“Markets Have Collapsed”: Cities, waste companies ponder next steps as the recycling industry faces crisis.

May 25, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Penn Waste employees sort recycled material at the company’s Materials Recovery Facility in York County. Processing costs at the MRF are causing Penn Waste to lose $800,000 a month on its recycling program, since the export market for recycled goods has collapsed. (Photo courtesy of Penn Waste.)

If you tossed paper or plastic in a blue recycling bin this year, there’s a good chance it won’t find its second life anytime soon.

The global supply chain that takes waste from households in the United States to processing plants in China has broken, industry leaders say, leaving months’ worth of recyclable material sitting in American warehouses without a prospective destination.

“The industry is in crisis,” said James Warner, CEO of Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA). “The economics of recycling are underwater.”

Pennsylvania waste companies, including the York County-based Penn Waste, which collects and processes recyclable waste in Harrisburg and most of south central Pennsylvania, are seeking temporary relief from a state law that prohibits the disposal of recyclable materials as trash.

The Department of Environmental Protection enforces that law but does not have the authority to grant exemptions from it, according to an agency spokesperson.

As a result, recycling firms are accumulating hundreds of tons of recyclable material that they cannot sell.

“We cannot get it out the door quick enough,” said Penn Waste spokesperson Amanda Davison. “We’ve already slowed down processing and we’re adding more equipment and labor… but the markets have collapsed.”

Davidson said the material at Penn Waste’s facility in York County is getting even less marketable as time goes on, since “it can only sit outside for so long before it becomes a safety hazard because of rain deterioration and vermin.”

Penn Waste, which was founded by Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner, has lost $800,000 a month since October on its recycling business, Davidson said. The company reported $75 million in revenue in 2017, according to the Central Penn Business Journal.

To make up for the loss, Penn Waste has imposed a sustainability fee on its commercial accounts and plans to ask municipalities to renegotiate their rates in their contracts.

Both Davidson and Warner say that the sudden breakdown of the global recycling market could reshape the industry for good, potentially changing the way that municipalities collect recyclables and pass costs on to consumers.

A Problem with Global Reach
For decades, China has been the largest global importer of recycled goods. The country consumed more than 50 percent of the world’s recycled paper and plastic in 2016, according to the National Waste and Recycling Association.

As Chinese demand for recycled goods grew in the 1990s and 2000s, American recycling programs flourished. Revenues from selling recycled waste always exceeded the cost of transporting, processing and packaging it, Warner said, which allowed municipalities, including Harrisburg, to haul away residents’ recyclables without charging them.

But the economic equation that supports that model has deteriorated in the past year. The very systems that allowed haulers to collect more recyclables also harmed the quality of their exports over time.

Single-stream recycling programs, for instance, which allow consumers to toss all of their recyclables into the same collection bin, proliferated in the 2000s. They allowed haulers to collect more recyclable waste than ever before, but it was also contaminated with growing amounts of food waste, non-recyclable plastics and medical waste.

“The U.S. got very sloppy,” Warner said. “We made it too convenient and didn’t educate consumers enough about what was and wasn’t recyclable.”

Chinese importers warned American firms in 2013 that they needed better quality control. But American contamination levels continued to rise, reaching an all-time high of 20 percent last year. At that rate, one in five items in a processed bale of recycling is non-recyclable trash.

China’s latest response came in November, when it announced that it would not accept any material with a contamination level above .5 percent starting in 2018. The decree has disqualified almost all of America’s recycled waste from import.

With the Chinese market suddenly inaccessible, haulers like Penn Waste have begun to seek out other Asian and domestic markets to sell the recyclables that they sort and bale at their plant in York County.

But the few substitute markets that do exist are already saturated by larger firms, such as Dallas-based Waste Management, the largest sanitation company in the world.

“Smaller, regional [companies] can’t compete because they have such a small volume,” said LCSWMA spokesperson Kathryn Sandoe. “Waste Management might be able to sell the material at such a low rate because they have to move it, but then a company like Penn Waste has nowhere to move theirs.”

The New Cost of Business
Sooner or later, the chaos racking the recycling industry will bring a cost to consumers.

Davidson and Warner warned that the era of “free recycling” will come to an end and haulers may have to move away from single-stream collection programs.

LCSWMA, which manages waste material brought collected by private haulers, used to sell recyclable materials to Penn Waste for $4 per ton. Now, they’re paying Penn Waste $40 per ton to take the waste off their hands.

Warner said that the loss of recycling markets won’t eat into the authority’s $85 million annual revenues. Penn Waste is absorbing most of the costs now, since it owns the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) that sorts and bales recyclables for export.

