Beth Ann Rosica: The Right to Know process empowers everyday citizens to expose government waste
Margie Swart, also known as West Goshen Sunshine on her Facebook page, describes herself as “a local, good government watchdog,” and as such, uncovered a county spending scandal involving Covid-19 antibody tests through the Right to Know (RTK) process.
Swart started filing RTK requests in 2015 in West Goshen Township, where she resides. In an interview with Broad + Liberty, she reports having filed approximately ten requests per year on average, and most of them involve her local township.
However, she struck gold in April 2020 when she stumbled upon a document revealing Chester County spent $20,000,000 on Covid-19 antibody tests. This accidental finding started a process that exposed huge amounts of government waste, fraud, and abuse.
Over the next few months through RTK filings, Swart would uncover one of the largest and most expensive scandals in Chester County. Through her diligence, it was determined the agency contracted to provide the antibody tests was a brand new start-up with ties to former State Representative Andy Dinniman. Eventually, it was revealed that the tests provided unreliable results.
Initially, the county ignored Swart’s Right to Know request and did not seem very interested in looking into the $20,000,000; yet, as a result of her conscientiousness, the county ended up filing a suit against the company that provided the dubious tests. That litigation is still ongoing.
The episode illustrates the impact that one concerned constituent can have.
Swart initially discovered the spending on the tests through a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bond filing. She said, “it was totally accidental.”
“As of the date hereof, the County estimates it has incurred approximately $22,000,000 of COVID-19 related expenditures with approximately $20,000,000 of that amount being spent on COVID-19 antibody test kits that can be used for essential service workers.”
“I instantly knew that didn’t sound right,” said Swart.
As a result, on May 26, 2020, she emailed the Chester County Commissioners asking how many Covid-19 antibody tests were purchased for $20,000,000. On May 27, 2020, Becky Brain, Chester County Public Information Officer, responded to Swart’s inquiry.
“Chester County purchased one million test kits for this price,” said Brain in her email. “This includes tests for Delaware County, which they will be reimbursing us for, and for retests. This purchase was funded 100% by federal CARES Act money.”
At that point, Swart was on high alert and filed a RTK request on June 9, 2020, for “any and all records (RFQ/RFP, signed contract(s), emails) regarding the Covid-19 antibody tests purchased for +/- $20,000,000.”
The county failed to respond in the mandated five day time frame, so Swart filed an appeal on June 26, 2020, with the Office of Open Records (OOR), the state agency tasked with handling disputes between requestors and government agencies.
According to Swart, on July 30, 2020, the county notified Advaite, the company it contracted with to provide the tests. Advaite immediately hired counsel to defend its interests, attempting to prevent OOR from finding in Swart’s favor. Interestingly, Advaite hired Terry Mulcher, the former OOR director as counsel.
At this point, the county deferred to Advaite on all aspects of the dispute. Mulcher attempted to negotiate with Swart to drop the appeal in exchange for documents. As a savvy sunshine law citizen, Swart agreed to drop the appeal after receiving the documents.
Swart’s instincts on Advaite’s intentions were spot on, as the documents they provided to her were heavily redacted. As a result, she refused to withdraw the appeal.
On September 30, 2020, OOR granted in part and denied in part, meaning Swart was entitled to some documents but not others. She did not think this was right either, so she filed a petition in court, requesting a judicial review to determine if she was legally entitled to the documents.
Swart prepared the petition on her own and represented herself in court. And she won!
Judge Emanuel A. Bertin found in her favor and Advaite was required to turn over the documents without the redactions.
Swart’s tenacity demonstrates the power of the RTK law and the ability of everyday citizens to ensure our government is transparent. Without her efforts, the county may never have known about the shady dealings of the test company, and even more importantly, the county may not have stopped payments to Advaite and subsequently have pursued legal action to get the money back.
Beth Ann Rosica resides in West Chester, has a Ph.D. in Education, and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of at-risk children and families. She covers education issues for Broad + Liberty. Contact her at barosica@broadandliberty.com.
