's Center for Local Government ServicesLinks go to official government and primary-law sources. GovToKnow answers only from documents your municipality has published, and nothing it provides is legal advice.
See it answer a Pennsylvania resident's question.
Tell us your municipality and we'll show you GovToKnow answering real questions from your published records: the RTK process, meeting schedules, ordinances, and more.