By: Brad Flynn | Published July 9, 2024
Total costs listed below represent billable hours incurred by the Borough through its various professional services to process record requests by Borough resident, Michael Long from October 2022 through December 2025. These costs include records requested through the Right-to-Know Law, Office of Open Records appeals, even fulfilling requests for records made outside the Right-to-Know Law to appease Mr. Long, and processing a court challenge filed by the Borough. There is another pending court challenge brought on by Mr. Long that will continue to expend public funds through 2026.
The court challenge was unnecessarily protracted due to Michael Long’s inappropriate court motions and filings that have nothing to do with the issue before the court but cause the Borough to expend time and resources to answer. Long submits legal filings containing fake case citations and legal arguments in other cases that don’t stand for the legal proposition he makes.
TOTAL COSTS TO DATE (AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2025)
$201,392.10*
Average Cost Per Month $5,163.90
(39-month Period)
*Estimation based on the Borough’s review of professional service invoicing where at the time (between late 2022 and early 2023) ‘Michael Long’ was not specifically related or was mixed with other job or matter numbers. In 2023, professional services began billing their time based on work performed specifically for Michael Long.
At the time of this publication, July 9, 2024: In a given year where Bath’s General Fund Budget is around $1.5 million, the total cost would represent 10% of overall Borough expenditures.
How did we get here?
This webpage will be devoted to the numerous Right-to-Know Requests and appeals filed by, Michael Long. The Borough is providing this additional transparency because of the enormous fiscal impact this has on the Borough. From submitting multiple Right-to-Know Requests on a single day and in multiple subparts, spanning several years of records, then forcing the Borough through multiple appeals, to the Borough filing a court challenge.
The workload has been immense from the start. Michael Long’s requests cause annoyance because of the potential universe of records sought (hundreds to tens of thousands of documents) in an overly broad, non-specific way that has caused the Borough to make judgement calls as to what exactly is being asked for. There are times where the requests have been filed by Long in succession or on the same day. Even after staff attempts to discuss these issues with Michael Long, his conduct has only become increasingly vexatious.
The Borough has even tried to work with Michael Long providing him numerous records requested outside of the Right-to-Know Law (RTKL) as a courtesy. These efforts exhaust man hours and required a legal review, having a negative impact on normal Borough operations. And the total expenditure listed above is representative of all records requests processed for Michael Long, both within and outside the realm of the RTKL.
Since the RTKL was revised in 2008, the Borough has faced 8 appeals in its history with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records (OOR). Michael Long accounts for 75% of these appeal proceedings in under two years. It’s created an enormous uptick in legal expenditures because of the quasi-judicial nature of such proceedings; participating in a review, filing position statements, and performing additional searches for records under question.
The Borough also wants the public to know it has no choice but to respond to Right-to-Know Requests, for whatever the Requestor’s reasons. There is no limitation on the number of records that could be sought. Also, the burden of proof falls on Bath if it denies access of a public record under the RTKLs more than 30 exemptions. In other cases, Michael Long’s requests have been labor intensive requiring legal to review documents, redact information where necessary, or generate hundreds of pages of logs at the request of OOR during the appeals process.
Bath has engaged in a court challenge to review the way in which OOR has incorrectly applied certain rules in one of Long’s Right-to-Know appeals. An otherwise standard process has devolved into a circus by Michael Long. Long appears to be using artificial intelligence technology to file motion after motion in county court that are completely unnecessary and procedurally flawed. Long’s motions also contain false court case citations and posit false legal propositions. This becomes extremely taxing on the Borough for its legal team to review and respond to these unnecessary court filings.
The costs listed on this webpage do not account for designated Borough staff time. And as an example, throughout 2023, the Borough Manager alone has logged 331.37 hours of work related to all Right-to-Know matters. Of this, approximately 314.8 hours (95%) was spent solely on Michael Long’s Right-to-Know requests. At 8 hours a day, this equates to nearly 40 days straight of working for one person.
These costs also do not include additional email and data storage subscriptions the Borough was required to purchase because Michael Long engaged the Borough in a frivolous litigation hold. This has created an additional expense of $600 per month from the General Fund for software preserving data under litigation hold, even though Michael Long has no legal basis to issue such notice.
