P.O. Box 1041

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230-1041

Telephone: 412-561-7876

Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >

Internet Web Site: < http://www.planetarium.cc >

2008 March 17

Mr. Christopher J. Hess, Assistant General Manager

Legal and Corporate Services

Port Authority of Allegheny County

Heinz 57 Center/Gimbels Landmark Building

345 Sixth Avenue, Third Floor

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222-2527

By Certified Mail, Return-Receipt Requested

RE: Response to Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law Request

Dear Mr. Hess:

I sent to the Port Authority of Allegheny County (to the office of Chief Executive Officer Stephen G. Bland) a Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law Request on 2007 August 31; this request was repeated on 2007 October 31. I received your response (dated 2008 February 29 with a postal meter date of 2008 March 3) to my Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law request on 2008 March 5.

Your letter mentions that I may “file an exception requesting a final determination of the denial with Port Authority within fifteen (15) days of receipt of this letter.” While you mention this 15-day deadline that I am expected to comply with, there is no mention in your letter of the complete noncompliance of your response to the amendment to the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, effective 2002 December 26, which requires that public agencies reply to such public requests within five business days. Yes, five business days, not six months!

Now, regarding your response, please note that the Penn Station to South Hills Village rail line was discontinued last year, not in 2005 as your letter indicates. Service on the line was suspended in March of 2007, during rehabilitation of the Palm Garden Bridge while 42S rail service was also suspended. Although signs at both Penn Station and Steel Plaza assured riders that Penn Station rail service would return following completion of the bridge reconstruction project, the Port Authority reneged on this promise when 42S service resumed in September.

From your response, am I to understand that the Port Authority operated a light rail line from Penn Station to South Hills Village, for more than a decade, without maintaining any records of ridership? I have ridden that line several times and, although I cannot quote ridership statistics, I can tell you that route had good ridership. You mean to tell me that my anecdotal observations of ridership on this rail line are better than the Port Authority’s information?

Mr. Christopher J. Hess 2008 March 17 Page 2 of 2

After more than a decade of service, it seems likely that once, and probably more often, the Port Authority conducted sample ridership counts on this route, even if you did not regularly maintain separate ridership statistics. Hence, I will ask again (i.e. I am filing an exception requesting a final determination of the denial of relevant ridership data) to be provided ridership counts on the Penn Station to South Hills Village rail line, which ran two round-trips each weekday afternoon up until a year ago this month.

From your response, you stated that some of the “documents which you are seeking are not public records within the meaning of the Act.” I do not necessarily agree, but no matter.
Fortunately, this will all change on January 1 with the implementation of the updated Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, which changes the presumption thus that
“The burden of proving that a record of Commonwealth agency or local agency is exempt from public access shall be on the Commonwealth agency or local agency receiving
a request by a preponderance of the evidence.”

Thus, if you continue to contend that my request asks for information that “are not public records within the meaning of the Act”, I will simply resubmit the request in January.

Sincerely yours,

Glenn A. Walsh

gaw

Attachments: Response to Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law Request from Christopher J. Hess:

2008 February 29

Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law Request Sent: 2007 August 31 and October 31

Copy: Members of the Board of Directors, Port Authority of Allegheny County

Stephen G. Bland, Chief Executive Officer, Port Authority of Allegheny County

Barbara Simpson, President, Allegheny County Transit Council

Dan Onorato, Chief Executive, County of Allegheny

Members, County Council, County of Allegheny: