see also "Why aren't you doing your job?"

Suppose you are a Chairmen of a Public Authority. What would you do if a member of the public wanted to video tape your meeting as allowed under the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act? Would you speak vulgarities and use an obscene gesture? If you are Tom Weber of the Lancaster City Redevelopment Authority, you do that AND call the police to tell them to "Hand-cuff him and get him out of here!"

5thEstate.com Editor Ron Harper, Jr. went to the authority's monthly public meeting on Nov. 20 with a video camera to capture the proceedings. Authority solicitor, Elizabeth Hambrick-Stowe, started the illegal challenge 5 minutes before the meeting was to begin by saying "You're not going to video-tape the meeting". "Yes I am" , responded Harper, "Under the Sunshine Act I am allowed to video-tape any public meeting."

Five minutes later, the authority Chairman, Tom Weber showed up and continued the solicitor's illegal demand that Harper take down the video camera (Harper caught this on video-tape!) When Harper suggested that he could have his attorney explain the Sunshine Act, Weber said:

"Well let your attorney go meet with a judge to allow the video camera on. Or I am going to call the Police Department and have you hauled out of here." "Go for it!", replied Harper.

At final count, three police cars were on the scene. When the solo policeman came into the meeting room, he walked up to Harper and asked, "Your camera?" When Harper replied that it was, the officer said with a smile, "You know you're not allowed to video tape in here?" After Harper advised the officer of the details of the Sunshine act, the officer made a quick exit never to appear in the room again!

So what was the outcome? The police refused to remove Harper because they had no grounds. Meanwhile, Harper patiently waited in the meeting room for 5-10 minutes until authority members decided to cancel the meeting!

When contacted by an Intell reporter, Weber said that they were thinking of creating a policy to prevent people from video taping their meetings! By the next morning, Solicitor Hambrick-Stowe (who gets paid $125 an hour by the taxpayers to know the law!), called Harper's attorneys to inform them that Harper was right and she was wrong! This means that the Authority called out the out the guys with guns and billy-clubs to help them break the law!

But it gets worse. The Chairman of the authority - Tom Weber - used this vulgarity when explaining his desire to not have his picture taken, "I don't know who you have a hard-on for but..."! (this was caught on video!) Weber added an obscenity by giving Harper the "finger" upon his exit!

This is not the first time that Harper has faced an arrogant authority. In May of this year, Jim Pickard, of the convention center authority, threw a pie across the room! (Click here to read that story) At least at that meeting, the media was in attendance. WGAL aired the pie-throwing video ONCE and did not run it again. Why not? Without a watchful media - Lancaster's unelected, unaccountable and undemocratic authorities will continue to abuse their power.

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