HARRISBURG, Pa.—As snow flurries fell across the state capital last week, Erik Arneson donned a Green Bay Packers parka and knit hat and went searching for a legal locksmith to get him back into his office.
Arneson was left out in the cold—literally and figuratively—after Gov. Tom Wolf removed him as executive director of the Office of Open Records. Now, he and state Senate Republicans are suing to get his job back.
“The message that this sends to the governor is that the office is independent, it needs to be independent,” said Arneson, whose complaint alleges that Wolf violated the state’s Right-to-Know Law. “It is simply impossible to envision any executive director of this office being impartial if they have to live in constant worry that the governor could fire them for any reason at all.”
That’s exactly what happened to Arneson last week. The new governor, a Democrat, took issue that his Republican predecessor, former Gov. Tom Corbett, appointed Arneson to the post Jan. 9, less than two weeks before Wolf was set to take office.
Corbett had the authority to name a replacement after the former executive director, Terry Mutchler, abruptly resigned and took a private-sector job. But Wolf described the quickly falling dominoes as an affront to transparency and removed Arneson while also recalling other last-minute Corbett nominations.
Arneson, a longtime aide for state Senate Republicans before landing the open-records job, reported to work Friday anyway, but found himself locked out of the executive director’s office by Monday. Wolf also cut off his salary and benefits.
Now, a team of attorneys working for the Senate GOP and Arneson is trying to return him to the job.
Wolf said in a statement that the lawsuit “does nothing to alter my conviction” and expressed concern that Arneson had demoted an Office of Open Records staffer in favor of a Corbett official.
“By removing Mr. Arneson, I am standing up against an effort to destroy the integrity of the Office of Open Records and turn it into a political operation,” Wolf said. “These attempts to change the office, which exists to protect the public’s right to know, are the exact reasons people distrust their state government. When given the choice between protecting the public and playing politics, I will stand with the people of Pennsylvania.”
In his court filing, Arneson painted Wolf’s decision as an “unlawful power grab” that “offends separation of powers principles in the Pennsylvania Constitution and violates the express statutory independence of the executive director.”
Wolf’s press secretary said last week the administration viewed the executive director as an “at-will” employee, meaning the person holding the job could be fired at any time. Arneson contends he had a fixed six-year term and could be removed only with cause.
Lawmakers created the Office of Open Records when they overhauled the Right-to-Know Law in 2008. But the statute does not address the removal of an executive director. It calls only for the governor to appoint an executive director “who shall serve for a term of six years” and who can serve a maximum of two terms.
The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association said the law’s silence on removal “has led to a disappointing series of events” and urged lawmakers “to amend the law immediately to clarify any ambiguities regarding the appointment process and ensure that this does not happen again.”
