Chambersburg officials acknowledge council's violation of openness law
By VICKY TAYLOR
[Chambersburg] Public Opinion Staff writer
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.
The act sets out specific conditions for closed meetings -- often called executive sessions -- of elected governing bodies, allowing for such sessions in six specific areas.
While personnel is one of those areas, those issues must deal with specific individuals, not general discussion, such as council had Monday night.
The executive session was planned in advance, listed on the agenda as item five in the meeting. Council left the room to talk about the issue, coming back into open session about 15 minutes later.
Council members had received a memo in advance as part of their agenda packet, outlining the subject matter for the executive session.
On Tuesday, Borough Solicitor Tom Finucane acknowledged that council was in error in using an executive session to talk about changing the rules for hiring police officers and firefighters.
After being contacted by Public Opinion in a voice mail message and by e-mail about the issue, he quickly sent an e-mail of his own to Borough Manager Eric Oyer, saying he agreed with the newspaper's claim that executive sessions should be limited to issues involving specific employees or potential employees.
He said that to comply with the Sunshine Law, council needed to talk about issues such as changes in hiring policy in open public meetings, not in executive session.
"Please see that Council members get a copy of this e-mail so they are aware of this limitation on the personnel exception in the Sunshine Law ... Full compliance with the Sunshine Law is our continuing responsibility," he wrote in his e-mail to Oyer.
Council President Bill McLaughlin would not talk about the decision to take the discussion into an executive session other than to say "we probably made a mistake and won't do it again."
"At the time, we thought it was permissible," he said.
McLaughlin did not answer the specific question of whether the reason for executive session was to avoid public comment on the bilingual issue from the crowd at the meeting.
The full content of the Sunshine Act as it pertains to public meetings and executive sessions can be found online.
[Chambersburg] Public Opinion Staff writer
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.
The act sets out specific conditions for closed meetings -- often called executive sessions -- of elected governing bodies, allowing for such sessions in six specific areas.
While personnel is one of those areas, those issues must deal with specific individuals, not general discussion, such as council had Monday night.
The executive session was planned in advance, listed on the agenda as item five in the meeting. Council left the room to talk about the issue, coming back into open session about 15 minutes later.
Council members had received a memo in advance as part of their agenda packet, outlining the subject matter for the executive session.
On Tuesday, Borough Solicitor Tom Finucane acknowledged that council was in error in using an executive session to talk about changing the rules for hiring police officers and firefighters.
After being contacted by Public Opinion in a voice mail message and by e-mail about the issue, he quickly sent an e-mail of his own to Borough Manager Eric Oyer, saying he agreed with the newspaper's claim that executive sessions should be limited to issues involving specific employees or potential employees.
He said that to comply with the Sunshine Law, council needed to talk about issues such as changes in hiring policy in open public meetings, not in executive session.
"Please see that Council members get a copy of this e-mail so they are aware of this limitation on the personnel exception in the Sunshine Law ... Full compliance with the Sunshine Law is our continuing responsibility," he wrote in his e-mail to Oyer.
Council President Bill McLaughlin would not talk about the decision to take the discussion into an executive session other than to say "we probably made a mistake and won't do it again."
"At the time, we thought it was permissible," he said.
McLaughlin did not answer the specific question of whether the reason for executive session was to avoid public comment on the bilingual issue from the crowd at the meeting.
The full content of the Sunshine Act as it pertains to public meetings and executive sessions can be found online.
