Thank you, Representative Craig Williams, for responding and taking my concerns seriously enough to seek a formal legal opinion.
For those considering voting for Democrats in Pennsylvania, understand where we are in the grand scheme of the PA House.
The House's own records identify Democrats as the current majority, and House Rule 45(a) gives the majority five of the nine seats on the Government Oversight Committee. The Majority Leader appoints the chair, and the committee cannot organize until that chair calls its first meeting.
Representative Williams is the Republican Chair of Government Oversight. But according to the legal opinion his office obtained after I raised concerns involving opioid settlement funds and potential public-official conflicts, the Government Oversight Committee has not been organized this legislative term and therefore cannot act on matters referred to it. As minority chair, Williams cannot call that organizational meeting himself.
Think about that.
Pennsylvania has a Government Oversight Committee with investigative authority, but the mechanism necessary for that committee to exercise its authority has not been activated.
Meanwhile, my inquiry concerns actual public money. House counsel specifically recognized my investigation into Delaware County opioid settlement grants and directed me toward the County Controller, State Ethics Commission, Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust, and potentially law enforcement depending upon what the evidence establishes.
This is bigger than my investigation.
Oversight isn't supposed to depend upon which political party might be embarrassed by what it uncovers. Government oversight exists to protect We the People.
Before you vote, know not only what politicians promise you—but how the government they control is actually functioning.
And right now, Pennsylvania's Government Oversight Committee isn't functioning at all.
@HHSGov @ScottBradyPA I smell a huge problem here with Opioid Settlement funds in PA.