Former Leetsdale Councilman Appeals Open Records Request

has filed an appeal with the Office of Open Records after he said his request for borough financial reports was denied due to short staffing.

Michael Bajsec, former council vice president, approached Thursday night wanting to know why his Right-to-Know request for a list of bills and secretary-treasurer reports was denied, and whether it was simply personal.  

Secretary Liz Petalino, who is also the borough's records officer, said she sent Bajsec a letter partially denying his request specifically for the July report because it isn’t complete. Petalino said her letter informed Bajsec she needed 30 days according to state law because of staffing limitations.

“It has nothing to do with you,” she told Bajsec. “If anybody else made an open records request they would get the same letter.”

Bajsec said he filed a request nearly two weeks ago for a list of bills from 2010 to present and secretary-treasurer reports from December 2011 to July. He said Petalino initially estimated the documents would be ready by Aug. 3, but as the deadline approached, she sent an email saying the July report would take 30 days and denied the request. He said Petalino never addressed his request for a list of bills, which means the request was "deemed denied." 

Petalino said she couldn't meet the request within five days because she has other priorities and has been inundated with other requests, including one from the involving Michael Bajsec, Scimio and Councilman Roger Nanni.

 “I’ve spent many hours making copies for them, which took me away from my normal duties," Petalino said. "I’ve also spent many hours making copies in the answer to the lawsuit that your wife filed against the borough,” she told Michael Bajsec.

Bajsec's wife, Sandra,  last month with the borough after being fired earlier this year from her job as a .  and Petalino was reinstated back into her . Council remove an item from last month's agenda to advertise for an assistant secretary so the position remains unfilled. 

Petalino said she’s doing a borough audit and has an upcoming liquid fuels audit. She said part of Bajsec's request will require pulling and copying 76 of her time sheets alone. As for the list of bills, she said she has to go through QuickBooks, a business accounting program, to compile them.

Petalino said she didn’t want to make promises that the July report would be complete by a certain date and not have it finished.

“What if I get hit by a car? What if something (happens),” she said.

With the office staffing down from three employees to one, Petalino said she has worked 167 hours of overtime since Jan. 1 and hasn’t been able to take one day of her four weeks of vacation.

Bajsec told council he was surprised to also learn about the staffing limitations, specifically the open position of assistant borough secretary.

“For a year and a half, all we heard from the incoming council members was that Liz ran the borough all by herself,” he told the board.

Petalino said Bajsec is free to request the report again on Sept. 1 after the 30 days.

Bajsec, meanwhile, has filed an appeal with the state Office of Open Records. An open records official said Friday that the office has 30 days to respond once the appeal is received.

Attorney Kate Dierson, who substituted for borough solicitor Megan Ott, said the borough will allow the appeals process to play out.

Reimbursement Request

A separate request from Michael Bajsec asking that his wife, Sandy Bajsec, be reimbursed for an appearance before the state Ethics Commission was denied.

Bajsec said his wife, Sandy, was called before the commission earlier this year to testify about borough matters. Bajsec said last month that the legal fees amounted to $765.44, but he asked Thursday to be reimbursed $350, the cost to have an attorney represent his wife for two hours at the hearing. 

Dierson said the costs would have been addressed

The borough settled a lawsuit with Bajsec last month and copies of the settlement were made available at the Thursday’s council meeting.