Lower Merion residents question closed budget sessions
By Cheryl Allison
Main Line Times
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.
In interviews the chairman and another member of the Ad Hoc Budget Committee told the Main Line Times that it may be disbanded.
The function of the committee became an issue last week when Bryn Mawr resident Audrey Romasco accompanied by another citizen, David O'Connell of the group Citizens for Responsible Budgeting in Lower Merion and a Main Line Times reporter, asked to be admitted to a pre-board committee meeting Feb. 18.
Members of the committee, chaired by Commissioner Cheryl Gelber, then conferred with township solicitor Gilbert High for about 90 minutes before announcing that the meeting was canceled.
One result of the discussion was the full board will discuss -- in public -- the request to open the committee's meetings at the commissioners' next meeting March 4.
Romasco, a six-year township resident who previously served as the elected chief executive officer of her town in Massachusetts, said she had become concerned about Lower Merion Township's practices while observing budget discussions late last year. She heard numerous references to the activities of the Ad Hoc Budget Committee.
The committee, which was appointed by board President Bruce Reed and includes seven members of the board, typically meets monthly throughout the year with township manager Douglas Cleland and finance staff to hear budget updates and consider various study topics that could affect township spending, according to Gelber.
In 2008, from numerous comments commissioners have made in public sessions, one aspect of its function that has been made known is its consideration of a list of potential spending reductions totaling $2.5 million. Cleland eventually included about $800,000 in reductions from that list in his proposed 2009 budget.
The nature of the committee's consideration is the issue here. Romasco, who said she also dealt with open-meetings issues as president of the largest League of Women Voters in Kansas, researched Pennsylvania's law, known as the Sunshine Act. She became convinced that the meetings of the Ad Hoc Budget Committee break that law.
"I've been in their place," Romasco said. "Governing in the public eye is messy. You have to take public comment, and people won't like [some of] what you say. It takes longer, but that's what you are elected to do."
Among provisions of the Sunshine Act, a meeting is defined as "any prearranged gathering of an agency which involves the attendance or participation of a quorum of the members for the purpose of deliberating agency business or taking official action."
In addition, "a government agency includes, by definition, any committee authorized to take official action to render advice to the originating body."
According to Melissa Melewsky, legal counsel on open-meetings law for the Pennsylvania Newspapers Association, a committee such as an ad-hoc budget committee can be considered "an agency in and of itself," in which case the quorum rule applies to the committee itself. Thus, "if four or more members are present, that is a quorum and the meeting must be public. It must be advertised and minutes must be taken."
There are a few exceptions under which meetings can be closed. In the budget committee's case, the exception that has been cited is that discussion items include spending-reduction ideas that could affect township personnel.
To be privileged, however, Romasco maintains, personnel matters must affect specific employees or issues of job performance. And in those cases, she said, the law requires that notice be given to the employee, who has the right to request an open meeting. "If it's a general budget discussion, that has to happen at a public meeting," Melewsky, said, "whether it makes someone feel bad or not."
Before the meeting was postponed last Wednesday afternoon, Reed, who does not participate in the budget-committee meetings, told Romasco that the board has been advised by High that the township is obeying the open-meetings law.
In a later interview, High said the crucial issue, in his interpretation and backed up by case law, is the nature of the committee. "An agency is a defined term," he said. It is one "authorized to render advice on agency business."
High, who said he does not attend budget-committee meetings, said it "has no authority, no charge, to advise the board of commissioners, no authority to make recommendations." Rather, it functions as a "sounding board for staff to present ideas with respect to the budget." No minutes are kept, and no reports are made back to the board, he said.
High noted that it is the township manager, not the board, who is specifically charged with developing a budget. At the meetings, "individual commissioners give their individual feedback," so that Cleland can "get a feel for the direction" of the board.
Chairman Gelber gave the same description of the committee's role. "Sometimes we get briefings from staff, we ask questions, people give their thoughts. But none of it is binding," she said. "We're telling [Cleland] as individuals what we think."
But for Romasco, who said High and Gelber had responded to her questions in the same way, it's a distinction without a difference. "My response is, a rose is a rose is a rose," she said.
She pointed to a number of comments made by commissioners during the budget deliberations and since that indicate the committee is engaging in deliberation and rendering advice. In response to questions then, various commissioners remarked that certain budget items had been carefully "considered" or "vetted" by the Ad Hoc Budget Committee.
Certain items were referred to the committee for review, one example being a future policy for township contributions to nonprofits. Most recently, at a budget discussion earlier this month, Gelber said the "next step" would be for the committee to review ideas that had been presented that night and "prioritize recommendations," she recalled.
While the state has an open-meetings law, it does not enforce them, Romasco added. She's been told it's up to citizens or media organizations to present a complaint in Common Pleas Court, something she said she is prepared to do.
As for the confrontation last week, Gelber said what's regrettable is that "we wound up wasting time that should have been spent on the 2010 budget." She added, "What's probably going to happen is that we won't have an Ad Hoc Budget Committee." Cleland needs a forum to toss out ideas, which may never go further, in a manner that is "not destructive of staff," she said.
Another committee member, Commissioner Scott Zelov, agreed dissolving the committee is "an option we have to consider." But he is one of several members who think that more of what the committee hears could be discussed in public. With Gelber's agreement, he noted, members had already said that certain information such as financial reports aren't privileged and will be presented in the future at public meetings of the board's Finance Committee.
Much of what was included in Cleland's list of potential spending reductions, which has not been disclosed, "should have been discussed in public," Zelov added.
"We need to have a better way understanding of what's required [by open-meetings law] and decide the process for going into the details of how we can save money as we prepare the 2010 budget," he said. "And the good thing is that that discussion will take place in the open."
