Commissioners vote to appeal judge’s ruling in open records case
As expected, Washington County’s commissioners voted Thursday to appeal a ruling that denied its request to see financial records of the county’s tourism promotion agency.
By a 2-1 vote, with Commissioner Larry Maggi dissenting, the county will appeal a late July ruling by Washington County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Lucas that said the tourism promotion agency was not a governmental entity and not subject to Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law. In April, the county asked to see financial records from the agency, but the agency rebuffed the request, arguing that it has already provided 20 years of audits and other information to the commissioners.
The state Office of Open Records also denied the request, contending that the tourism promotion agency is not a governmental entity, though it receives the lion’s share of its funding from the county’s hotel tax.
The county must file an appeal to Lucas’ ruling by Aug. 28 to state Commonwealth Court, according to county solicitor Gary Sweat. The county has enlisted the law firm Peacock Keller to handle the appeals.
Maggi said, “We have so many pressing fiscal issues we should be discussing, and here we’re going to be spending more taxpayer dollars on an issue we’ve already lost.” Sherman and Janis voted yes without comment.
Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Promotion Agency, said in a statement: “I was shocked that after wasting $30,000 on an outside law firm, an undisclosed amount on the county solicitor and two appeal losses, Commissioners Sherman and Janis voted again to waste even more taxpayer dollars pursuing another pointless appeal.”
Kotula continued, “Both commissioners owe county taxpayers a full explanation of why they continue to squander county money on skyrocketing legal fees instead of working with us to better our county and its communities.”
Sweat has said that a decision in the appellate courts on whether nonprofit organizations that receive significant public funding are subject to the Right to Know law could be precedent-setting.