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Rock-throwing that injured teacher results in jail sentences

<p>PPL Electric Utilities has weighed in with a legal brief in the court battle over release of a whistleblower&#8217;s letter that precipitated an investigation into the company&#8217;s handling of power restoration following a 2011 snowstorm.</p><p>The Times Leader and a statewide media coalition are pitted against the state Public Utilities Commission in a freedom of information fight that is now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.</p><p>Attorneys for the media outlets submitted their brief last month. PUC&#8217;s brief, submitted this week, was the subject of <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/380112/puc-lawyers-release-of-tip-letter-to-times-leader-could-harm-future-investigations" target="_blank" title="PUC lawyers: Release of ">a Thursday Times Leader story</a>.</p><p>The tip letter &#8212; reportedly written by a PPL employee and sent to the state Public Utility Commission in November 2011 &#8212; alleged that a PPL crew one month earlier was transferred from a higher priority job to a lower priority job while working to restore service in a snowstorm that knocked out power to more than 388,000 PPL customers.</p><p>PPL said the crew received a wrong assignment, resulting in a restoration delay of about four hours that affected some 1,500 customers.</p><p>Based on the tip letter, the PUC Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement launched an informal investigation. Without a formal complaint or public hearing, the PUC and PPL entered a settlement that required PPL to pay a $60,000 civil penalty in 2013.</p><p>Among arguments by PUC&#8217;s lawyers is the contention that the confidential tip letter and other documents were never presented to commissioners and were not relied upon in making a decision, therefore there is no statutory obligation to release them.</p><p>PPL&#8217;s attorneys reiterated that point in their brief. They and the PUC argue that while the letter and documents were made available to PUC investigators, only PUC commissioners can make decisions, and since they never saw the documents, there is no basis for releasing them, contrary to what the media&#8217;s lawyers argue.</p><p>&#8220;Appellants&#8217; theory would undermine long-standing public policy regarding the PUC&#8217;s ability to investigate freely and to have full cooperation from the public utilities,&#8221; PPL&#8217;s lawyers wrote.</p><p>And, PPL&#8217;s lawyers argue, if the media&#8217;s interpretation of the Public Utility Code is correct, the wider result would be &#8220;the public disclosure of countless numbers of documents that were not reviewed or considered by the commissioners of the PUC in taking official agency action, as well as the public disclosure of confidential and proprietary documents.&#8221;</p><p>The Times Leader and The Morning Call filed a right-to-know request seeking a copy of the letter.</p><p>The media coalition also includes The Associated Press, The Patriot News/PennLive.com of Harrisburg, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, The Pocono Record of Stroudsburg, LNP of Lancaster, Calkins Media and Times News of Lehighton.</p><p>The state Office of Open Records ordered the tip letter released. PPL and the PUC appealed the decision to Commonwealth Court, which backed them in a December ruling.</p><p>But the Supreme Court in June agreed to hear an appeal, acknowledging that the issue is of &#8220;substantial public importance.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Roger DuPuis</p><p>rdupuis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Roger DuPuis at 570-991-6113 or on Twitter @rogerdupuis2.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

PPL Electric Utilities weighs in on PUC tip letter case