Open meetings
2009 NEWS ON OPEN GOVERNMENT ISSUES

PNA Legal Hotline: Sunshine Act not violated if quorum not present

December 30, 2009 |
Q: Our township supervisors held a non-public meeting where two of five current supervisors
and one supervisor-elect were present. Is this a Sunshine Law violation? Read More...

Bucks must release attendance records

December 24, 2009 |
The County must comply with a Right-to-Know request for employee attendance records, the state Office of Open Records has ruled. The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruled this week that Bucks County must make public attendance records of county employees who swipe their identification cards to enter the courthouse.
Read More...

Sunshine suit filed against Eastburg School District

December 19, 2009 |
The school board of East Stroudsburg Area School District was sued in local court by a group of citizens for not posting two items on its agenda before they came up for a vote last month. Read More...

PNA Legal Hotline: RTK Law governs access to draft minutes, tape recordings

September 17, 2009 |
Q: The school board secretary makes a tape recording of all school board meetings and uses the recording to draft meeting minutes. Occasionally, it takes the school board months to complete and adopt meeting minutes based on this recording, and they refuse to release the tape recording or draft minutes. Is the tape recording a public record? How long can the school board take to adopt official minutes?Can I get a copy of the draft minutes? Read More...

Opinion: Pre-registration for public comment at meetings unreasonable

September 11, 2009 |
Q: A new township policy requires anyone wishing to give public comment at a public meeting to sign up 3 days in advance and register the topics they will discuss. If you don’t preregister, you can’t speak at the meeting. Is this OK? Read More...

Opinion: What’s going on with the Sunshine Law?

September 11, 2009 |
Senate Bill 101, sponsored by Sen. Lloyd Smucker, has been in the House State Government Committee since June 3, 2009, after final passage in the Senate with a 48-1 vote. It could be the bill is destined to die in the House, the fate of a similar bill to strengthen the state’s Sunshine Act penalities that got nowhere in 2007. Read More...

Opinion: Lawmakers prefer working in the dark

August 15, 2009 |
Corruption hunters have a target-rich environment not only in Northeast Pennsylvania but in many parts of the commonwealth, including Harrisburg. But while federal and state prosecutors continue to work on individual criminal cases, little is being done institutionally to thwart corruption and improve governance. Read More...

Newspaper will appeal judge's ruling on Highland closed meeting

August 11, 2009 |
The Valley News Dispatch will appeal a judge's decision that Highlands School Board didn't violate the state's Sunshine Act in a June executive session. Allegheny County Court Judge Joseph James ruled in favor of the school board on Monday by dismissing the newspaper's allegations that board members illegally met behind closed doors with Heights Plaza Shopping Center officials to discuss a possible property tax assessment appeal. Read More...

PNA Legal Hotline: Sunshine Act penalites not often imposed

July 30, 2009 |
Q: Our newspaper would like to pursue legal action against a local agency for Sunshine Act violations. Are there civil or criminal penalties for violating the act? Read More...

Meeting minutes may be kept to a minimum

July 25, 2009 |
To what level of detail can a resident find out what happened at a municipal meeting? The answer to that question varies depending on who you ask.
Read More...

Opinion: Put some teeth in law that requires open meetings

July 12, 2009 |
Just as the state Open Records Act presumes all records are public unless proved otherwise, the state Sunshine Act should be updated to assume all meetings are open to the public unless proved otherwise. Read More...

PNA Legal Hotline: 'Retreat' to discuss five-year plan should be public

July 09, 2009 |
Q: The county housing authority is planning to hold a “summer retreat” for its members to work on the agency’s five-year plan. The retreat is not open to the public. Doesn’t the Sunshine Act require this type of discussion to be held at a public meeting? Read More...

Opinion: Let key reform produce more

July 07, 2009 |
Pennsylvania's new Open Records Law is far from perfect, but it proved its worth recently when the Associated Press used it to obtain previously secret records on legislative initiative grants - infamously better known as "walking around money." Read More...

