I like Attorney Charles Pedri. He was always affable and polite in our dealings, both as legal adviser for Hazleton City Council during battles with then-Mayor Mike Marsicano and as Hazle Township solicitor.
In the latter capacity, he occasionally stymied requests for public records, but he had an easygoing style and quick smile that made me feel things would work out eventually. In the Hazleton city job, he actually tried to pry records from a belligerent mayor who had three responses to any council request: ignore, stonewall or accuse.
But Pedri pushed anyway, writing council resolutions seeking information about Marsicano’s decisions and filing lawsuits to stop or reverse those moves. One of those suits, not incidentally, was an attempt to force Marsicano to pay Pedri’s bills.
Yet suddenly, Pedri is full of poppycock, protecting politicians with legal obfuscation so shallow you couldn’t hide a paycheck in it.
Paul Kattner asked for data on pay and other township spending. The township is stalling, and Pedri’s the one justifying the chokehold on public information. Kattner has his own political agenda, but that’s irrelevant in determining what records are public.
Some of Pedri’s excuses for the delays are plausible if not palatable. Kattner asked for info stretching back three years, and Pedri insists it will take time to compile it all.
But some of the excuses are outright nonsense. Kattner has asked for payroll data, and Pedri said he’s reviewing whether giving that information violates employee privacy. Pedri knows full well that payroll of township employees is public record. It’s what lawyers call black letter law. If the township spent tax money, the public gets to see where every cent goes.
Access to that information is at the core of government accountability. Private information about employees (Social Security numbers, say) can be kept private, but who got paid what from tax money is unequivocally everybody’s business.
Pedri also made a bizarre claim that he’s waiting for a state Supreme Court ruling on a case in which the Harrisburg Patriot News sued to learn Penn State football coach Joe Paterno’s salary. That case is irrelevant. Penn State is not subject to the state’s “open records” law. Hazle Township is.
Come on, Charlie, you’re better than this. Open the spigot and let some freedom of information flow.
You remember what it’s like to fight for that, don’t you?