Why does all of this matter? First, the Borough has a right to level with its residents. The Borough has the right to raise awareness that at this current rate of operational demand and expenditures related to the RTKL, (by one resident) is positioning the Borough to raise property taxes on the entire community to cover these costs. Tax money will need to be set aside in order to meet the demands of maintaining compliance with the RTKL under normal circumstances and to anticipate future requests and legal challenges by or as a result of Michael Long’s conduct.
Below is a year-by-year breakdown of costs associated with records requests by Michael Long. Long’s records requests are included. Michael Long’s phone number, email address, and home address have been redacted from the records request forms.
2025
As of December 31, 2025, the Borough has spent $21,168.09 in legal costs relative to Mr. Long’s RTKL matters. Another $2,704.27 for IT charges for Mr. Long’s RTKL matters that were accrued in 2024 and billed in 2025, and 2025 new expenses. Bookkeeping Services to review and produce potentially responsive records relative to his RTK Requests have amounted to approximately $470.
Long’s request for records both within and outside (request for records or where Mr. Long is contacting the Borough’s professional services providers outside of a request form) of the RTKL have totaled $24,342.36 through December 2025.
Bath has processed 16 RTKRs in 2025. Mr. Long is responsible for 5 of the 16 requests or 31.3% of the RTKR workload. As of December 31, 2025, of the $24,780.21 in total Right-to-Know and records processing Bath has completed, Michael Long (one person) accounts for 98.2% of these costs.
On October 10, 2025, Mr. Long files a Petition for Review with the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas related to OOR AP 2025-1943. The petition is baseless, filed with false legal theories and case citations that do not exist. The Borough will continue to defend itself against Mr. Long’s abuse of process for as long as the court system allows this activity to continue.
On August 11, 2025, Mr. Long files another RTKR. This marks the fifth request from Mr. Long this year out of 12 total requests submitted at the time.
On June 6, 2025, Mr. Long files another RTKR with a six-page supplemental request letter. This marks the fourth request from Mr. Long this year out of nine total requests submitted. Mr. Long files another OOR Appeal Docketed at AP 2025-1943. See more information on this matter here.
On April 30, 2025, Mr. Long’s appeal was denied by OOR in its entirety. In Mr. Long’s multiple attempts to have OOR find the Borough acted in bad faith, this too, was denied by OOR. For more information, please check this link.
Through June 30, 2025, Long has submitted 4 RTKR in multiple subparts and appealed the Borough’s response to RTKR #01.2025 to OOR.
On February 27, 2025, the Borough responded to RTKR #01.2025. Mr. Long has appealed the Borough’s partial denial, docketed under OOR AP 2025-0522. OOR later denied Mr. Long’s appeal.
See Mr. Long’s most recent RTK Requests:
2024
Through December 31, 2024, Long has submitted 2 Requests. Right-to-Know Requests and legal matters stemming from the Borough’s court challenge accounts for $84,767.08 in new legal expenses. RTK Request #02.2024 was in an email format, which the Borough processed. In March, Bath has since adopted a revised Right-to-Know policy requiring the use of the Standard Right-to-Know Request Form.
In addition, legal expenses have been incurred for attempting to handle Long’s request for information and documents outside of the RTKL, totaling $6,237.60. This has now become unsustainable as Long has asked for research, reports, and documents in the months of March, April, May and June. This work is not shown on Bath’s Right-to-Know Tracking logs. The impact on staff and operations precludes any further individualized attention Long has sought.
On June 25th, Long attempted to request access to additional records via email while also submitting a Right-to-Know request, doubling down on burdening the Borough with records searching, retrieval, and processing. Michael Long’s June 25th email is below:
Through December 31, 2024, Bath’s IT vendor has expended $4,646.64 in Right-to-Know matters related to Long. The Borough’s bookkeeper logged work on Long’s Right-to-Know matters, costing the Borough an additional $1,591.25. Plus, another $1,100 in bookkeeping work to review financial data and prepare documents for Long outside of the Right-to-Know Law as a courtesy.
Long’s request for records both within and outside (request for records outside of a request form) of the RTKL have totaled $98,342.57 through November 2024.
