Lower Merion’s school board president is back on the ballot after winning Commonwealth Court appeal

A panel of Commonwealth Court judges on Thursday reversed a lower court’s decision to remove Lower Merion’s school board president from the Democratic primary ballot over financial disclosure omissions.

The appellate court directed the Montgomery County Board of Elections to certify Kerry Sautner to appear on the May 20 ballot, “in light of the longstanding policy to protect a candidate’s right to run for office and the electorate’s right to vote for the candidate of its choice.”

A Montgomery County Court judge had ordered Sautner removed from the ballot on March 31, after a community member challenged her nomination petition. In response to several financial questions on that petition — which is required to be filed by candidates for local office — Sautner did not provide written answers or check boxes indicating “none.”

The community member, Harshal Dear, who was represented by attorneys affiliated with the Republican Party, argued that Sautner had failed to disclose relevant information even after being given a chance to amend her petition. The petition includes a question about real estate interests involved with political subdivisions of the commonwealth; Dear argued that, as the president and CEO of Eastern State Penitentiary, Sautner should have noted that the organization leases land from Philadelphia.

Sautner, who was represented by lawyers with Dilworth Paxson in her appeal, said she did not have any ownership interest in the museum and was not required to disclose the lease.

While Montgomery County Court Judge Carolyn Tornetta Carluccio said Sautner should have just checked “none” if she did not have to report that information, Sautner said the law does not require candidates to affirmatively state they have nothing to disclose. She also said she should have been allowed to amend her petition again — and did file another version with the court, after Carluccio’s ruling, that checked “none” to the real estate question.

In its opinion, the Commonwealth Court panel said that without proof Sautner acted in bad faith, she should have been allowed to amend her petition again.

“Candidate may not have read the instructions and repeatedly misunderstood the need to complete” the question, the court said, noting past examples of candidates allowed to file amended statements despite omitting tax liens, judgments, and income.

While the court said it did not need to resolve the question of whether Sautner was required to disclose Eastern State’s lease, it cited past decisions in favor of Sautner’s argument that she did not have to disclose it because she does not have an ownership stake.

“Kerry made all of her required disclosures, even overdisclosing, and there was never any evidence whatsoever that Kerry filled out her forms in bad faith,” Sautner’s lawyer, Timothy Ford, said Thursday. He said he was “glad that the Commonwealth Court gave voters in the Lower Merion School District the chance to see Kerry’s name on the ballot for reelection in next month’s primary.”

Sautner is among four candidates for the Lower Merion school board endorsed by the Lower Merion and Narberth Democratic Committee.

The court gave Sautner one day to ensure her latest amended petition was officially filed with the county, if it had not been already.