Pittsburgh Amazon HQ2 Bid: Order To Release Details Appealed

PITTSBURGH, PA - Pittsburgh and Allegheny County will spend taxpayer dollars to shield details of the region’s Amazon HQ2 bid from taxpayers. The city and county are appealing an order from Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records to make public its bid for Amazon’s second headquarters.

PGHQ2, the public-private team that assembled the bid, said that it would release the proposal only if all other 19 finalist metropolitan finalists did. Adhering to the open records office edict would put the region at a competitive disadvantage, the organization contended.

“To be clear, if the Pittsburgh region is selected by Amazon, and a deal is reached on what incentives will be offered, anything that involves government funds will go through a robust, public process as the legislative bodies do their due diligence,” the organization said in a statement. “There will be every opportunity for the public to weigh in on those proposals and to have their voice heard.”

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald had no immediate comment on the appeal.

In responding last month to a right-to-know request filed by WTAE-TV reporter Paul Van Osdol, the open records office ruled that Pittsburgh's Amazon proposal cannot be withheld because it does not constitute a trade secret, is not confidential proprietary information and the county did not meet its burden in establishing why it should be exempt from the state Right-to-Know Law.

Amazon has committed to investing as much as $50 billion in its new campus and eventually hiring as many as 50,000 employees.

Photo via Amazon.