As released by the Office of the Attorney General.

HARRISBURG — Attorney General Bruce L. Castor, Jr. today issued a statement to all Office of Attorney General employees in response to a notice sent by the BuckleySandler firm regarding the report it has delivered to the Attorney General on inappropriate use and exchange of emails by office employees and others in and out of government at various levels. The statement reads as follows:

“To all members of OAG:

“The notice many of you received from BuckleySandler sets a deadline of 10 a.m. Monday, August 29, 2016 to respond to the fact that your name would either be listed in a report or in an appendix. The notice does not give you any indication of what content was allegedly inappropriate. In keeping with past office practice, and in my own judgment, OAG should not require responses from people until those same people have had an opportunity to see what they are responding to: a simple matter of fairness.

“Thus, while I remain Attorney General, I will not be approving the release of any part of the report until we can devise a procedure that, at the very least, allows for informed responses. Therefore, the response deadline of August 29th at 10am as set by General Gansler is extended indefinitely pursuant to my authority as the current Attorney General.

“Yesterday, I asked you to remain calm and not be anxious. I do so again. The report was not released in May because I was unhappy with it. It was not released in July because I was unhappy with it. There were zero “leaks” in all that time because I had the only copies. So please trust me now when I assure you that I am acutely aware of the damage this information could do, however unwarranted, to many of your reputations. I am proceeding with extreme caution during my few remaining days with this agency, and the men and women that are part of it that I have come to admire and respect.”

Attorney General Castor noted that the office was not consulted on the precise timing the notices were sent out, though he did insist that notice be given. The notice was BuckleySandler’s effort to comply with a requirement set out by the Commonwealth Court in Simon v. Commonwealth, 659 A.2d 631 (PA. Commw. 1995), that a person subject to a government report that will potentially damage their reputation be given notice of such report. The notice did not express to employees exactly what BuckleySandler considered inappropriate. General Castor cautions that the word “inappropriate” is subjective in many instances. “Using a government forum, whether in a written document or in a public proceeding, can often damage the reputations of people before they have time to defend themselves,” General Castor said “We know this, and are moving slowly so that adequate notice is given to people affected. This is not a ‘one size fits all’ proposition,” he added.