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Lawyers representing the Times Leader and a statewide media coalition in a freedom of information fight to obtain a whistleblower’s letter criticizing PPL Electric Utilities have filed a brief as the case moves to the state Supreme Court.
Commonwealth Court last year ruled against releasing the letter, deciding that since the document initiated an investigation into PPL’s handling of a 2011 snowstorm, it is exempt under the state’s open records law.
“The public’s right of access to government records in Pennsylvania is not solely created by right to know laws,” media attorneys Craig J. Staudenmaier and Joshua D. Bonn wrote in their brief, filed with the Supreme Court on Monday.
The letter
The tip letter — reportedly written by a PPL employee and sent to the state Public Utility Commission in November 2011 — alleged that a PPL crew one month earlier was transferred from a higher priority job to a lower priority job while working to restore service in a snowstorm that knocked out power to more than 388,000 PPL customers.
PPL said the crew received a wrong assignment, resulting in a restoration delay of about four hours that affected some 1,500 customers.
Based on the tip letter, the PUC Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement launched an informal investigation. Without a formal complaint or public hearing, the PUC and PPL entered a settlement that required PPL to pay a $60,000 civil penalty in 2013.
The court case
The Times Leader and The Morning Call filed a right to know request seeking a copy of the letter.
The state Office of Open Records ordered the tip letter released. PPL and the PUC appealed the decision to Commonwealth Court, which backed them in a December ruling.
But the Supreme Court in June agreed to hear an appeal, acknowledging that the issue is of “substantial public importance.” The court noted that Commonwealth Court’s ruling could affect “public access to documents involved in (other) investigations of the Public Utility Commission and resulting settlements,” to which state lawmakers “sought to provide broad access.”
In Monday’s brief, Staudenmaier and Bonn take aim at arguments that the letter is shielded from release because it was linked to an investigation.
Rather, they argue, state law refers specifically to PUC investigations, and requires that “with respect to its investigations, it shall make part of the public record and release publicly any documents relied upon” by the PUC.
The lawyers also point out that state law does not make any general exemption for investigative records.
The coalition they represent also includes The Associated Press, The Patriot News/PennLive.com of Harrisburg, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, The Pocono Record of Stroudsburg, LNP of Lancaster, Calkins Media and Times News of Lehighton.