Davidson said that Penn Waste may have to move to a fee-based model for processing recycling, which would spread cost out over collectors and residential and commercial customers.

Penn Waste is bound by contracts with its municipal account holders, which usually last for terms of three to five years, Davidson said. If they don’t renegotiate rates now, municipalities will see them skyrocket to retroactively compensate Penn Waste for the revenue it lost on their accounts.

Harrisburg may be the only exception. The city’s $190 per-ton dumping fee at LCSWMA is double what the rest of Dauphin County pays, due to terms of a financial restructuring deal in which Harrisburg sold the incinerator to the waste authority.

As a result, it’s unlikely that the cost of recycling will ever eclipse the cost of dumping Harrisburg’s trash at the incinerator.

“One of benefits, if you can call it that, of having such high tipping fees is that we can incentivize people to recycle as much as possible because it’s better for the city financially,” said Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse. “But in [a township] with reasonable tipping fees, it may not make sense to pay exorbitant recycling costs to Penn Waste.”

Papenfuse said Harrisburg residents should take as much recycling out of the waste stream as they can. But according to Warner, that emphasis on diversion is what led to the current crisis in the American recycling industry.

“It’s not grounded in reality,” Warner said. “Communities are preaching diversion, and the only thing they’re getting is more trash in the recycling bin, which is hurting recycling.”

He and Davidson said that consumer education will be key to repairing the industry. Warner said that many consumers believe that all plastics are recyclable, even though disposable shopping bags, food packaging and food containers are considered contaminants.

Warner also said that single-stream recycling may be replaced by dual-stream programs that allow processors to extract valuable materials more easily. Papenfuse said that Harrisburg could consider dual-stream recycling if the convenience of single-stream becomes cost-prohibitive.

Watch a tour of Penn Waste’s Materials Recovery Facility to learn how recyclables are sorted, baled and prepared for export. Also, see this guide from LCSWMA to learn what is and isn’t recyclable. In Harrisburg, glass must be recycled in designated collection bins located throughout the city.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

May 24, 2018 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Long Weekend!

(Psst, today is my husband’s birthday. Say hi, or listen to his podcast. Tweet him.) The first of the summer holiday is upon us, but man, it looks kinda gross. We have minimal plans, which is great because maybe I will finally get my garden in today/tomorrow, and maybe we’ll take the kiddo to Artsfest, but definitely to the Market.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

Superintendents to State: We need more funding to support our students.

May 23, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

Superintendents from a number of urban school districts in Pennsylvania gathered on Tuesday inside the state Capitol to ask for additional funding.

A group of Pennsylvania superintendents, students and parents rallied inside the state Capitol for increased school funding on Tuesday, saying that, due to a lack of resources, vital programs and staff were being cut.

“We as superintendents of urban school districts came to Harrisburg today to speak with our legislature about what it is that they can do and what we can do to help them improve the lives of our young students,” said Dr. Juan Baughn, superintendent of Chester Upland school district.

Dr. Stephen Butz, superintendent of the Southeast Delco school district, told the story of a student named Brittany and her journey through the district. Butz first met Brittney a decade ago when she was in kindergarten. While Brittney struggled with reading, she enjoyed the music program that was then offered to kindergarten students.

“She was singing in the chorus that year,” Butz said. “I remember her mom– her mom was working two jobs that year just to make ends meet, but she was concerned about Brittney, concerned that Brittney get a good education.”

By the time Brittney was in fourth grade, the music program and a physical education program had been cut, the average class size had risen from 25 to 33 students, and, by Brittney’s second year of high school, the district’s staff of more 700 had been slashed to fewer than 600.

“Brittney is now a 16- or 17-year-old student looking ahead toward college, looking ahead toward being successful, and that’s what state funding [toward] education can provide,” Butz said. “We must adequately fund our schools for our students. All of our students.”

About eight years ago, the Harrisburg school district faced a $22 million deficit, closing five schools and furloughing hundreds of employees. According to Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney, that was just the beginning.

As a new superintendent, Knight-Burney said she was forced to eliminate music, athletics, pre-K and kindergarten programs. Now, Harrisburg is in danger of losing of kindergarten completely.

“No new superintendent should have to tell her community that their neediest and most vulnerable student population would be at risk for failure because there will be no pre-K or kindergarten program to provide them with the fundamental tools needed to learn just [how] to read,” she said.

According to Knight-Burney, the lack of funding is a vicious cycle. It leads to a reduced quality of education, which contributes to parents taking their children out of the district.

