The (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader, Jan. 12

City of Hazleton seeks Times Leader suit dismissal

Times Leader staff

The city of Hazleton on Jan. 9 filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader.

Through Joseph McHale, an attorney hired by the city's insurance company, the city claims that the newspaper "failed to exhaust all administrative remedies" when trying to obtain the names of donors to the city's legal defense fund. The fund was set up to cover expenses from a lawsuit challenging the city's Illegal Immigration Relief Act.

The newspaper in October requested information on the defense fund, including donor names. The city provided only the amount of each donation, and the town from which it was sent.

Newspaper attorney Ralph Kates filed exceptions to the city's partial denial of information and filed a lawsuit seeking to force the city to provide the information after the city failed to respond to his exceptions within the time required by the Right to Know Law.

The city claims the lawsuit can't proceed because the city never responded to Kates' exceptions, Kates said.

"Hazleton cannot lock the courthouse door to the right of the public to access public information and then keep the keys to the courthouse door in Hazleton’s pocket," he said.

If the city won that argument, a judge would compel the city to respond to the exceptions, Kates said, and he would file an amended complaint addressing the response. In the meantime, Kates said he and McHale are working on an agreement in which the city will voluntarily provide a response to his exceptions.

The city claims that the Times Leader is not entitled to the information because the newspaper's parent company was incorporated in Delaware, and under the state Right to Know Law, agencies in Pennsylvania are required only to provide public information to state residents.

Kates said that's "an incorrect legal argument. The Times Leader is a citizen of Pennsylvania capable of suing and being sued."

Kates said that if the city won that argument, he would add to the amended complaint the name of the reporter who requested the information from the city, because the reporter is a Pennsylvania resident.

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