Judge rules to release names as sewer records fight ends after 8 months
The [Sharon] Herald
An eight-month fight over the identities of Sharon sewer customers who collectively owe about $1 million in unpaid bills ended Tuesday with a judge agreeing with the state Office of Open Records and ordering the records be released.
Sharon Sanitary Authority has to allow The Herald access to the delinquent accounts within 30 days of Mercer County Judge Christopher J. St. John’s order.
“We’ll be very ecstatic to give you the information,” Sharon Sanitary Authority Manager Guy Cunningham told The Herald. “I’ve been for this from day one.”
Authority President Frank Connelly Tuesday said he talked to the other board members and they’ve given Cunningham the OK to release the list of names of those who are overdue on their sewer bills.
“Everything is public record,” Connelly said, adding that authority members did not want to hold things up until after their Feb. 11 meeting.
It’s unclear how long it will take for the records to be compiled and provided to The Herald.
Any user who is in compliance with a payment plan is not considered by the authority to be delinquent, Cunningham said.
The list of those who are delinquent is lengthy.
“We’re talking hundreds,” Cunningham said.
About $1 million was owed to the authority as of October, Cunningham testified before St. John at a hearing in the authority’s appeal of the state’s ruling.
The Herald on June 3 submitted a request seeking access to the accounts but it was denied at the advice of authority solicitor William J. Madden.
The newspaper appealed to the state Office of Open Records, and in August the office ruled in favor of The Herald. The authority appealed the issue to common pleas court.
In denying the appeal, St. John said Madden was concerned releasing the names of debtors “would violate consumer protection laws and expose the authority to civil damages,” St. John wrote in his order, which was filed Tuesday.
Releasing the list, particularly to a newspaper that would presumably publish the information, could be seen as an attempt to collect a debt, Madden argued.
But the judge found that those “statutes are not in conflict with Pennsylvania’s new Right-to-Know Law.”
St. John noted that lawmakers did not list the statutes referred to by the authority as exemptions to the law, though it does specify “in great detail some of the other circumstances where records were not to be disclosed.”
Cunningham said Madden’s recommendation to get a judge’s ruling on the matter was proper because they wanted to protect Sharon citizens from the possibility of a lawsuit.
The authority was not trying to cover anything up, he said.
The judge also noted that the intended use of any public record is irrelevant under the law.
The acts prohibited under the consumer protection laws are only illegal if they are done “in connection with the collection of a debt.”
“The release of information by the authority of delinquent account holders to respondent would be for the purpose of complying with the Right-to-Know Law, not for the purpose of collecting on the debt,” St. John wrote.
The authority has cracked down on delinquencies since taking over billing in March from Aqua Pennsylvania, Cunningham said. They also took over collection of delinquent accounts from Sharp Collections, Sharpsville, in September, he said.
Since then, Cunningham said the authority has seen an increase in collections from $80,000 to $100,000 a month. He said that’s not due to the doubled sewer fee enacted in 2009 but to more aggressive pursuit of scofflaws.
The authority was formed by city council in fall 2007 as construction of a new $45 million sewer plant was beginning. That plant is now fully operational and the authority is a separate entity that oversees its own employees and debt.
An eight-month fight over the identities of Sharon sewer customers who collectively owe about $1 million in unpaid bills ended Tuesday with a judge agreeing with the state Office of Open Records and ordering the records be released.
Sharon Sanitary Authority has to allow The Herald access to the delinquent accounts within 30 days of Mercer County Judge Christopher J. St. John’s order.
“We’ll be very ecstatic to give you the information,” Sharon Sanitary Authority Manager Guy Cunningham told The Herald. “I’ve been for this from day one.”
Authority President Frank Connelly Tuesday said he talked to the other board members and they’ve given Cunningham the OK to release the list of names of those who are overdue on their sewer bills.
“Everything is public record,” Connelly said, adding that authority members did not want to hold things up until after their Feb. 11 meeting.
It’s unclear how long it will take for the records to be compiled and provided to The Herald.
Any user who is in compliance with a payment plan is not considered by the authority to be delinquent, Cunningham said.
The list of those who are delinquent is lengthy.
“We’re talking hundreds,” Cunningham said.
About $1 million was owed to the authority as of October, Cunningham testified before St. John at a hearing in the authority’s appeal of the state’s ruling.
The Herald on June 3 submitted a request seeking access to the accounts but it was denied at the advice of authority solicitor William J. Madden.
The newspaper appealed to the state Office of Open Records, and in August the office ruled in favor of The Herald. The authority appealed the issue to common pleas court.
In denying the appeal, St. John said Madden was concerned releasing the names of debtors “would violate consumer protection laws and expose the authority to civil damages,” St. John wrote in his order, which was filed Tuesday.
Releasing the list, particularly to a newspaper that would presumably publish the information, could be seen as an attempt to collect a debt, Madden argued.
But the judge found that those “statutes are not in conflict with Pennsylvania’s new Right-to-Know Law.”
St. John noted that lawmakers did not list the statutes referred to by the authority as exemptions to the law, though it does specify “in great detail some of the other circumstances where records were not to be disclosed.”
Cunningham said Madden’s recommendation to get a judge’s ruling on the matter was proper because they wanted to protect Sharon citizens from the possibility of a lawsuit.
The authority was not trying to cover anything up, he said.
The judge also noted that the intended use of any public record is irrelevant under the law.
The acts prohibited under the consumer protection laws are only illegal if they are done “in connection with the collection of a debt.”
“The release of information by the authority of delinquent account holders to respondent would be for the purpose of complying with the Right-to-Know Law, not for the purpose of collecting on the debt,” St. John wrote.
The authority has cracked down on delinquencies since taking over billing in March from Aqua Pennsylvania, Cunningham said. They also took over collection of delinquent accounts from Sharp Collections, Sharpsville, in September, he said.
Since then, Cunningham said the authority has seen an increase in collections from $80,000 to $100,000 a month. He said that’s not due to the doubled sewer fee enacted in 2009 but to more aggressive pursuit of scofflaws.
The authority was formed by city council in fall 2007 as construction of a new $45 million sewer plant was beginning. That plant is now fully operational and the authority is a separate entity that oversees its own employees and debt.
