A late-term appointment from Gov. Tom Corbett has the outgoing and incoming governors clashing.
Corbett appointed Erik Arneson, a former GOP spokesman for the state Senate, as executive director of the Office of Open Records after Terry Mutchler stepped down Friday. Though Mutchler’s six-year term ended in April, she had continued to hold the role on an interim basis throughout the year.
Corbett praised Arneson as “a fierce advocate for the public’s right to know.”
“Erik’s policy, legislative and communications skills are a perfect fit to lead Pennsylvania’s efforts to maintain open and transparent government response to its citizenry,” Corbett stated Friday.
Governor-Elect Tom Wolf, however, spoke out — not directly against Arneson but against the process. He said Arneson’s appointment was “behind closed doors” and “rushed through at the last minute after months of politically motivated delays.”
“I am very concerned by the process Gov. Corbett used,” Wolf said in a statement Friday evening. “It is important to me that every Pennsylvanian has good reason to trust the government that serves them. These are the types of actions that make people legitimately concerned about their government.”
Despite Wolf’s criticism, Arneson received support from the Senate’s Republican leadership, for whom he was the top aide for more than a dozen years.
“In his 18 years here, Erik Arneson has left his mark on the Senate in many ways, not just as a spokesman but as an advocate for making our operations more open, accessible and responsive to the media and citizens,” Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman stated.
Prior to his experience with the Senate, Arneson worked as a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. He said this mixture of experience in government and media is vital as he takes the role of executive director.
Arneson made clear his first priorities are to update the office’s website and review the office’s draft regulations.
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4 Responses
Corbett has a lot of records to burn before 01-20-15
#UPMCrecycles
https://independent.academia.edu/OchoaMichael/Posts
happydays,
You are right and it is the same Tom Corbett who’s senior staff and numerous others under his administration participated in a pornography ring. His own “professional” staff failed to inform him, the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth, of the filth that infiltrated the culture of his (Corbett’s) state Office.
It is a shame that Open Records does not extend to transactions done by the colleges in the Commonwealth System of Higher Education. (These are the state-related schools of Penn State, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln.) Tons of taxpayer money is spent through these schools, and we have no way of knowing where the money goes without a law that lets us follow the billions. I have tried for five years to find out how much Temple money goes to Japan for something called “Japan campus”, which mostly educates non-Pennsylvania students, often short-term, from other universities. We need more sunlight in Pennsylvania.
You mean the same Tom Corbett whose Attorney General replacement destroyed 1000’s of emails? The same one that had a highly paid do nothing job for one of his buds in the Dept of Ed and implemented policies that as a matter of policy purged emails of his administration. Sorry, don’t trust him.