Reading officials violated Sunshine Law in closed meetings, lawyer says

July 03, 2009 |
Reading officials violated the state's Sunshine Law by meeting privately to discuss missed deadlines in a huge sewage-treatment plant project, a media association attorney said Thursday. Read More...

Opinion: Let's celebrate transparent government

July 02, 2009 |
Transparency in government is worth celebrating as we prepare to mark our country's birth Saturday. It's been just six months since Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law took effect, giving it a major overhaul for the first time in 52 years. Read More...

Doylestown vote could have violated Sunshine Law Vote could have violated Sunshine Law

June 05, 2009 |
When Doylestown Council voted to approve filing a lawsuit against the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority a week after the lawsuit was filed, one councilman objected to the action. "I feel like someone might have violated the Sunshine Law, and I will not vote on this because I would be condoning the violation if there was one," Councilman John Buckman said. Read More...

Opinion: Shedding light on Sunshine Act

April 19, 2009 |
"Sunshine,” as Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis famously wrote, “is the best disinfectant.” A less famous formulation of this same idea is enshrined in Pennsylvania law: “The General Assembly finds that the right of the public to be present at all meetings of agencies and to witness the deliberation, policy formulation and decision-making of agencies is vital to the enhancement and proper functioning of the democratic process and that secrecy in public affairs undermines the faith of the public in government and the public’s effectiveness in fulfilling its role in a democratic society.” So says the state’s Sunshine Act, which has been an abject failure since its adoption more than 50 years ago. Too often, agencies are allowed to shut the public out of meetings that should be open. It’s time the act lived up to its name.
Read More...

Chambersburg officials acknowledge council's violation of openness law

April 15, 2009 |
Chambersburg Borough Council went into a closed session Monday night to talk about changing the rules for hiring police officers and firefighters, a subject that under Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act must be discussed in an open meeting. Read More...

Opinion: Sunshine Act remains abysmally ineffective

April 15, 2009 |
Chambersburg Borough Council this week demonstrated a compelling reason to amend Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act so that it might actually cause municipal officials to think twice before concealing deliberations that should be public. Read More...

PNA Legal Hotline: Vote taken at unadvertised meeting not void

April 02, 2009 |
Q: A borough held an unadvertised special meeting and voted to create a contract during
the meeting. Does Sunshine Act automatically void the contract because the meeting was
not properly advertised? Read More...

Pa. public officials cannot close meetings when it suits them

March 17, 2009 |
This is National Sunshine Week, dedicated to celebrating the importance of open government and freedom of information. Sadly, though, here in the Philadelphia region, the forecast calls for clouds and closed government. Read More...

Opinion: Legislature should put teeth in the state's Sunshine Act

March 15, 2009 |
In Pennsylvania, which just this year implemented its much-improved Open Records Act, illegal secret meetings have become a joke, because those who knowingly engage in such sessions are well aware that no punitive measure will be taken even if the courts rule that the private gathering violated the state Sunshine Act. Read More...

Negative coverage divides Radnor

March 15, 2009 |
For some Radnor residents, the controversy surrounding the township manager and his salary bonuses wasn't as troubling as the widespread news coverage. Unaccustomed in many ways to the glare of publicity, they are questioning how open township business should really be. Read More...

Vote to keep committee meetings private breaks down along party lines

March 11, 2009 |
ARDMORE — The Lower Merion Board of Commissioners will keep its Ad Hoc Budget Committee, and it will keep that committee’s meetings closed to the public. That was the answer to a citizen’s open-meetings challenge in a lengthy discussion Wednesday night. Read More...

Lower Merion commissioners keep ad hoc budget meetings private

March 05, 2009 |
The Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners will keep its Ad Hoc Budget Committee, and it will keep that committee’s meetings closed to the public. That was the answer to a citizen’s open-meetings challenge in a lengthy discussion Wednesday night.
Read More...

City Council meets again in secret

February 27, 2009 |
Philadelphia City Council continued to assert its right to meet in secret yesterday with an "administrative" session to discuss budget hearings in the neighborhoods.
Read More...

