PA government under scrutiny by papers
Dec 4th, 2007 by dani_k
From township, cities, counties, and the state, there are lots of PA government entities creating records hurdles for the media.
The Pocono Record reports that on a “settlement agreement Tunkhannock Township supervisors made with a former employee and tried to keep quiet” that is “about 2½ times more expensive than the township previously disclosed.”
The Patriot News is, quite frankly, kicking butt and taking names in the fight for open records. Now they’re trying to get a copy of a $40,000 study of Harrisburg’s public schools - but Mayor Reed refuses to release it.
The Allentown Morning Call reports that a Lehigh County judge is refusing to release the names and the number of citizens who have applied to serve on Lower Macungie Township’s first Board of Commissioners. The Board is organizing for the first time since township residents voted in a referendum to move from a second-class township to a first-class one - a move “sparked by Citizens for Change, a grassroots organization that called for more accountability last year’s arrest of former township Supervisor Margaret Szulborski, who is accused of stealing about $2.5 million in sewer funds between 1999 and 2006 while she was a township employee.”
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review obtained a copy of a confidential copy of a State Gaming Commission memo discussing the Commission’s diversity goals, which are more stringent than state and federal laws. At issue is why the Commission wanted to keep the memo confidential:
Experts on the state’s Right to Know Law questioned why the agency wouldn’t want to make its diversity goals public.
Closed-door meetings — called “executive sessions” — are appropriate only when public agencies discuss a specific person or group of employees, not for general employment goals that apply to an entire agency, said Melissa Bevan Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.
“I don’t see any reason to protect this kind of information,” Melewsky said. “I don’t see the need for secrecy here.”
In other local news, the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat writes that Cambria County officials are investigating a mishandled 911 call about a shooter on the Steeple Bend Tunnel trail, which I wrote about last week.