June 2009 Archives

Sunday's paper features a story about former Rep. Mike Veon, who has been charged in the legislative bonus scandal, using a "selective prosecution" defense that claims other lawmakers -- including former York Rep. Steve Stetler -- also did campaign work on state time.

We've posted the documents in Veon's filing that pertain to Stetler on our "Full Disclosure" page. (Scroll down to "Reading Room.") You can look through the document just as you could if you traveled to Dauphin County Court to get them, as reporter Rick Lee did.

In those documents you'll see e-mails, many from or to Stetler staffers, that Veon says show Stetler's role in organizing and carrying out campaign work. (Stetler, by the way, has not commented directly on Veon's filing).

 When you look at the e-mails, it helps to try to put them into context by recalling the charges against Veon, the nature of the operation prosecutors have alleged he ran, and the fact that this court filing is intended to bolster his defense against those allegations; as well as what the e-mails do or don't show about Stetler's actions, and any missing context or information that may prompt more questions.

 In our story Sunday, we tried to provide some of that context. The story's not over yet, certainly, and we'll keep looking into it to see what's there.

 In the meantime, what do you see in the documents? Any trails we should follow, questions we should ask?

I wrote a couple days ago that state Rep. Jim Christiana was having a news conference about a bill calling for an 'online transparency database' and that I'd try to get more info about what it was.

Well, here you go:

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Washington Observer-Reporter, HB 1460 would make all state spending available in an online database. The O-R reports that would even include "lawmakers' everyday purchases from their expense accounts."

And the T-R reported that former Rep. Bill DeWeese, who was Democratic leader during the Bonusgate scandal but has not been accused of wrongdoing, said had the database been in place, Bonusgate would not have happened.

If you want to keep an eye on that bill, you can get more info here.

In a final determination issued June 22, the state Office of Open Records granted access to details of proposed budgets for school districts.

According to the final determination:

Pat Barget, of the South Eastern Tax Reform Coalition, requested a "copy of the itemized budget, with line by line description" from the South Eastern School District on May 4.

On May 12 the district denied the requests, saying it was a draft document that's not a public record.

The district's argument did not convince the open records office. In fact, the office used the district's denial wording against them. The the denial district called it a "proposed expenditure budget," a specific document that is considered public by the state Department of Education.

South Eastern has one of the most active taxpayer groups in York County. They are a constant presence at school board meetings, and actively take part in public meetings by asking questions and requesting information.

A member of that group alerted the York Daily Record in June 2008 to the proposed purchase of a nearly $100,000 grand piano by the district. After our paper reported on the issue the district backed away, as many taxpayers objected to the district buying a Steinway & Sons Model D concert grand piano, which is one of the finest (and most expensive) pianos in the world. 

A group called Eastern Pennsylvania Citizens Against Gambling says the state Gaming Control Board is appealing an open records ruling that requires it to release financial information on Valley Forge Partners LLP, which is trying to get a slots license for Upper Merion.

The case is Schneller v. Gaming Control Board and can be found here.

A state representive, Jim Christiana of the 15th district, is holding a news conference this morning at 10 in support of an online transparency database (HB1460). You can watch it live here. I'm not familiar with this bill but will try to look it up and add more later.

Reporter Marc Levy of The Associated Press wrote a three-part series, which began today and continues Monday and Tuesday in the York Daily Record/Sunday News, that shows grant money requests made by legislators for particular projects or institutions.

 We've reported several times about where the so-called "walking around money" goes in York County, but what's new in Levy's stories is that, through a right-to-know request, he got documents showing the requests for that money. (Any request, obviously, can be approved or disapproved).

 The series is worth a read. It'll make you think about whether you should be alarmed at how this process works, or whether the money is going to worthwhile projects or entities and accomplishing good things.

 The AP offered spreadsheets showing some of the numbers. I'll try to get those into a searchable database in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, here's the list, pulled from the spreadsheet, of requests made specific to York County. The requests were made between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2008 and includes which caucus made the request:

It's tough times for everyone in the newspaper business, and now it looks like the annual event highlighting open government might have to go without a full-time coordinator.

Check out the full story from the Columbia Journalism Review.

The folks at the Seattle Times have compiled a database of who received earmarks and who gave them in the 2008 defense bill.

The database was among the investigative projects highlighted at this year's IRE conference in Baltimore.

A quick search for earmarks secured by U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County -- who was recently appointed to the House Armed Services Committee -- shows that he helped get a few million for military contractors General Dynamics (which has a location in Red Lion) and Gichner Shelter Systems of Dallastown.

Here's a cool graphic from the Associated Press that will help you read all those marks that comes on federal documents. 

It's pretty nifty. All those symbols and numbers mean something, and this helps you decode them.

Click on the link below to get the full graphic from the Associated Press:

Graphics.pdf

I've been at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Baltimore since Thursday with coworker Melissa Nann Burke.

It has been awesome. We have loads of information to share here with readers.

I am in a time crunch, so I am just going to talk about one here, but there will be more to come.

There is a new site where you can research municipal bonds, which are what agencies use to fund public projects. OK, I am sure some of you might be thinking municipal bonds are a real yawner. Wrong. The filings that go along with these bonds are loaded with great info about the municipalities these projects are in.

And -- the best part -- there's a band-new free Web site where you can access these filings. It's hosted by the federal Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. It has filings dating back to the 1990s.

I did a quick search there as I am writing this post, and found a couple local bond filings on there. I don't have time to read them, but leave a comment here if you find something interesting in York County. 

We planned to blog more this week, but Internet access has been tricky -- mostly because they have very small breaks between sessions and no wireless we can use in the conference center. Anyway, the point is that we have so much information that we can't wait to share here. Stay tuned.

You might recall that we were waiting to hear from the county for its next move on 911 time response logs (see previous blog entry).

Well, county solicitor Michael Flannelly said today the county will be appealing the open records' office decision on our appeal.

The York Township commissioners voted Tuesday night in favor of posting information on the township's Web site about people who make Right-to-Know requests. (Read the story here)

The issue of publicizing this information started with commissioner Paul Knepper, who originally proposed posting it on the Web site and then went as far as sharing the information in a presentation at a previous township meeting.

Knepper's reasoning is that township taxpayers have their own right to know about how much of their money is being spent in responding to the requests.

Credit to David Cuillier, the freedom of information committee chair for the Society of Professional Journalists, for spotting this and putting it on his blog (which you can find here):

The National Academy of Public Administration is asking people to answer the following question:

"How can we strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative?"

And as Cuillier indicates in his blog post: It's a nice idea that's getting drowned out by politicized and overheated comments that have nothing to do with open records or transparency in government. But if you have something to say relevant to those issues, here's a chance to raise your voice.

A two-part investigative project by the Charlotte Observer looks at the growing paychecks of the family who runs Inspiration Network, which has become one of the world's fastest-growing religious broadcasters largely by repeating an on-air pitch promising God's financial favor to those who donate to the network.

According to the paper, which examined the ministry's IRS filings, CEO David Cerullo is now one of the country's best-paid nonprofit leaders with compensation of more than $1.5 million a year. The paper reported that Cerullo's organization also secured relocation incentives from the government of South Carolina worth up to $26 million but has not fulfilled its development promises.

Cerullo said he works hard for his salary and has turned down recommendations that he be paid more. He said his appeals to donors are based on God's promises in the Bible, and that 80 cents of every dollar donated is spent to spread the Gospel.

"Ours is an organization based on accountability, based on integrity, based on trust," the 56-year-old minister told the Observer. "We've proven that in the last 18 years over and over again."