Council meeting on public meetings held in secret

February 27, 2009 |
Philadelphia City Council President Anna Verna and at least nine of her colleagues locked reporters out of a secret meeting yesterday. The meeting's topic: How to hold public budget hearings.
Read More...

Lower Merion residents question closed budget sessions

February 25, 2009 |
The future of a budget committee of Lower Merion's board of commissioners is in question after a citizen challenged the township's practice of holding its meetings in private. Read More...

Amend Sunshine Act to allow stiff fines for violations

February 17, 2009 |
The Issue: City Council holds an illegal secret meeting.
Our Opinion: The Sunshine Act needs a stronger enforcement provision. Read More...

Judge's nondisclosure in Williams Township landfill case has unpleasant odor

February 17, 2009 |
The saga of Williams Township and the proposed rezoning and expansion of Chrin Landfill has had a fetid smell all along. Read More...

Judge in suit over Chrin deal will reconsider recusal

February 17, 2009 |
A Northampton County judge -- criticized for not excusing himself from a recent case involving a deal with Chrin Brothers Sanitary Landfill -- will consider a recusal request next week. Read More...

Reading sewage plant costs discussed in closed meeting

February 10, 2009 |
The cost of Reading's new sewage treatment plant may be substantially less than the $250 million estimate because of a potential change in its treatment process, city officials have said. But City Council, under lawyers' orders, discussed that change Monday for more than an hour behind closed doors to keep the U.S. Justice Department from hearing about it, according to sources. Read More...

Judge tosses suit claiming Williams Township, Chrin met illegally

January 24, 2009 |
A judge has tossed a lawsuit by a Williams Township grass-roots group that claimed supervisors illegally met behind closed doors with representatives of the local landfill. Read More...

Residents' lawsuit to block Williams Township landfill expansion tossed

January 23, 2009 |
EASTON — The almost year-long legal battle between Williams Township residents and their supervisors over closed-door meetings ended Thursday when a Northampton County judge dismissed the case in a decision that will allow negotiations over a proposed landfill expansion to move forward.
Read More...

Judge hears testimony on Chrin deal / Suit: Williams Twp. violated Sunshine Act

January 22, 2009 |
For more than year, Williams Township supervisors and top officials met behind closed doors over Chrin Brothers landfill, one of the township's largest sources of revenue. They kept no minutes, took no notes, and never explicitly told the public that representatives from the company also had seats at the table. Read More...

Closed budget briefing sparks Sunshine Act debate

November 06, 2008 |
In a legal opinion over the state's Sunshine Act that has sparked some criticism, the City of Philadelphia Law Department has concluded that a quorum of City Council may meet with the mayor behind closed doors if city leaders don't establish policy or conduct debate that could lead to policy-making. Read More...

Inquirer, Daily News sue to open Nutter-Council talks

November 06, 2008 |
The owner of The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News sued Mayor Nutter and City Council President Anna C. Verna yesterday, alleging that reporters were illegally barred from a meeting at which the mayor discussed proposed budget cuts with Council members. Read More...

Sunshine Law allows for exchange of views

November 03, 2008 |
Close to the heart of the democratic process is the role played by media. You can't have an informed citizenry without the free flow of information about government actions. But this media right to stand close by as policy is formulated and implemented is not absolute. Reporters can't sit next to government policymakers 24/7. Read More...

Opinion: Sunshine Act is clear

November 02, 2008 |
It's no secret that our economy is hurting and that the city needs to address a budget shortfall. So, recently [Philadelphia] Mayor Nutter and City Council met to discuss the budget - in secret. That private meeting was no isolated incident. This was the third time this year that the public has been barred from city budget briefings.
Read More...

Board should err on the side of openness and transparency

September 16, 2008 |
Last week, the budget watchdog group Citizens for Responsible Budgeting submitted a letter that referenced an upcoming "non-public budget 'workshop'" that the Lower Merion Commissioners would be having on September 24. As a result of that letter, we received a number of legitimate questions regarding the purpose and propriety of such a closed door Board meeting, which we would like to address. Read More...