Monday, November 06, 2006

Non-Disclosed, Non-Compliant, and Wondering Why?

Despite many calls for more open government in Nazareth, it seems the Nazareth Borough Council has continued to put aside open meetings in favor of closed or at least non-disclosed ones. And I have to wonder after all that has happened this past summer, why?

On Thursday it was mentioned in passing that a committee was meeting weekly in regard to the transition to the new facility. On Monday, it was twice mentioned that a committee was meeting weekly. At one point during Public Comment Councilman Bowers noted that the Public Property Committee was focused on the transition to the new building. As a result, I asked Council President Dan Chiavaroli if the Public Property committee was the one meeting weekly or if a new one had been formed, what was the committee doing and were the meetings open to the public. He stated there was a new committee. It was not Public Property, but that Conrad Bowers was chairperson of both.

The new committee was not announced. The meetings were not on the web site calendar for October or November. No committee report was given at Thursday's workshop or Monday's meeting regarding the committee's activity. It was noted that the committee has been meeting in a room at the Lafayette Bank Building with Councilmembers Bowers, Kopach, and Herbst at 2:00 p.m. on Fridays and that the Secretary Paul Kokolus, Police Chief Ruch, and Mayor Keller were also in attendance and serving on the committee.

It was further noted by Council President Chiavaroli that the determination regarding whether or not a meeting was open was the discretion of the Committee Chairperson.

While Councilman Bowers noted his meetings were open, he also stated that the public could not just come into the bank building. A process would be determined by the committee and provided at a later time.

So we have a daisy-chain.
  1. Ultimately, the choice in Nazareth to comply with the Sunshine Law is up to the individual Council Member. I'd recommend that each Council member take it upon him or herself to serve only on committees that comply to the fullest extent possible (for instance don't discuss personnel or contract information publicly, but keep everything else out in the open) and to respectfully resign from those committees that do not comply.
  2. Each Committee Chairperson must decide to be open with meetings by announcing them, having minutes recorded, and reporting on the meetings at workshop sessions.
  3. The Council President ought to take it upon himself to encourage open meetings by supporting a motion that requires all council meetings to be open to the public unless the meeting's agenda was specifically in regard to personnel or contractual matters.
  4. The mayor ought to encourage open meetings in all possible circumstances to encourage public input and transparency of government actions.
  5. The solicitor ought to encourage open meetings in all instances except when having an open meeting would open the Borough to legal action.
Feel free to read this list in either order, top down or bottom up.

The principle of the law, or the details of the law can be argued (read about the sunshine law here, or NewsOverCoffee articles on the sunshine law here).

It is inherently better to practice open government than closed government. There is nothing good that will come of a closed meeting if it doesn't expose you to legal action. If it is closed, people become suspicious. Good ideas are deemed 'too good to be true' and cynicism abounds. Why fuel the fire of cynicism with closed meetings? Why give people a reason to distrust government?

Open meetings or be on the defensive for everything you do.

Regarding the law I wrote the following this summer in regard to the committee that had been meeting (and spending money to write up plans for the new government center that has yet to be declared). I've slightly modified my italicized comments based on a generic committee as opposed to the committee led by Mr. Davis (but the original is still available in a link in the post above):

You can read the Sunshine Law for yourself here.
  • Section 702 states: "The General Assembly hereby declares it to be the public policy of this Commonwealth to insure the right of its citizens to have notice of and the right to attend all meetings of agencies at which any agency business is discussed or acted upon as provided in this chapter." Discussed or acted upon does not specify in a legislative or administrative capacity as Solicitor Pierce delineates.
  • Section 703 clarifies definitions:
    • Administrative Action: "execution of policies...previously authorized or required by official action of the agency adopted at an open meeting of the agency. The term does not, however, include the deliberation of agency business." The question becomes, has a course of action been deliberated or was it being executed? If deliberated, then it must be an open meeting.
    • Agency: "The body, and all committees thereof authorized by the body to take official action or render advice on matters of agency business," The Committee fits this definition.
    • Agency business: "The framing, preparation, making or enactment of laws, policy or regulations, the creation of liability by contract or otherwise or the adjudication of rights, duties and responsibilities, but not including administrative action." As noted above the Committee was not taking administrative action, it was deliberating a course of action.
    • Deliberation: "The discussion of agency business held for the purpose of making a decision." The purpose of the committee is to deliberate courses of action on a variety of transitional issues.
    • Meeting: "Any prearranged gathering of an agency which is attended or participated in by a quorum of the members of an agency held for the purpose of deliberating agency business or taking official action." The quorum is not of the Council, but of the agency, which is a committee by definition. If there is a scheduled time to meet, it is prearranged and they are meeting to make decisions/recommendations to the full Council they are having a meeting.
    • Official Action: "(3) The decisions on agency business made by an agency." Based on the above, a committee that makes decisions on agency business is in clear violation.
  • Section 704 defines an Open Meeting: "Official action and deliberations by a quorum of the members of an agency shall take place at a meeting open to the public unless closed under section 707 (relating to exceptions to open meetings), 708 (relating to executive sessions) or 712 (relating to General Assembly meetings covered)." The committee took action and deliberated. The committee is an agency as defined above. Therefore, they need to be exempt from each of the following to not be covered by the Sunshine Law:
    • Section 707: Executive Session, Conference, or Certain Working Sessions. The Meetings were neither an executive session nor a conference. Exempted working sessions is specific to Boards of auditors specific to accounts. The Committee is not exempt under section 707.
    • Section 708: Specific to Executive Sessions, which the Committee was not. The Committee is not exempt under section 708.
    • Section 712: Specific to the General Assembly. The Committee is not exempt under section 712.
  • Section 709 requires public notification.
Given this, and again I am no lawyer, it seems the Nazareth Borough Council must step up from both ends of the equation - top down and bottom up - to demonstrate its willingness to be compliant by law and in principle with the Sunshine Law.

