HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday announced that he had fired the newly appointed head of the state Office of Open Records, saying his appointment during the final days of the Corbett administration was “anything but open and transparent.”
In so doing, Pennsylvania’s new Democratic governor may be inviting near-term personnel showdowns with the GOP, particularly over Cabinet positions that require confirmation votes.
The executive director of the records office, former Senate Republican aide Erik Arneson, countered that Mr. Wolf lacked the authority to remove him and said he would continue in the job, even though an administration attorney had confiscated his Capitol access badge.
“I will show up tomorrow morning,” he said, speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon. “I will do my job.”
He called the move by Mr. Wolf “a nuclear attack on the independence of the Office of Open Records.”
The leadership of that office has been in question for much of the past year. In April 2014, the six-year term of the office’s original executive director, Terry Mutchler, expired without then-Gov. Tom Corbett reappointing her or selecting another director. After months of uncertainty, Mr. Corbett announced the appointment of Mr. Arneson on Jan. 9, just days before Mr. Wolf’s inauguration Tuesday.
At the time, Mr. Wolf called Mr. Corbett’s selection of Mr. Arneson a “midnight appointment” and criticized it as lacking transparency.
As a top aide to former Senate GOP leader Dominic Pileggi, Mr. Arneson had been involved in the development of the state Right-to-Know law.
In his statement Thursday, Mr. Wolf said he had recalled all pending executive nominations put forward by Mr. Corbett and that Nathan Byerly, the office’s second-in-command, would serve as acting executive director while a nationwide search is conducted to fill the top position.
Mr. Arneson told reporters Thursday that the 2008 law creating the office gave the director a six-year term “precisely because it crosses over gubernatorial administrations.”
The Office of Open Records does not hear appeals from the Legislature or row offices, Mr. Arneson said. Instead, it hears appeals from the governor’s offices and the governor’s executive branch departments, after members of the public have made open-records requests.
“The need for independence is clear,” Mr. Arneson said. “After two very good days for transparency in Pennsylvania, I think this is a terrible day for transparency in Pennsylvania.”
Jeff Sheridan, a spokesman for Mr. Wolf, said the governor is committed to openness and transparency and criticized what he said was the recent hiring of two attorneys in the open-records office who were from Mr. Corbett’s administration. Mr. Arneson said only one had been hired.
Mr. Sheridan also noted Mr. Byerly has been described as a conservative.
Mr. Wolf’s spokesman also said the governor believes he has the legal authority to remove Mr. Arneson, whom he referred to as “an at-will employee.”
Mr. Pileggi, the author of the Right-to-Know law, which created the Office of Open Records, disagreed.
“It is unquestioned that the clear intent of the General Assembly was to give as much independence to the Office of Open Records as possible,” he said.
“One of the ways that the statute addresses the independence issue is by giving the director a six-year term that would extend beyond the term of any governor that appointed him or her. The idea that the director could be a person who serves at the will of the governor completely eviscerates the ability of the office to be independent.”
Ms. Mutchler, the office’s previous director, who described herself as a friend of Mr. Arneson, said a nationwide search for an executive director may be in the best interests of the office, so as to not undercut confidence in its mission.
The move by Mr. Wolf could set an early tone for his dealings with the Republican-led General Assembly.
“With today’s blanket recall and attempted removal of Erik Arneson as director of the Office of Open Records, Gov. Wolf shows he firmly places ideology above qualifications,” Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, said in a statement. He said the Senate would examine all nominees for the Cabinet and other positions “regardless of who submitted their name for consideration.”
Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for Mr. Corman, said the Senate does not have to grant the governor’s recall of the nominations and does not plan to do so.
Drew Crompton, general counsel for Senate Republicans, said the administration’s actions could “play in” the upcoming process of confirming Mr. Wolf's Cabinet nominations to lead state agencies.
“They certainly put some sand in the gears,” he said.
Included among the two dozen “pending executive nominations” that were recalled by Mr. Wolf on Thursday were judicial nominations, the nomination of former Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley to Temple University’s board of trustees and the appointment of William Lieberman to the state Turnpike Commission.
Karen Langley: klangley@post-gazette.com or 717-787-2141 or on Twitter @karen_langley. Kate Giammarise: kgiammarise@post-gazette.com or 717-787-4254 or on Twitter @KateGiammarise.
First Published: January 22, 2015, 7:43 p.m.
Updated: January 23, 2015, 4:42 a.m.
