The owner of a Shenandoah towing company has taken action in Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas to compel the Borough to comply with an order from the state’s Office of Open Records.
On Sept. 15, Ruth Schuch, through her attorney, Joe Nahas, filed a petition in mandamus asking Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas to declare that Shenandoah is acting in bad faith by failing to turn over public records she won access to after a successful appeal to the Office of Open Records in Harrisburg.
The petition also seeks $5,000 in attorney fees and a $1,500 civil penalty.
How We Got Here
In May 2025, Schuch, owner of Talk of Town LLC, a towing company in the borough, filed a broad set of Right-to-Know Law requests with Shenandoah.
Her company has argued that the Borough was leaving it off a towing rotation, which Shenandoah has since abandoned.
In 14 separate requests, she asked for nearly everything the Borough might have relating to towing over the past five years: tow logs, police forms, Live Stop data, contracts with towing companies, financial records, policies and ordinances, and even the names of the public officials and dispatchers who may have played a role in the process. Some of Schuch’s requests drilled down further, asking specifically for records of tows handled by her own company, while others sought copies of ordinances or detailed lists of other towing providers the Borough had used.
The Borough denied all 14 requests, asserting the RTKL’s criminal and noncriminal investigation exemptions and pointing to threatened litigation by Schuch and her counsel. It also referenced confidentiality and privilege concerns tied to litigation. In effect, the Borough attempted to block disclosure by arguing that because she might sue, she could not use the Right-to-Know process.
Schuch appealed to the state’s Office of Open Records.
In a June 26 Final Determination, the OOR largely granted her appeal. It dismissed two items that asked questions rather than requested records and declined to consider categories Schuch tried to add on appeal. But for the rest, the OOR found the Borough had not provided any evidence to justify withholding records.
The appeals officer stressed that under Pennsylvania law, records held by a local agency are presumed public unless the agency can show, with evidence, that they are exempt.
The Borough’s claim that the records related to criminal or noncriminal investigations was unsupported—the Borough never identified an actual investigation or explained how the requested logs or contracts were investigative in nature. The OOR ruled that broad, conclusory statements are not enough to invoke those exemptions.
The Borough’s second argument—that Schuch’s threatened litigation barred disclosure—was also rejected. The OOR noted that the Right-to-Know Law specifically forbids denying access to records based on the requester’s intended use. Even if Schuch were preparing to sue, the Borough was still required to respond. Only a court order, such as a protective order in pending litigation, could block disclosure, and no such order existed.
The OOR ordered Shenandoah to, within 30 days of June 26, produce all responsive records in its possession—with appropriate privacy redactions—or provide a sworn statement that particular records do not exist.
As of the date of the filing in Schuylkill County Court, the Borough had not produced the ordered records. Schuch’s petition now asks the county court to compel compliance and impose penalties.
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