“Families and businesses that have the ability to relocate often choose to do that and move to the more affluent districts, contributing to the upward spiral of real estate values there and the downward spiral that often occurs in the urban or otherwise economically disadvantaged areas,” she said.

Knight-Burney estimated that the Harrisburg district is underfunded each year by more than $35 million.

“I’m often asked, and I struggle to try and understand, ‘Why is it that our lawmakers don’t want our students in our urban districts to receive a fair and equitable education?’” she said. “I am still struggling, as my colleagues are struggling, to understand why this inequity is allowed to continue to the eventual detriment of our greatest commodity, our children.”

Several speakers at the event strongly denounced Senate Bill 2, which would allow students who live in the state’s lowest academically performing districts to use public money for private school tuition.

Alan Johnson, superintendent of the Woodland Hills school district, said his school would suffer under the proposed law, which would divert tax money away from public schools to private entities.

“We don’t just educate,” Johnson said. “We clothe our children, we feed our children, we care for them after school, sometimes we care for them on weekends. We see to their physical health, we see to their mental health, we see to their behavioral health. We do so much more than educate.”

Despite inadequate funding, Johnson said his school still holds an 88-percent graduation rate, with 60 percent of students going on to a two- or four-year college. He and other superintendents criticized wording from some school voucher proponents, who have described lower-performing public school districts as “failing.”

“And out of this building [the Capitol] came a system that says my school district is failing,” he said. “I don’t think the school district is failing. I think the system is failing our school districts.”

Summer Service: CAT, Hershey Entertainment team up to connect people to jobs.

May 22, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

With summer approaching, Capital Area Transit (CAT) once again is partnering with Hershey Entertainment & Resorts to bring workers to seasonal jobs.

Implemented on Tuesday, the HP (Hersheypark) bus route will provide more than 10 routes to connect Harrisburg residents to popular Hershey areas such as Hersheypark, Tanger Outlets and the Hershey Hotel.

“This is the 15th consecutive season that CAT has run its summer service to the Hershey properties,” said Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse (pictured above), at a press conference on Tuesday. “During those 15 years, CAT has transported more than a quarter-million riders from the city of Harrisburg to Hershey.”

This year, CAT anticipates the HP will transport 35,000 riders to and from Hershey throughout the summer. For these riders, Hershey Entertainment has funded an articulated bus for $10,040. The bus, which resembles two buses held together by an accordion-like connector, holds 60 seats, twice the number of a regular CAT bus.

“Not only will we be increasing the number of riders per trip, but we will be reducing the operating cost,” said Papenfuse.

The bus, which will not be available until July, will also feature Hershey branding.

“On behalf of our nearly 700 full-time and 7,000 part-time employees, we are grateful for our ongoing collaboration with Capital Area Transit and are proud to partner with an organization that is so committed to serving our community,” said Kathleen McGraw, director of communications at Hershey Entertainment & Resorts. “We are confident that this service that was announced today will not only help out employees and guests but the region as a whole.”

According to Richard Farr, the executive director of CAT, the bus will not only benefit Hershey and their employees, but Harrisburg will see an economic benefit, as well.

“It gives individuals jobs, which is something we are always looking to do, and it allows those who have jobs and reside in the city of Harrisburg to spend their money downtown,” he said. “They’ll partake in the activities, they’ll partake in the restaurants, and that’s all part of the bigger picture of economic development.”

In addition, CAT has updated its current routes, which are effective today:

Route 9 – Discontinuation of service to PA Game Commission
Route 12 – Time adjustment of 5:15 p.m. inbound trip; time point & notes added to schedule
Route 39 – Discontinuation of Vartan Way deviation (6:30 a.m. trip)
Route 322 – Time adjustment of 7:45 a.m. inbound trip & route alignment adjustments
Route C – Time adjustments on outbound p.m. rush hour trips

For the full list of changes, visit cattransit.com and read the full summer service announcement.

Myths & Mortals: Best-selling novelist Madeline Miller to visit Midtown Scholar.

May 22, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

“For a hundred generations, I walked to work drowsy and dull, idle and at my ease,” wrote Madeline Miller as her protagonist, the hawk-eyed Circe. “Then I learned I can bend the world, as a bow is bent for an arrow.”

Miller’s sophomore novel “Circe” depicts the world of gods and goddesses, mortals and witches, and she is bringing that world to Midtown Scholar Bookstore on Wednesday.

“We’re delighted to welcome Madeline Miller to Harrisburg, especially with all the buzz surrounding her new novel,” said Alex Brubaker, Midtown Scholar’s manager. “To come in at No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list proves she’s one of the finest storytellers working today.”

