Category: Sunshine Week

Resisting DOGE at National Park Service

It’s Sunshine Week but there’s nothing but clouds in Washington, where President Trump and Elon Musk are spreading chaos and sowing fear. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has illegally fired tens of thousands of federal employees, including 1,000 National Park Service workers.

Judge William Alsup ordered the immediate reinstatement of unlawfully terminated employees:

It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that is a lie.

A group of NPS rangers is fighting back. The Resistance Rangers said in a statement:

Resistance Rangers will not see this ruling as a win until illegally terminated employees from all agencies outlined in the court’s rulings are reinstated in their roles, with back pay and their records cleared. As Judge Alsup noted, it is critical that these employees have the false accusation of “poor performance” removed from their records.

The unlawful terminations impact more than NPS rangers who work at national parks. Park rangers are stewards of national monuments and historic sites, including the African Burial Ground, Statute of Liberty, Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the President’s House, Independence Hall and the Portrait Gallery in the Second Bank.

The Portrait Gallery has been closed due to a staff shortage since 2024. NPS terminations include two employees at Independence National Historic Park.

The Portrait Gallery is one of the few places where the story of Moses Williams is in public memory. I have nominated Williams for a Pennsylvania historical marker.

Enslaved by “Artist of the Revolution” Charles Willson Peale, Williams was a master silhouette artist who operated a physiognotrace (face tracing machine) at Peale’s Museum which was located in the building now known as Independence Hall.

A NPS ranger demonstrates the physiognotrace at the Portrait Gallery.

I will submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of the Interior for records related to the unlawful termination of Independence National Historic Park workers, the President’s House, Independence Hall, and the Portrait Gallery in the Second Bank.

Sunshine Week 2025

March 16-22, 2025 is Sunshine Week, a time to celebrate transparency, and the public’s right to know what government officials are doing and saying behind closed doors. PHL Watchdog is a Sunshine Week partner.

For more than a year, the City of Philadelphia and SEPTA have fought release of communications with the Philadelphia 76ers related to their now abandoned plan to build an arena atop Jefferson Station. While the Save Chinatown Coalition has given up the fight to obtain records from SEPTA, giving up is not in my DNA. The City and SEPTA eventually will have to give it up and produce the records.

On March 17, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records will host a panel discussion, Getting to Know Pennsylvania’s Transparency Laws, moderated by Paula Knudsen Burke, senior supervising attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Knudsen Burke represents me on the City’s and SEPTA’s appeals. The event is free and open to the public. Go here to register to attend in person or virtually.

A list of Sunshine Week activities is available here.

And The Winner Is …

I nominated SEPTA CEO and General Manager Leslie S. Richards for the Society for Professional Journalists’ 2024 Black Hole Award. The cash-strapped public transit agency has money to pay an outside law firm to fight the release of records as ordered by the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records.

In the OOR’s final determination, SEPTA was ordered to turn over records related to the Philadelphia 76ers’ proposal to build a basketball arena atop Jefferson Station. Like the transit agency she has run into the ground, Richards did not make the cut. The Black Hole Award went to the North Carolina General Assembly.

During Sunshine Week, I received notice that SEPTA submitted the Certified Record of my Right-To-Know Law Request to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. The legal maneuver is designed to delay compliance with the OOR order. Common sense suggests that if the records supported the Sixers’ claim that 76 Place is a “win-win” for SEPTA and the City of Philadelphia, they would have been released. It bears remembering what SEPTA Director of Media Relations Andrew Busch told NBC Sports Philadelphia in July 2022:

Yes, the Sixers have been in touch with SEPTA regarding their plans for the new arena. We are looking forward to continuing to work closely with the team, the city and other stakeholders moving forward.

There is still no timeline for release of the arena impact studies that were due in December 2023. Tellingly, the Sixers have not released their study that supports their factoid that 76 Place would generate $1.5 billion in new tax revenue. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:

They have declined to share the calculations behind their tax figure. And they’ve made other bold claims, including the creation of 1,000 permanent jobs and $400 million in annual “economic output.” Meanwhile, the city-sponsored studies that are supposed to offer clarity to decision-makers are months overdue.

With an air of exasperation, City Councilmember Mark Squilla recently told CBS News Philadelphia: “By the end of this year, it will be determined whether we move forward or not.” The clock is ticking.

Sunshine Week: John Coltrane House Update

March 10-16, 2024 is Sunshine Week, a time to celebrate transparency, and the right to know what government officials are doing and saying behind closed doors. I used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Pennsylvania’s Right-To-Know Law to tell the story of the deteriorating condition of the John Coltrane House and the drama over ownership of the National Historic Landmark.

John Coltrane’s beloved “Cousin Mary,” Mary Alexander, sounded the alarm about the physical deterioration of the property as early as 1987.

From time to time I would check on the Coltrane House. Without access to the property, I reported illegal dumping and other violations visible from the public right of way. I am a cold weather person but on a hot and humid morning in August 2019, I felt an overwhelming urge to stop by the Coltrane House. I later learned that Cousin Mary joined the ancestors the same day that I was snooping around her former home. I vowed then that I would do whatever I could to preserve the historic landmark in public memory.

I successfully nominated the Coltrane House for inclusion on 2020 Pennsylvania At Risk. Designation does not bring any resources; instead, it brings renewed media attention to a historic landmark at risk of demolition by neglect.

News stories about the designation were published in February 2020. I had a conference call with Ravi Coltrane to explore next steps on March 13, 2020. I have not spoken with him since that conversation. However, news articles about the At-Risk designation were included as exhibits to the case that Ravi and Oran Coltrane filed to gain possession of the property on April 27, 2022.

Fast forward to May 2023, the parties reached an agreement in principle. The outcome was predetermined given the existence of a valid will. Under the terms of their grandmother’s will, Ravi and Oran should have gained possession of the property upon the death of Cousin Mary on August 31, 2019.

Norman Gadson is still listed as the owner on property and tax records. Last week, the New York Times reported the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “will assist in coordinating and financing the transfer of Coltrane’s home from its current owner back to his family.”

The Coltrane House is the first site selected for the new Descendants and Family Stewardship Initiative. Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund, said:

Descendants and families have been doing this work for centuries on an informal basis. The initiative is about empowering descendants and families through historic preservation more formally. Our role is to give them the resources and technical expertise they need to protect and preserve the physical evidence of the past and share their profound stories with the American public.

It has taken nearly four decades, but the John Coltrane House will finally be restored. As I told Valerie Russ of the Phliladelphia Inquirer, my work is done. Mission accomplished.