The 2022 Schuylkill County preliminary budget was once again mentioned by a resident at Wednesday’s commissioners’ meeting.

Jeff Dunkel said he finally reviewed the 130-page budget Tuesday after initially being given a three-page summary last month. He was previously forced to file a Right-to-Know request for the budget, which should be available in its entirety for public viewing. He received a response from the county with a summarized version of the budget.

Dunkel had emailed First Assistant Solicitor Glenn Roth wanting to see the full budget.

He said Roth responded by saying County Administrator Gary Bender and the MIS Department worked to summarize for easier sending via email.

While Dunkel said that was appreciated, the entire budget ought to be accessible.

“The employees didn’t even know where it was or it existed,” Dunkel said of the full budget.

As he said this, chief clerk Linda Deatrich was shaking her head back and forth.

“You guys continue to hide things,” he said.

He told the commissioners they are not meeting requirements for public viewing.

“Technically, you can’t vote on it next week,” he said.

Commissioners are scheduled to adopt the $69,620,417 preliminary budget at the Dec. 15 meeting.

Commissioner Barron “Boots” Hetherington said before the budget was available for viewing in the courthouse.

However, a summarized version was available upon request and was split into revenue and expense sections when viewed Dec. 1.

An employee said the full budget was available Wednesday as it has been in the commissioners’ office.

Melissa Melewsky, an attorney with the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said previously not providing the full preliminary budget isn’t right.

“There’s simply no reasonable justification to support delayed or denied access to the full preliminary budget; it is required by law to be readily available to anyone interested,” Melewsky said.

Furthermore, she said, “the fact that they county made someone file a formal RTK request for access is inconsistent with both the letter and the intent of the RTK and the county code.”