“Circe” is a feminist retelling of the classic mythological character seen in Homer’s “The Odyssey.” The novel is told through the perspective of Circe, the daughter of the Titan sun god Helios and the alluring nymph Perse. Circe cannot start fire with her eyes or bleed gold like her father, nor does she have the fatal beauty of her mother. Feeling like a black sheep, she turns to the mortal world. There, she learns she does possess a power–the power of witchcraft. She harnesses this power by turning her enemies into monsters (and opposing men into pigs).

“With Circe, people have been really moved by her story just as a women,” Miller said. “I think a lot of those features of women’s lives don’t get treated in an epic fashion. Women have not been the center of an epic, so I wanted to make a women’s life epic and give her the complexity that the male characters have.”

It seems as if the Boston native was born to retail the stories of gods and goddesses. As a young girl, her mother read her passages from Homer’s “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” as bedtime stories. Immediately, she was gripped by the raw emotions of the characters.

“Here are all these characters that are angry and grieving, and learning, and it was just so monumental and passionate that I was totally hypnotized,” Miller said.

From then on, she dove into as many mythological texts as she could get her hands on. In high school, Miller learned ancient Greek and Latin from her teacher. A year after her first lesson, she was able to read and comprehend “The Iliad” in its original language.

“[It] was just mind blowing,” she said. “It wasn’t just about the story. It was also the beauty of the languages. Latin and Greek literature are just some of the most beautiful poetry you can imagine.”

She then went on to receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classics at Brown University. There, she learned more on how to uncover hidden meanings and themes within the text, such as homoeroticism, which is seen in her first novel “The Songs of Achilles.” Literature and philosophy icons such as Plato and even Shakespeare wrote about the love between Achilles and Patroclus, yet, according to Miller, that interpretation has dissolved through the decades.

“Part of what I really wanted to do was honor the relationship in ‘The Songs of Achilles’ and bring that interpretation back out of the closet space,” she said.

Miller then took to her own classroom, where she taught and tutored high school students in Latin, Greek and Shakespeare for 15 years. Miller said it was exciting to see her students come to the material for the first time and she wanted to bring that feeling to more people, thus came her first novel.

“The Songs of Achilles” was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2012, became a New York Times bestseller and was translated into over 25 languages. “Circe” was noted as becoming an instant No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

“I never in my wildest dreams imagined No. 1,” Miller said. “At most, I hoped I would make the top 10 and that already felt like I was living in la la land.”

Currently, Miller says she is in the “thinking phase” of her third novel. While there may be some ideas swimming around in her head, she is not ready to get behind the computer just yet.

“After such an intensive time with ‘Circe,’ I just want to sit for a little while and read other people’s books,” she said with a laugh.

Miller said her presentation at Midtown Scholar will focus on “Circe” and the complexities of the characters, underlying themes and what it was like relating back to Homer and other classics.

“One thing I have found, which is one of the nicest, nicest things during these events is that people come with a ton of questions,” she said. “Not just about my work but about mythology and literary adaptations. They’ll either come knowing a lot about mythology or nothing about mythology and wanting to know more. As a teacher, seeing so many people who are interested and engaging about this topic is really exciting.”

Madeline Miller will be at Midtown Scholar Bookstore, 1302 N. 3^rd St., Harrisburg, on May 23, 7 to 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.midtownscholar.com. To learn more about Miller and her novels visit Madelinemiller.com.

School board to vote on tax hikes, staff cuts in budget meeting next week.

May 21, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

The Harrisburg School Board will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, May 29 to vote on its proposed budget for the 2018-2019 school year.

The most recent budget proposals call for hiking taxes by 3.6 percent and eliminating 31 teaching, administrative, and support positions — steps that administrators say are necessary as the district tries to plug an $8 million deficit.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Administration Building at 1601 State Street.

The first budget vote was originally scheduled for the Monday, May 21 board meeting. However, that vote was postponed as the board devoted most of its session to discuss the future of superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney, whose contract with the district expires June 30.

The board voted to retain Knight-Burney for at least three more years.

Business manager Bilal Hasan said that the district must vote on its budget at least 30 days before it is officially due to the state Department of Education.

The most recent budget proposal from the district business office calls for the elimination of 31 employees across the district, including assistant principals, counselors, security personnel, teachers and district administrators.

Last week, teachers appeared before the board to protest cuts to administrative staff and ask for positions to be eliminated in the district’s central administrative office instead.

The cuts would narrow the district’s projected deficit from $8 million to $5 million for the 2018-19 school year, if the board authorizes maximum tax hikes.

