NEWSLETTER # 3
February 8, 2011
I went to the Court of Common Pleas in Reading today to petition the Court to enforce the Final Determination by the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records which stated that the Borough of Kutztown shall give me the financial records I requested. All the Borough’s objections were the same excuses they presented and were rejected by the Office of Open Records. They presented no new objections. Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl reserved decision.
It was very enlightening to hear the Kutztown Borough Solicitor Keith Mooney state:
a) Municipalities do not keep financial records as do private firm.
b) All you have to see is total revenue and expenditures and not show how and where they were listed and totaled up.
c) Telecom is not a separate entity but the same as other Borough Utilities.
Isn’t it amazing that the Borough refuses to make the finances of Telecom public and is in Court to avoid the enforcement of the Final Determination of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. It is ironic because the Kutztown Borough Code is very strict and specific in dealing with Service Electric Cable, the cable TV and internet provider, in the Borough. The Borough Code Chapter 230 reads as follow; I quote from the Code
A230-11 RECORD KEEPING; COMPANY OFFICE
FOR THE PURPOSES OF ADMINISTERING THIS ORDINANCE THE COMPANY SHALL;
A. KEEP AND RENDER ITS BOOKS AND RECORDS IN A MANNER WHICH WILL PERMIT THE DRAWING OFF OF A DETAILED FINANCIAL STATEMENT THEREFROM CLEARLY DISCLOSING THE AMOUNT OF RENTALS RECEIVED BY THE COMPANY ARRIVING AT THE DETERMINATION OF THE GROSS RECEIPTS RENTALS AS HERETOFORE SET FORTH.
The Borough just wants to simply draw off the information with no effort. The Borough stated in Court that if anyone wants the financial records of Telecom in the Borough they can pick the figures out of the Borough’s mandatory Annual Audit and calculate the difference.
Why doesn’t the Borough hold themselves to the same standards they demand from the local cable TV and internet provider?
Gennaro A. Marino P.E.
www.marinoreport.com
e-mail kmayor@ptd.net
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
bravo jerry.
thanks for looking out for the people's interest!
god bless.
The politician attempts to remedy the evil by increasing the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder. – Frédéric Bastiat
Post a Comment