Montgomery County requests more time
By KEITH PHUCAS
Times Herald Staff
Montgomery County has stated it will require another month to provide the county’s professional services contracts and related documents requested earlier this month by The Times Herald.
Under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, The Times Herald filed an open records request Feb. 16 to obtain a list of companies that did business with the county since Jan. 1, 2009. As well, The Times Herald asked for resolutions, meeting minutes or written material reflecting the commissioners’ approval of the contracts.
“We presently estimate that we will be able to provide a response to the remainder of your request no later than March 24, 2010,” reads a letter from Assistant Open Records Officer B. Thomas Noonan, who works for the county solicitor. “We estimate that the total number of pages for documents responsive to your request is in excess of 1,000 pages.”
The request for a vendors list was prompted by an admission by county officials at the Feb. 4 commissioners meeting that they had not followed a 1998 ordinance requiring solicitations routinely be sent out to five prospective professional service contractors.
After receiving a request from Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr. in the days following the meeting, Solicitor Barry Miller and his staff began searching for professional services contracts to check if any have complied with the law since the commissioners took office in 2008.
Castor has stated that he was not consulted about any of the professional services contract awards beforehand.
Amid allegations of “pay to play” between contractors and county officials, The Times Herald plans to evaluate the list of contractors and vendors’ contributions to the political campaigns of commissioners James R. Matthews, Joseph M. Hoeffel and Castor.
Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed the Right-To-Know Law on Feb. 14, 2008 fundamentally changing the way people can access public records. The hallmark of the new law, which fully became effective Jan. 1, 2009, is its presumption of openness.
For the first time in that state’s history, citizens no longer have to prove that a record is public and should be released. Currently, government agencies must presume a record is a public record available for inspection or copying.
If an agency chooses to withhold a record, it has the burden to prove — with legal citation — why that record should not be available to the public, according to the state’s Office of Open Records.
Times Herald Staff
Montgomery County has stated it will require another month to provide the county’s professional services contracts and related documents requested earlier this month by The Times Herald.
Under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, The Times Herald filed an open records request Feb. 16 to obtain a list of companies that did business with the county since Jan. 1, 2009. As well, The Times Herald asked for resolutions, meeting minutes or written material reflecting the commissioners’ approval of the contracts.
“We presently estimate that we will be able to provide a response to the remainder of your request no later than March 24, 2010,” reads a letter from Assistant Open Records Officer B. Thomas Noonan, who works for the county solicitor. “We estimate that the total number of pages for documents responsive to your request is in excess of 1,000 pages.”
The request for a vendors list was prompted by an admission by county officials at the Feb. 4 commissioners meeting that they had not followed a 1998 ordinance requiring solicitations routinely be sent out to five prospective professional service contractors.
After receiving a request from Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr. in the days following the meeting, Solicitor Barry Miller and his staff began searching for professional services contracts to check if any have complied with the law since the commissioners took office in 2008.
Castor has stated that he was not consulted about any of the professional services contract awards beforehand.
Amid allegations of “pay to play” between contractors and county officials, The Times Herald plans to evaluate the list of contractors and vendors’ contributions to the political campaigns of commissioners James R. Matthews, Joseph M. Hoeffel and Castor.
Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed the Right-To-Know Law on Feb. 14, 2008 fundamentally changing the way people can access public records. The hallmark of the new law, which fully became effective Jan. 1, 2009, is its presumption of openness.
For the first time in that state’s history, citizens no longer have to prove that a record is public and should be released. Currently, government agencies must presume a record is a public record available for inspection or copying.
If an agency chooses to withhold a record, it has the burden to prove — with legal citation — why that record should not be available to the public, according to the state’s Office of Open Records.