The district has not levied a tax hike since 2012, but, this year, administrators are proposing an increase of 1.0008 mills, or 3.6 percent of its current 27.8 millage rate – the maximum rate allowed under the Act 1 Index.

With a median home value of $42,800, the tax hike will cost the average city homeowner an additional $43 a year, Hasan said in April.

Budget projections presented last month call for the board to authorize tax hikes of the same magnitude every year through 2021, one year after the district is expected to deplete its $21 million fund balance.

Amid jeers and boos, Harrisburg School Board votes to re-hire Superintendent Knight-Burney.

May 21, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Sybil Knight-Burney will remain the superintendent of the Harrisburg school district for at least three more years, the city’s school board decided on Monday night.

After almost an hour of public comment during which district residents overwhelmingly called for Knight-Burney to be replaced, the board rejected a motion that would have hired a search firm to find a new superintendent and passed another measure to retain her for a term of three to five years.

Frustrated residents began jeering the board before its members could vote on the second motion.

“You don’t care!” one resident yelled. “This is insanity, clear as day. You don’t care.”

“This is ridiculous!” Gerald Welch yelled, before chanting “Shame!” as he and two dozen other exasperated residents left the gymnasium.

The vote was met with a smattering of applause before the board called a five-minute recess.

Almost 100 people attended tonight’s board meeting, where a vote on the district’s 2018-19 budget was postponed until later this month. About a dozen contributed public comments on the superintendent’s contract, but only one, Earl Harris, spoke in favor of retaining Knight-Burney.

The other residents called for a change in leadership, making charges of nepotism, poor money management and unprofessional conduct among the district’s administration and school board.

Yanna Kent, a Harrisburg High School alumnae, said she did not want to see the district put in state receivership, which is one possibility facing it when its five-year recovery plan expires in June.

“We need to do a better job,” Kent said, addressing the board and the administration. “We put you here to work for us and, if you don’t want your job, leave.”

Other residents pointed to the fact that state test score and graduation rates have remained stagnant or declined under Knight-Burney’s leadership. Some called out the administration for not yet completing the initiatives outlined in the district’s five-year recovery plan.

Almost 70 percent of the initiatives have been fully completed as of February 2018, according to the most recent report available from the state’s chief recovery officer.

“If I only complete at 70 percent of what my job had asked me to do, would I be able to continue, especially when other people are willing to go 100 percent?” said Carmen Dones. “It’s time to say thank you, but I think it’s time that we say goodbye.”

Board President Judd Pittman, who voted against retaining Knight-Burney, pointed to other sobering facts from the past two years: $180,000 in district funds were embezzled by an employee, 70 teachers were hired at the wrong pay step, and the district revealed two years of over-hiring by its business office.

Those factors have contributed to an $8 million budget deficit this year, as well as a structural deficit that threatens to eat up the district’s general fund by 2021.

Pittman cited these incidents as evidence that the district has not implemented strong accountability systems during Knight-Burney’s tenure.

“In 11 years, if you have not had time to put systems in place it’s time to come to the table with [solutions], or it’s time for us to look at other opportunities to put systems in place,” Pittman said before the board voted on the superintendent’s contract.

Speaking after the board meeting adjourned at 11 p.m., Knight-Burney said her main priority entering her next term is promoting the academic achievement of students.

“I’m hopeful that the board and the community can see the work I’ve done, and see that this is a chance to build on it,” she said. “I hope that the people who want change can help with solutions and help get it right, not just point out [problems.] A school can’t do that alone, it takes a community.”

Pittman has been advocating since December for the board to launch a superintendent search. The board passed a motion to do that in March and then tried to rescind that action in April.

Board director Tyrell Spradley raised the motion to rescind in April, after voting in March to consider new candidates for Knight-Burney’s post. Spradley voted to retain the superintendent, along with board directors Ellis Roy, Lionel Gonzalez, Melvin Wilson and vice president Danielle Robinson.

Board directors Brian Carter, Carrie Fowler, and Percel Eiland joined Pittman in the minority.

This story was updated to include comments from Sybil Knight-Burney.

“Worst Municipal Finance Disaster”: Commonwealth files lawsuit against actors in HBG incinerator debacle.

May 21, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Inside the Harrisburg incinerator, just before its sale in 2013.

The commonwealth of Pennsylvania filed a civil lawsuit on Monday against numerous companies involved in Harrisburg’s disastrous incinerator retrofit, seeking compensation for some of the $360 million in debt that the project piled up.

The lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court, names many of the law firms, finance companies and consultants familiar to those who have followed the 25-year saga of the incinerator, which nearly bankrupted Harrisburg and led the commonwealth to impose a receiver to help set the city’s finances straight.

“It is time to hold those responsible for the failed incinerator debt scheme accountable and recoup the taxpayer dollars wasted by their negligence and deception,” said Gov. Tom Wolf, in a statement. “This project, started in 2003, represents the worst of how lobbyists and special interests bilk taxpayers for their own gain. My administration is standing up to these interests on behalf of the taxpayers, and we will continue to fight to stop anyone that uses deception or fraud to take advantage of taxpayers.”

The incinerator dates from the late 1960s. However, much of the facility’s crippling debt began to accumulate with its 1993 “sale” from the city to the city’s own utility authority, the Harrisburg Authority. The state’s lawsuit mostly concerns itself with the period starting in 2003, when under the administration of former Mayor Steve Reed, the authority made the disastrous decision to “retrofit,” or upgrade, the facility using largely untested technology from Minnesota-based Barlow Projects. (Click here for a detailed history of the Harrisburg incinerator.)

In its lawsuit, the commonwealth calls the Harrisburg incinerator debacle, “. . . the worst municipal finance disaster in the history of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

The respondents named in the suit include RBC Capital Markets Corp.; Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel LLP; Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC; Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellot LLC; Public Financial Management, Inc.; Buchart Horn Inc.; and Foreman and Caraciolo PC.

The lawsuit charges that members of these firms formed a “working group” that allegedly did not act in the best interests of the city. Among the allegations, the lawsuit states that:

“The Working Group’s dual representation of the [Harrisburg] Authority and the city created destructive conflicts of interest.”
“In their efforts to close the debt transaction and collect their compensation, the Working Group’s members provided the city with false and misleading information, concealed material facts and aided others in breaching their duties to taxpaying citizens. Consequently, the city signed onto imprudent and illegal debt guarantees that rendered it insolvent.”

Because of this insolvency, former Gov. Tom Corbett declared a fiscal state of emergency and placed the city into receivership.

The lawsuit also alleges that:

The working group convinced Harrisburg City Council to guarantee $130 million in debt that the city could not afford.
The working group’s disclosures understated the financial burden of the reconstruction project and its financing.
The working group did not disclose to council or to residents the “unreasonable assumptions” supporting its financial analysis.
The engineering consultant failed to identify “key defects” in the original incinerator retrofit design by Barlow Projects.
The working group “falsely” advised the city that the incinerator debt complied with laws meant to prevent excessive municipal debt.
The working group told the city to classify debt as self-liquidating (able to pay for itself out of revenue), “even as the incinerator is about to shut down.”
The working group advised the city to classify new incinerator debt as self-liquidating “based on unreasonable assumptions and despite contrary evidence.”
The working group submitted “incomplete and inaccurate information” to obtain state approval of city debt guarantees.
The working group “violated” laws requiring contractors to post financial security.

In the end, the lawsuit charges that the working group was responsible for adding some $60 million to the incinerator’s debt.

“The professionals involved in these transactions reaped rewards at the taxpayers’ expense,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit further makes charges against some of the respondents, including allegations of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, legal malpractice, aiding and abetting fraud, professional malpractice and unjust enrichment.

In its suit, the state is requesting both actual and punitive damages, as well as a jury trial.

“The action taken today by Governor Wolf is welcome news for the city of Harrisburg,” said Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse in a statement. “I’m thrilled the governor is taking the necessary step to hold accountable those responsible for the failed incinerator debt scheme. Our residents also are pleased the commonwealth is continuing to fight to secure revenues for the city.”

In 2013, the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority agreed to purchase the Harrisburg incinerator, relieving about half of the outstanding debt on the facility. Tax increases and the long-term lease of the city parking system covered much of the rest of the debt.

The state exited its receivership in early 2014, though the city remains in the state’s Act 47 program for financially distressed municipalities.

In 2015, the commonwealth filed almost 500 criminal counts against Reed, many in relation to incinerator financings. However, many of the counts were eventually dismissed because a judge ruled that the statute of limitations had expired. Last year, Reed pleaded guilty to 20 theft-related counts arising from city-owned museum artifacts that were found in his possession, and he was given probation.

“I thank Gov. Wolf for his willingness to take tackle the tough issues and take on special interests to do what’s right for Harrisburg residents and Pennsylvania taxpayers,” Papenfuse said.

Elected officials or “secret society”? School board’s private meetings raise concerns about state transparency laws, experts say.