Main Line Times
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.
In interviews the chairman and another member of the Ad Hoc Budget Committee told the Main Line Times that it may be disbanded.
The function of the committee became an issue last week when Bryn Mawr resident Audrey Romasco accompanied by another citizen, David O'Connell of the group Citizens for Responsible Budgeting in Lower Merion and a Main Line Times reporter, asked to be admitted to a pre-board committee meeting Feb. 18.
Members of the committee, chaired by Commissioner Cheryl Gelber, then conferred with township solicitor Gilbert High for about 90 minutes before announcing that the meeting was canceled.
One result of the discussion was the full board will discuss -- in public -- the request to open the committee's meetings at the commissioners' next meeting March 4.
Romasco, a six-year township resident who previously served as the elected chief executive officer of her town in Massachusetts, said she had become concerned about Lower Merion Township's practices while observing budget discussions late last year. She heard numerous references to the activities of the Ad Hoc Budget Committee.
The committee, which was appointed by board President Bruce Reed and includes seven members of the board, typically meets monthly throughout the year with township manager Douglas Cleland and finance staff to hear budget updates and consider various study topics that could affect township spending, according to Gelber.
In 2008, from numerous comments commissioners have made in public sessions, one aspect of its function that has been made known is its consideration of a list of potential spending reductions totaling $2.5 million. Cleland eventually included about $800,000 in reductions from that list in his proposed 2009 budget.
The nature of the committee's consideration is the issue here. Romasco, who said she also dealt with open-meetings issues as president of the largest League of Women Voters in Kansas, researched Pennsylvania's law, known as the Sunshine Act. She became convinced that the meetings of the Ad Hoc Budget Committee break that law.
"I've been in their place," Romasco said. "Governing in the public eye is messy. You have to take public comment, and people won't like [some of] what you say. It takes longer, but that's what you are elected to do."
Among provisions of the Sunshine Act, a meeting is defined as "any prearranged gathering of an agency which involves the attendance or participation of a quorum of the members for the purpose of deliberating agency business or taking official action."
In addition, "a government agency includes, by definition, any committee authorized to take official action to render advice to the originating body."
According to Melissa Melewsky, legal counsel on open-meetings law for the Pennsylvania Newspapers Association, a committee such as an ad-hoc budget committee can be considered "an agency in and of itself," in which case the quorum rule applies to the committee itself. Thus, "if four or more members are present, that is a quorum and the meeting must be public. It must be advertised and minutes must be taken."
There are a few exceptions under which meetings can be closed. In the budget committee's case, the exception that has been cited is that discussion items include spending-reduction ideas that could affect township personnel.
To be privileged, however, Romasco maintains, personnel matters must affect specific employees or issues of job performance. And in those cases, she said, the law requires that notice be given to the employee, who has the right to request an open meeting. "If it's a general budget discussion, that has to happen at a public meeting," Melewsky, said, "whether it makes someone feel bad or not."
Before the meeting was postponed last Wednesday afternoon, Reed, who does not participate in the budget-committee meetings, told Romasco that the board has been advised by High that the township is obeying the open-meetings law.
In a later interview, High said the crucial issue, in his interpretation and backed up by case law, is the nature of the committee. "An agency is a defined term," he said. It is one "authorized to render advice on agency business."
High, who said he does not attend budget-committee meetings, said it "has no authority, no charge, to advise the board of commissioners, no authority to make recommendations." Rather, it functions as a "sounding board for staff to present ideas with respect to the budget." No minutes are kept, and no reports are made back to the board, he said.
High noted that it is the township manager, not the board, who is specifically charged with developing a budget. At the meetings, "individual commissioners give their individual feedback," so that Cleland can "get a feel for the direction" of the board.
Chairman Gelber gave the same description of the committee's role. "Sometimes we get briefings from staff, we ask questions, people give their thoughts. But none of it is binding," she said. "We're telling [Cleland] as individuals what we think."
But for Romasco, who said High and Gelber had responded to her questions in the same way, it's a distinction without a difference. "My response is, a rose is a rose is a rose," she said.
She pointed to a number of comments made by commissioners during the budget deliberations and since that indicate the committee is engaging in deliberation and rendering advice. In response to questions then, various commissioners remarked that certain budget items had been carefully "considered" or "vetted" by the Ad Hoc Budget Committee.
Certain items were referred to the committee for review, one example being a future policy for township contributions to nonprofits. Most recently, at a budget discussion earlier this month, Gelber said the "next step" would be for the committee to review ideas that had been presented that night and "prioritize recommendations," she recalled.
While the state has an open-meetings law, it does not enforce them, Romasco added. She's been told it's up to citizens or media organizations to present a complaint in Common Pleas Court, something she said she is prepared to do.
As for the confrontation last week, Gelber said what's regrettable is that "we wound up wasting time that should have been spent on the 2010 budget." She added, "What's probably going to happen is that we won't have an Ad Hoc Budget Committee." Cleland needs a forum to toss out ideas, which may never go further, in a manner that is "not destructive of staff," she said.
Another committee member, Commissioner Scott Zelov, agreed dissolving the committee is "an option we have to consider." But he is one of several members who think that more of what the committee hears could be discussed in public. With Gelber's agreement, he noted, members had already said that certain information such as financial reports aren't privileged and will be presented in the future at public meetings of the board's Finance Committee.
Much of what was included in Cleland's list of potential spending reductions, which has not been disclosed, "should have been discussed in public," Zelov added.
"We need to have a better way understanding of what's required [by open-meetings law] and decide the process for going into the details of how we can save money as we prepare the 2010 budget," he said. "And the good thing is that that discussion will take place in the open."
