Veon Organization Documents Held Until After Primary

The Beaver County Times reports that state officials waited until after the primary election to release public documents concerning an organization headed by embattle State Representative Mike Veon. The documents detail state government grants awarded to Beaver Initiative for Growth of Beaver Falls. State officials deny th etiming had anything to do with the primary in which Veon was challenged by Jay Paisley.

The documents show grants worth over $10 million have been awarded to the organization since 1999. The records were requested from the Department of Community and Economic Development. The Times notes:

Among other things, the investigation found the organization operated with no written budget, very little state oversight, and at the sole discretion of Veon and LaValle.

It also discovered that BIG spent about $2.9 million of the $10.9 million and has banked the rest. About 69 percent of the money BIG spent went to pay operating costs.

As a follow-up to its investigation, The Times asked DCED for BIG's grant records.

Under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Act, also known as the open-records law, a state agency has 10 days to respond to a request for public documents.

Within 10 days, the agency must provide the records, issue a denial letter or claim an "exception" to the deadline. An exception claim must be written, include a reason for the exception and offer a reasonable time for release of the records.

DCED did none of those things.

Public records requests are serious because they are one of the few checks and balances the public and press have to keep government honest and open. Sitting on such records requests for a powerful legislator facing a primary challenge doesn't sit well with me. Veon won his primary spending about $800,000 to Paisley's $39,000. I bet this information would have been useful for voters prior to casting their votes.