Situation
Following a complaint from the owner of the Gable’s Building in Downtown Altoona, The Watchdog’s Andrae Holsey and Richard Latker submitted a Right-to-Know Request to the City of Altoona in June of 2023.
After a choppy initial email exchange, Altoona’s Right-to-Know Officer and City Clerk, Linda Rickens-Schellhammer invoked a 30-day-extension. A timely response consisting of 298 pages was received on August 1, 2023.
Complaint Received
In a June 27, 2023 meeting, Gable’s building owner Yadwinder “Ricky” Singh Dod alleged the following:
1. The City of Altoona refused to provide any specific record of complaints made against the building to justify inspections by Code Enforcement and the Fire Marshall, who would only reveal that “a complaint was received.”
2. The City of Altoona distributed of millions of dollars in Covid grant funds to Michael Fiore for the renovation of “The Mill” Building at 2400 8th Ave, Altoona, PA, while providing nothing for the demolition or repair of the now-condemned parking garage of the Gable’s Building.
3. City of Altoona officials are pressuring Gable’s tenants to leave the building while informing prospective tenants that the building is “falling apart.”
4. The City of Altoona had long overlooked neglect of the property, which has been in disrepair for 25 years, yet is now aggressively enforcing code standards against the current owner.
5. A private meeting was held between City of Altoona elected officials (including Mayor Matt Pacifico, City Manager Omar Strohm and Department of Codes and Inspections Director Rebecca Brown), Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation President Steve McKnight, and Dod. Personal sentiment boiled over at this meeting, resulting in unnecessary difficulty in the approval of future development plans and correction of inspection violations.
Request Made (06/28/2023)
Because the Watchdog is now a registered non-profit corporation, Pennsylvania law prohibits the organization from appearing in court without a lawyer, as we have done so often in the past. For this RTK we experimented with the idea of submitting in our personal capacities rather in the name of the organization, just in case we needed to litigate the response. In the end we decided it wasn’t the best idea — it felt like a dodge — so in all subsequent references we make clear that the RTK was made by Watchdog personnel.
Interaction with Altoona RTK Office
When at the end of five days we had not received the requisite initial response from the city, we assumed our request had been ignored (which happens frequently). In truth there was an email address typo on the official form used for Altoona RTKs, and Ms. Linda Rickens-Schellhammer had attempted to email the response to that erroneous address rather than reply to the address through which the request was sent.
Record Response
The records generally reflect Altoona officials operating in their expected capacity, with no indication of unlawful obstruction. The records do reveal some official conduct that was unhelpful and evasive (see, for example, email exchanges between Linda Rickens-Schellhammer, Rebecca Brown, Scott Brown and Adam Free). Some bias comes through that plausibly may have influenced official decisions. It also is reasonably clear that previous owners enjoyed relatively light-handed inspections and routine issuance of safety certificates, while the present owners have faced a much more rigorous enforcement regime.
What should have been reflected in the City’s response, but isn’t, is a record of a private meeting between City Officials, Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation’s (ABCD) Steve McKnight, and Dod. This meeting wouldn’t have necessarily been covered by the Sunshine Act, but the fact that there are no minutes at all raises additional concerns.
