Tuesday marked Day 21.

The report, however, remains out of public view. Farina did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

“It most definitely should be released,” said District Attorney Don Totaro, who initiated the grand jury investigation that led to the report.

The document was written after a yearlong investigation into how county commissioners from 2003 to 2005 used a closed-door process to plan the sale of the 454-bed nursing home to HealthCare Resources of Montgomery County for $8.5 million.

The reason for the sale, commissioners have argued, was that Conestoga View’s operating deficit was costing county government up to $1.3 million per year since 2001. Money from the sale was used to help balance the 2007 county budget.

The sale generated controversy from the day it was first announced in the summer of 2005.

Candidates lining up to run for county commissioner in this spring’s primary have listed Conestoga View among the top issues driving their candidacies.

The grand jury led Republican commissioners Dick Shellenberger and Pete Shaub to plead guilty Dec. 14 to two counts of violating state laws forbidding most secret meetings, the type used to plan the sale. Democrat Molly Henderson pleaded guilty to one count.

All three paid $100 fines for each violation.

Shellenberger, who’s made no formal announcement about whether he plans to seek a second four-year term, said he does not want the grand jury report made public.

“What’s the wisdom of releasing it?” he said.

Henderson — who was not brought into the sale process until April 1, 2005, about two years after Shellenberger and Shaub first discussed it — said the report should be released “immediately” and “would be very helpful.”

Henderson has said she plans to run for re-election.

Shaub will resign his post next month to take a job in the private sector. He declined Tuesday to comment on the report.

The report has been in Farina’s hands since Dec. 14. Only the judge, Totaro and those people mentioned in the document have been privy to its contents.

In a two-page order issued Dec. 19, Farina gave those people criticized in the report 20 days to submit to Totaro written responses to the allegations.

After a 20-day period, Farina said he would make a decision about when to make the report and the responses public.

State law allows a judge to keep a grand jury report sealed if making it public would compromise an ongoing criminal investigation.

The judge also may allow people criticized in the document but “not indicted for a criminal offense” to submit a written response to the “allegations contained in the report.”

The law reads that if a judge fails to make a report public, an attorney for the state can appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.


Dave Pidgeon’s e-mail address is dpidgeon@lnpnews.com.