As of December 31, 2024, Long accounts for 11.1% of the Borough’s 2024 Right-to-Know Request docket. When compared to Right-to-Know costs (non-Michael Long related), legal fees amounted to $6,237.60. The Borough’s bookkeeper completed an estimated $358.75 of work. Total fees accrued by Right-to-Know Requests not associated with Michael Long is estimated at $6,596.35.
From January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024, of the $104,938.92 in total Right-to-Know and records processing Bath has completed, Michael Long (one person) accounts for approximately 94% of these costs.
Long would go on to file 1 appeal stemming from a 2023 Right-to-Know Request.
See Long’s Right-to-Know Requests below:
2023
In 2023, Long submitted 10 Right-to-Know Requests. In some cases, multiple Right-to-Know Requests were filed on the same day. In each circumstance, the Right-to-Know Requests were written in multiple sub-parts. This was on top of Long’s Right-to-Know Requests from 2022 of which RTKR #11.2022 was appealed by Long to OOR.
In total, Long would file 5 Right-to-Know appeals.
Long has accounted for the most amount of money spent by Bath to handle Right-to-Know Requests and appeals to OOR.
In 2023, this was the first time Bath started to separate out expenses for Right-to-Know matters by a single individual. If any vendor worked on Long’s Right-to-Know Request, these expenses would now be booked accordingly. Bath’s Solicitor’s Office began separating out a ‘Long’ matter number by April 2023. NOTE: The estimates prior to the Solicitor’s Office establishing a separate matter number for Michael Long have not been independently analyzed by the Borough Solicitor’s Office.
Separating out matters numbers is now an ongoing bookkeeping practice Bath will perform, should a Requestor like Long occur in the future. It’s only fair and transparent for the community to know where its tax dollars are being spent.
In 2023, Long accounted for an estimated $68,746.93 in Right-to-Know legal fees. The Borough Auditor charged an additional $1,820 in Right-to-Know fees relative to Long’s requests. The Borough’s bookkeeper completed another estimated $665 in work related to Long’s requests. Finally, the Borough’s IT vendor performed $2,886.24 in Right-to-Know work for Long.
In total, Michael Long’s 2023 Right-to-Know cost the Borough an estimated $74,153.17 for work related to his Requests, ensuing OOR appeals, and Bath’s court challenge.
Long accounted for 26% of the Borough’s entire 2023 Right-to-Know Request case load. When compared to overall Right-to-Know costs (non-Michael Long), legal fees amounted to $16,658.45 (one other Requestor accounted for an estimated $9,365.35 of this total; see 2023 Bath Right to Know Tracking Log). The Borough’s bookkeeper completed an estimated $35 of work. Total fees accrued by Right-to-Know and records processing not associated with Michael Long is estimated at $16,693.45.
In 2023, of the $90,846.62 in total Right-to-Know records processing Bath has completed, Michael Long accounts for approximately 82% of these costs.
See Long’s Right-to-Know Requests below:
2022
Michael Long started submitting Right-to-Know Requests toward the end of 2022.
From October through November 2022, 2 Requests with multiple sub-parts were submitted. The Borough has logged an estimated $4,554.00 in legal fees to process these requests. The figure is estimated because during this time Right-to-Know matters were not being separated out on an individual basis by the Borough. There was never a need to do so because records request workloads were more routine. The Borough Solicitor would group Right-to-Know work under ‘General Solicitorship Services’ of the Borough, no matter how many requests the Borough processed in a given year.
The estimate means, for example, if the Solicitor worked on 2 separate Right-to-Know request matters (calling out the name of the Requestors on invoices, one being Michael Long) and the bill was $100, the Borough split this time between Michael Long and the other Requestor evenly. NOTE: These estimates have not been independently analyzed by the Borough Solicitor’s Office.
It would be costly for the Borough to have the solicitor, or any other professional services, review their invoices to identify work specifically for Michael Long prior to when expense tracking was initiated. This is why, on a go-forward basis, professional services will begin logging hours of work on a per individual basis, should the Borough find a repetitious pattern from a Requestor.
Long accounted for 9% of the Borough’s entire 2022 Right-to-Know Request case load. To date, 2022 costs compared to all other Right-to-Know matters have not been estimated.
See Long’s Right-to-Know Requests below:
