The Norwin Environmental Stewardship Team (“NEST”), with the assistance of MWA, prevailed on Friday, September 26th in its appeal of North Huntington Township’s (“NHT”) denial of several of NEST’s right-to-know requests. NHT denied requests filed by NEST seeking documents related to the leasing of Braddock’s Trail and Oak Hollow Parks for natural gas extraction and produced some documents with severe redaction.
As quoted in the Appeals Officer’s decision, the Right-to-Know Law is “designed to promote access to official government information in order to prohibit secrets, scrutinize the actions of public officials and make public officials accountable for their actions.” With such an invaluable public resource being leased for natural gas extraction, this is an important victory that should shed light on the controversial decision to lease the parks. Because of this decision, NHT will be required to produce all draft gas leases for the parks, all electronic and written correspondence of NHT (internally and externally sent) related to the leasing of the parks, invoices for consultants hired, among other documents.
A copy of the Appeals Officer’s decision can be found here. Please contact Nick with any questions regarding this matter or requests under the Right-to-Know Law generally.