Are School District's Records of Wages Paid to Workmen for Roofing Jobs Undertaken With State Funding ''Public Records'' ?

Do a School District's Records of Wages Paid to Workmen for Roofing Jobs Undertaken With State Funding Fit Within the Statutory Definition of Public Records ? In Sapp Roofing Company, Inc., v. Sheet Metal Workers' International Association, Local Union No. 12, 552 Pa. 105, 713 A.2d 627 (1998), a private roofing contractor's payroll records, which had been submitted to the government in connection with the performance of a public project, were held to be public records under the RTKA. There, Sheet Metal Workers' International Association Local Union No. 12 (union) sent a written request to the Penn Hills School District (school district) seeking copies of certified payroll records compiled as a result of roofing work performed on three school buildings by Sapp Roofing, a non-union roofing company. The three roofing jobs were public projects for which the school district received state funding. The school district possessed the records pursuant to the provision of Section 6 of the Prevailing Wage Act, 43 P.S. 165-6, which required the school district to obtain certain records from the contractor prior to a final disbursement on the contract. The records requested by the union contained the names and addresses of Sapp Roofing's employees on the three roofing projects, their social security numbers and the rates of pay and hours worked on the jobs. the Supreme Court concluded that the school districts records of wages paid to the workmen fit within the statutory definition of "public records" because they evidenced a disbursement of funds by the school district. Sapp Roofing, 552 Pa. at 109, 713 A.2d at 629.