More Amazon games

City and county make a private plea to judge

The city and county are so fearful of taxpayers learning about the incentives they’ve offered for Amazon’s second headquarters that they have resorted to inappropriate behavior — sending a private letter to a judge asking him to keep certain information secret even if he rules that the overall bid should be released to the public.

When two parties are in court, one may not approach the judge without the other knowing about it and having an opportunity to respond. Every first-year law student knows that. Sanctions should be imposed on everyone who had a hand in this behind-the-scenes overture to Common Pleas Senior Judge W. Terrence O’Brien, who is expected to rule by the end of the month on WTAE-TV’s demand to see the bid — which months ago was pronounced a public document by the state Office of Open Records.

Though disappointing, the government’s ex parte communication to Judge O’Brien is not surprising. Since they submitted their bid to Amazon more than a year ago, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep it under wraps.

They denied news organizations’ requests for the document, claiming releasing details would give competing cities an advantage. But competitive advantage isn’t a legitimate reason for withholding documents under the open-records law.

The media appealed to the Office of Open Records, which properly applied the law and ordered the city and county to release the bid. Then Mr. Peduto and Mr. Fitzgerald appealed to Common Pleas Court.

Often, the two officials have waited until the last possible moment to file motions so as to drag out the process and keep the public in the dark for as long as possible. They concocted the fantastical claim that the bid is confidential because it belongs not to the city and county but to PGHQ2, the arm of the nonprofit Allegheny Conference on Community Development that helped to put together the document.

But that’s a shell game. Only the city and county can offer financial incentives to Amazon. The bid belongs to the taxpayers, who have the legal right to know what’s been promised to Amazon on their behalf.

Well after a July 5 hearing, the city and county sent a letter to Judge O’Brien asking him to keep certain information secret even if he rules the overall bid should be released. Only later did associate city solicitor John Doherty notify Ravi V. Sitwala, the attorney for WTAE-TV, about the letter.

For a year, the city and county have refused to release any portion of the bid. Requests for the document were met with blanket denials. Now, slicing and dicing the document is OK if it’s to their benefit? How shameful.

By imploring at the 11th hour that certain parts remain secret even if the the overall bid is made public, the city and county have shown the weakness of their case. To make the request in a secret letter to the judge, instead of in a public motion filed with the court clerk, is despicable.

All along, Mr. Peduto and Mr. Fitzgerald have said the public doesn’t need to know what it’s the bid because, should Amazon choose to put its HQ2 here, all incentives will go through a public approval process before actually being awarded to the company. But if the city and county aren’t playing by the rules of the legal system, taxpayers have little reason to believe that their future actions will be aboveboard, either.