Pittsburgh Amazon HQ2 Bid Secrecy Battle Appears Court-Bound

PITTSBURGH, PA - A Pennsylvania Office of Open Records edict to make Pittsburgh’s Amazon HQ2 bid public will be appealed in court, the team that assembled the proposal revealed Thursday.

The regional partnership PGHQ2 issued a statement saying that it’s in the city's best interest to challenge the order and "the city of Pittsburgh's and Allegheny County's legal teams are currently reviewing those options."

“We continue to believe that our proposal falls squarely within exceptions that protect competitive business proposals from disclosure until a final decision is made, and is consistent with how all competitive economic development opportunities are handled,” the statement said.

Pittsburgh was one of 283 metropolitan areas that submitted a proposal to land the second headquarters, which Amazon has pledged to invest as much as $50 billion in and which eventually could have 50,000 employees .The city learned last week it was one of 20 finalists to land the campus.

Mayor Bill Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who have insisted since the bid was completed in October that releasing its details would put the city at a competitive disadvantage.

The open records office on Wednesday ordered the release of the Amazon proposal within 30 days. The agency 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.

The PGHQ2 statement said the secrecy is not about special treatment for Amazon but about participating in a confidential and extremely competitive process.

“No action will be taken on any proposed public investment in this opportunity without a full, open, public and transparent process,” the statement said. “We are excited to be competing against other top cities in North America, and we intend to honor our commitments to private stakeholders regarding the confidentiality of our bidding materials.”

The group pledged to reveal all aspects of the Amazon proposal “when it is appropriate to do so as part of Amazon's selection process.”

Photo: Associated Press.