Hollidaysburg Community Watchdog (HCW) is a non-partisan community organization working to advance transparency, deter corruption and enhance public oversight of local government. We have filed articles of incorporation as a 501(c)(4) non-profit agency with Pennsylvania Department of State and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
How does the Watchdog work?
Using tools provided by Commonwealth law, including the Sunshine Act and the Right-to-Know Law, we work to maximize government transparency and hold agencies accountable to the public. Our advocacy efforts have had considerable positive impact in south-central Pennsylvania, especially Blair and Bedford Counties.
Who funds/runs the Watchdog?
For the past eight years, HCW has been funded entirely by its board members. Rather than buying travel trailers, island vacations or country club memberships, our board continues to invest in cleaner, better-functioning, more responsive local government.
HCW currently has three active board members: Carol Dannenberg, Richard Latker and Regis Nale. We have one emeritus member, Lou Mollica. Carol is a Democrat; Richard and Regis are Republicans. One of our founding board members, the beloved PJ Frederick, passed away on August 1, 2022.
We also have three talented paid staff members: Government Relations Manager Carol Dannenberg, Production Editor Andrae M. Holsey and Public Affairs Officer Bryan D. King.
What does the Watchdog do?
HCW staff and volunteers take and investigate complaints from the public. Not every complaint has merit, but far too many of them do. We communicate with the relevant public agencies on behalf of the complainants, which is often enough sufficient to address the problem. Where necessary, we employ some good old-fashioned journalism , along with the state transparency laws, to acquire facts and assess the circumstances. In more serious cases of impropriety, we submit formal complaints to government bodies and, sometimes, law enforcement.
When government refuses to act, the Watchdog uses public-interest law to litigate against agencies that break the law. Where local media refuses to cover failure and dysfunction in local government, we provide community members with the facts through this website and our monthly publication The Hollidaysburg Watchdog. The Watchdog also publishes an off-year primary non-partisan voter guide.
The Watchdog focuses entirely on public, tax-payer funded agencies. It does not investigate private companies and individual citizens.
Where is the Watchdog?
Our office at 511 Allegheny St. — just one block from the Blair County Courthouse — is owned by one of our board members, who rents it to us at just $1 a month.
Origin Story
Originally called “Gaysport Community Defense”, the Watchdog started with 12 initial members in 2015 after Hollidaysburg Borough unlawfully re-zoned a quiet, historic residential neighborhood in the Gaysport section of town to allow a favored developer to build a government-subsidized “home for the elderly” much larger than the law would normally allow. A blatantly fraudulent permitting process for structure followed, allowing the developer to eliminate even more green space while offloading most of its parking requirements onto the street. Opportunities for public review mandated by law were skipped. Homeowners then received low-ball purchase offers in an effort to drive them out of the neighborhood on the cheap.
The re-zoning and building approvals were issued without the slightest regard to the unanimous opposition from affected residents. It was an appalling display of anti-democratic arrogance on the part of our own representatives and officials, many of whom abandoned any pretense of neutrality and eagerly advanced the agenda of the developer. Elderly homeowners on modest incomes, who had faithfully invested in their homes over decades, watched helplessly as their green, peaceful neighborhood was transformed into a charmless, congested and over-parked adjunct to the utilitarian building, which pays minimal taxes. Property values plummeted.
The founders of HCW committed themselves to empowering the local citizenry to ensure such official perfidy never happens again. Their oversight of local government revealed an entrenched system of “soft corruption” by which local officials, ignoring the transparency laws, routinely conspired to deliver favors to privileged entities at public expense. Coverage from local media, especially the Altoona Mirror, was spotty, sloppy and often non-factual.
Rather than throwing in the towel, the Watchdog has worked for years to enforce transparency laws, expose corrupt practices and equip local residents to defend their own interests. Hollidaysburg Borough Council was forced to begin video recording its meetings, rather than issuing meaningless, sanitized minutes. Acting on complaints of corruption and incompetence, the Watchdog took the Hollidaysburg Zoning Hearing Board to Court three times, winning each case — without the assistance of a lawyer. We’ve exposed ongoing corruption in the Fire Department, overturned a gerrymandered election map, and defended established local neighborhoods from predatory developers with friends in government.
Watchdog Right-to-Know requests are a key weapon in our arsenal. We use them solely to obtain records that are rightfully public, and never use them to harass or punish government agencies.
We’re proud to share this Right-to-Know Archive with you. Feel free to use our requests and subsequent appeals as templates for your own efforts. Remember: sunshine is the best disinfectant!
