Nov 20, 2019 3 min read

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a last-ditch attempt by California University of Pennsylvania to avoid providing an Observer-Reporter staff writer with records pertaining to donations from a contractor the school is suing over the partial collapse of the Vulcan Parking Garage three years ago.

The order left standing a precedent set by the Commonwealth Court on May 31, when a three-judge panel ruled that records of corporate donations to government agencies are public under the state Right To Know Law.

Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association in Harrisburg, said the “public has a right to know the identities of businesses contributing funds to government agencies.

“This information is relevant because businesses contract with government agencies to perform public work paid for with public funds,” Melewsky added, “and public access to donor information can help prevent impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in the contracting process.”

More than a year ago, reporter Gideon Bradshaw asked the school for records detailing donations from Manheim Corp. – which in 2009 was awarded a $10.5 million contract to build the garage on campus – to the Foundation for California University of Pennsylvania, a nonprofit closely affiliated with the state-owned school in the Mon Valley. The request covered a period from the late 2000s to the early 2010s.

Earlier in the summer, Cal U. had sued Manheim and a number of other defendants who were involved in the construction project, alleging those parties were responsible for the collapse in the garage during move-in day in August 2016. No one was injured, but the five-level garage has been unused since then.

Manheim and others targeted in the suit deny liability.

“We are extremely pleased by the court’s decision, and that the protracted litigation over access to public records has finally come to a close,” said Liz Rogers, executive editor of the Observer-Reporter. “We anticipate the review of the requested documents.”

David Pidgeon, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, acknowledged a request for comment from his employer but didn’t provide one before deadline.

Melewsky said that Cal U. had exhausted its options to appeal and in light of the Supreme Court’s decision, “record production should be forthcoming. Thirty days is typical, but it certainly should not take longer than that.”

Before its unsuccessful petition to the state’s high court, the university appealed to Commonwealth Court when the state Office of Open Records determined the requested materials were public.

The state open-records law does make an exemption for records of gifts from “individuals” – flesh-and-blood people – to government agencies, but the appellate judges declined to extend the provision to private companies like Manheim.

The Observer-Reporter was represented by attorneys Colin Fitch and Cary Douglas Jones of the Washington firm Marriner, Jones and Fitch during that stage of the case.

The Foundation for Cal U. intended to take the side of the school if given the chance.

In a filing on behalf of the nonprofit, attorney Jan Budman II offered little legal argument but predicted that the Commonwealth Court’s decision would have a “chilling effect” on the fundraising efforts of his client and other organizations that donate to state universities.