May 18, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

In the past year that Jayne Buchwach has attended Harrisburg School Board meetings, she’s noticed that they follow a reliable pattern.

District residents like Buchwach file into the Lincoln School auditorium and wait, sometimes for up to half an hour, for the board directors to exit their executive session.

School board minutes show that the board has convened 11 executive sessions since July 2017, where they discussed district personnel, real estate transactions, and other business out of view of the public. These closed-door sessions, which are permissible in certain circumstances under state law, occurred before almost every public board meeting and sometimes in the weeks between them.

“It’s like a secret society,” Buchwach said. “I’m suspicious because it makes me wonder what they don’t want us to know.”

Board secretary Carol Kaufman confirmed that the most recent executive session occurred on Monday, May 14. The board publicly announced the other 10 sessions, often summarizing the content of their private talks with vague, one-word descriptions—they met to discuss “personnel,” “legal matters, “negotiations,” “real-estate,” or “business operations.”

Buchwach understands the board’s right to call executive sessions, but she said she’s doubtful that they are always discussing executive issues.

“Barring any violation of something like HIPPA or other privacy laws, everything should be put on the table as part of public discussion,” she said.

Experts in public access laws agree that the board’s use of executive session raises concerns about its compliance with the state Sunshine Act, which requires public bodies to hold all deliberations and votes in view of the public, with few exceptions.

Craig Staudenmaier, general counsel for the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, said that there is no rule as to how often a board can meet privately. But, he said, “It’s interesting that the board would always have a reason to go into executive session.”

“It does seem like a lot in a short period of time,” he said.

Another expert said the board must offer the public more detailed explanations for its private meetings.

“They need to provide real, discrete reasons why the public is being excluded from their discussions,” said Melissa Melewsky, a media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. “Their one-word answers do not enable any kind of challenge from the public.”

Melewsky said the board could easily provide more details without betraying any confidential information.

Instead of announcing an executive session to discuss “personnel,” for example, “the board could say, ‘we are conducting performance reviews’ or ‘we are going to address a complaint against an employee,’” Melewsky said.

“There is nothing confidential about the fact that those things are taking place,” she added. “There’s a big difference between opening themselves up to liability and transparency, but they need to err on the side of transparency because that’s what the law requires.”

Exceptions exist, but they are limited.
Certain topics exempt from the Sunshine Act may be discussed privately. But those exemptions are limited, Melewsky said, and often exploited, wittingly or unwittingly, by elected officials.

For instance, board members can discuss real estate transactions in private, but only if they are purchasing or leasing a property. The real estate exemption does not apply to discussions about the sale of a property.

The board held an executive session in December to discuss “the sale of a property at 236 Cameron Street,” according to meeting minutes. Under the Sunshine Law, that discussion should have taken place publicly, Staudenmaier and Melewsky confirmed.

Staudenmaier and Melewsky both said that the board also must be more forthcoming about their discussions of litigation.

Sunshine Law allows the board to discuss legal strategy in private, but it requires them to publicly announce the name of the complainant, as well as the docket number and location of the court, for any case in litigation.

The board did not disclose any of those details on Aug. 21, when then-President Danielle Robinson announced an executive session that included “litigation updates.”

Those requirements also could apply to the board’s discussions of tax assessment appeals, which took place at four executive sessions between July and September 2017. If the board is considering an appeal that was filed in court, Melewsky said, it is discussing a litigation matter and must publicly announce the party names, docket number and the court location.

Other topics that the board discussed in a March executive session – “school safety” and “trash collection” – may not have fallen under any Sunshine Law exemption.

“There’s nothing that allows either one of those discussions to happen behind closed doors,” Melewksy said, adding that there might be “a little more flexibility” for a school safety discussion if it included information about security personnel.

Board president Judd Pittman said today that the discussion about trash collection consisted of an update from the district legal team about trash collection negotiations with the city. He could not recall the details of the school safety discussion.

As the board’s presiding officer, Pittman said he calls executive session at the advice of the board solicitor, Samuel Cooper.

Cooper did not respond to calls for comment on this story.

Pittman said he was not aware of any potential prior violations of the Sunshine Law. He said that the board does not ever deliberate in executive session, and often uses the time to receive information about legal issues and personnel.

Pittman added that he favors transparency and would be more forthcoming with details about executive sessions in the future.

“I am more than willing to provide as much information as we are legally capable of about our sessions,” Pittman said. “I’m not opposed to the public having as much information as they can.”

Violating the Sunshine Act is a summary offense that can carry a fine up to $1,000. However, a conviction requires proof of intent to violate the law, Staudenmaier said, which makes them very rare.

