Sep. 18, 2020
HARRISBURG – Reps. Seth Grove (R-York) and Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon) are calling on Gov. Tom Wolf’s Office of Administration to answer questions it failed to respond to when previously asked.
“We are extremely alarmed by the lack of answers the office gave us and am equally disturbed by the amount of time it took for the office to provide the vague answers we received,” Grove said. “If elected state representatives who are a coequal branch of government are having this much trouble, I can’t even begin to imagine the hoops residents must jumping through to receive answers.”
In August, the representatives sent to the Office of Administration a letter seeking answers to questions about state employees who are working remotely, and if and how the administration provided the tools they need to perform their jobs.
“In your letter…you failed to answer the majority of our questions while providing only vague answers on the administration’s transition to remote work caused by the pandemic. While we appreciate you informing us of the difficult task OA was faced with in transitioning state government to working remotely, the letter which you sent to us does not answer our questions,” Grove and Ryan wrote in the letter.
The original letter, dated Aug. 7, sought answers to a series of questions about state employees who are working from home. It also raised questions about whether these valued workers were provided with the right tools to work from home. The office took more than a month to reply to the letter. In its Sept. 11 letter to the representatives, the office failed to answer many of the questions.
“As our citizens struggle with health impacts and job losses resulting from COVID-19, the fact that many state offices remain closed or severely understaffed has exacerbated their hardship. It is troubling that six months into this pandemic, many citizens are still having difficulty reaching government employees and getting the help they need and deserve,” Ryan said. “I, too, am frustrated by the continued lack of transparency on the part of this administration and its failure to provide timely responses to our requests for information on how to safely re-open state government offices. This must be corrected.”
A copy of the representative’s latest letter
is attached here.
Representative Seth Grove
196th District
Representative Frank Ryan
101st District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Greg Gross
717.260.6374
ggross@pahousegop.com