He and Melewsky agree that most Sunshine Law violations arise from misinformation and lack of education about the law, not a will to disobey it.

The Pennsylvania School Board Association offers free training for new school board directors that includes a two-hour legal seminar, according to PSBA counsel Stuart Knade. He estimated that fewer than 30 percent of new board members take advantage of the trainings.

Other state agencies, such as the Office of Open Records and the Township Supervisors Association, also offer trainings on the Sunshine Law and Right to Know Law.

Discussions in the Dark

The Harrisburg School Board met in executive session 11 times since July 2017, according to meeting minutes and the board secretary. Here are the dates and reasons provided for each private meeting. Experts say that one-word explanations are insufficient, and that some of the board’s discussion topics did not meet the criteria for private meetings.

···············

July 31: “to discuss tax assessment appeals and personnel matters.”
August 7: “to receive information about a resolution regarding Walnut & Third tax assessment appeal, legal matters, and real estate matters.”
Sept. 18: “to receive information about personnel, legal, real estate, and tax assessment appeals.
Oct. 16: to receive information regarding the superintendent’s assessment report and legal matters and real estate matters.”
Nov. 20: “to receive information about agenda items, personnel issues, and legal matters.”
Nov. 29: “to consider a personnel matter and appoint counsel for labor negotiations.”
Dec. 18: “to receive information about personnel and legal matters and the sale of property at 236 S. Cameron Street.”
Jan. 16: “to receive information about personnel and legal matters.”
March 19: “to receive information regarding legal and personnel matters, school safety, real estate matters, trash collection, and meeting with PDE.”
May 14: To be announced at May 21 meeting.

No Rain Please: Artsfest returns to the Harrisburg waterfront with much to do, see, eat, drink.

May 18, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

With the continuous rain and cloudy weather, Harrisburg is in dire need of some color.

Enter the 51st annual Artsfest. From May 26 to May 28, the city’s riverfront will be home to colorful works by more than 200 artists from across the nation displaying art in 16 different categories, ranging from photography to ceramics. There will be two food courts within the festival featuring many types of cuisine.

“This event is going to be as large and successful as ever,” said Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse at a press conference (pictured above, with Jump Street Executive Director Melissa Snyder).

Some familiar faces are returning. HBG Fest, hosted by the HBG Flea, will bring in work from 45 local artists and craftsmen for a second straight year. This year, their tent, which will be located at the end of Front Street near Forster Street, will be larger to allow more air flow and room for people to shop.

Ever Grain Brewery Co. will host Beer Fest, also for the second year. Their handcrafted beer will be available for purchase outside of the Civic Club on N. Front Street.

Joining Beer Fest, for the first time, is Rubicon, a local French-influenced restaurant. Rubicon will provide a selection of oysters, a shrimp boil and its famous firefly cocktail.

Kids Fest returns with the help of Gamut Theater Groups’ Popcorn Hat Players, which will put on shows for children each day between noon and 5 p.m. In addition, vendors will sell a variety of kid-friendly items such as food, toys, art and more.

For music lovers, the Kunkel stage, located at Kunkel Plaza at State Street, will have performances by regional scholastic, local and emerging bands. Jazz Fest, sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz, will play near the Walnut Street Bridge.

The award-winning London a cappella group, the Kingsmen, will make its first-ever Artsfest appearance, performing at noon on Saturday, May 26, on the Kunkel stage. The group will be joined by Vocal Harmonics, formally known as the Rose Red Chorus, an all-female a cappella group.

Film buffs can enjoy the 20th anniversary of FilmFest, a two-day screening of short films produced by local filmmakers and hosted by Moviate.

Van Gogh, the Susquehanna Art Museum’s mobile arts center, will feature “Behind the Scenes,” an all-ages exhibit that explores the art, jobs and tools located inside the museum.

For security purposes, no pets or bikes will be allowed in the festival. However, Recycle Bicycle will have an area for cyclists to place their bikes near Forster Street. The group will even provide free brake and tire tests.

With the help of Donegal Insurance Group and Park Harrisburg, parking in the Market Square Parking Garage will be free between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. all three days.

“It’s going to be a wonderful time,” said Papenfuse. “I hope everyone will come down to the riverfront and enjoy Artsfest this year.”

Artsfest takes place May 26 to 28 in Riverfront Park, Harrisburg. It is produced by Jump Street, a community-based, nonprofit organization that creates arts based program development and helps bring art and artists into Harrisburg. Click here for more information about Artsfest.

Photo by Mhelaney Noel

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