The only significant means of enforcement of the Sunshine Law is the people's ability to vote out those not in compliance, which is why I am recommending members resign from non-compliant committees. Committee chairs without full committees will be viewed as non-compliant. At the same time, I encourage pressure on the other leaders, both elected and paid. The leaders, the Mayor and Council President, need to lead the borough in the best way possible while being advised by the solicitor. They need to push the solicitor and challenge him to provide Nazareth with the most open government possible, not the most restrictive.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having served on numerous committees of one organization or another , the very simple "rule of thumb" is--- the committee makes recommendation which are brought back to the organization as a whole . Now this seems sensible in that the committee does research and holds discussion on the pros and cons of an issue or project
Or is this too simplistic for our neurotic society in which we "trust no-one"?

RossRN said...

I think everyone gets that the committees are deliberating - doing research, making recommendations, but as a public entity, when they do that they also need to announce their meetings and make them open to the public.

So if the choice is to announce them and make them open (when maybe a person or two if any at all will show up), why does the Council chose not to do so in opposition to the Sunshine Law?

This does give the public a reason to not trust the activities of the committee.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"Or is this too simplistic for our neurotic society in which we "trust no-one"?"
I trust my kids. I trust my friends. I don't trust my government. Neither did our founding fathers. And I don't recall anyone calling them neurotic, except perhaps the Tories. Nazareth's interpretation of the Sunshine Act is seriously flawed. That is the basic problem that has led to all those misunderstandings. Litigation is pending. But I agree with Ross that the best remedy is to vote out those who sanction government behind closed doors. That includes Bowers, Stoudt and Mayor Keller.

Anonymous said...

"I don't trust my government" That's pathetic. "Our government " is elected by the MAJORITY of the voters. Therefore , you don't trust the Majority of the voters.

RossRN said...

There are checks and balances throughout our system of government for many reasons and the sunshine law was put in place as a way for the public and press to check on government.

I used the term "reason to not trust". I am not out to indict every government body and/or every officeholder.

I do believe that open meetings are important for many reasons, and on the positive side if people know what issues are being tackled or where government is struggling to find a best solution, they will often times offer to help.

If they don't know, they can't help, and we waste both time and money in the process for a product/result that is half what it could have been.

For that reason alone, the Council ought to announce all meetings regardless of the reason why they are being held (executive session for personnel, for legal issue etc) and open every meeting they can.

No matter what you think of the new building solution, we only had it as an option because a community member heard about a problem and stepped in to offer a solution.

I've had several readers ask me for contact information to different groups and individuals to offer assistance after reading about a situation.

The more people are aware of what is happening the better off we all are.

Bernie O'Hare said...

I don't trust my government. "Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington said that. Maybe he was pathetic, too.

Anonymous said...

I do trust our school board either. Other townships get called on the q t and if the Sunshine Laws are in question of being violated. People need to act upon such and not let our government run away with their Choice decisions or laws without public hearings or invitations.

Anonymous said...

If there is this much dis-satisfaction with the current city government, what are the provisions under which an official can be removed? We have seen it at the federal level (Nixon) and even state (CA threw out their governor), similar provisions should be available to the citizens of Nazareth to remove an elected official that is not living up to their end of the bargain.

We can complain, show up for meetings and voice our concerns, even protest, but all of these have little impact on them. If we pick one and "impeach" him/her, this will send a clear message to the rest that we are taking back control of our city government, and they need to start responding to the will of the people or they will be next.

Bernie O'Hare said...

There is no legal basis for the recall of a borough council member. And our state supreme court has ruled those provisions, even when they exist, are unconstitutional. There are 2 remedies: 1) the ballot box, and 2) Sunshine Act litigation.

Remedy #2 has been started. And today, it may interest you to know that Judge Smith dealt Nazareth a setback. I had objected to Nazareth's absurd answer, and Smith sustained my objection and ordered them to do it over.

Nazareth loses round one.

It's a minor victory, but it should soon be dawning on some borough officials that they can't just make up the law as they go along. Nazareth has not been following the Sunshine Act. It's time they start or they will be embarrassed even more as this case proceeds. My concern about the Sunshine Act is quite independent of the relocation of the government center. It is the reason for my ire at Fred Daugherty. I was the reason for my ire at Ross, and I believe I was a bit unfair to you Ross. You've proved you have retained your concern over the Sunshine Act by your actions last night and your post today. I apologize for thinking that was not the case.

I don't want to embarrass Nazareth officials. I don't even want to vote them out of office. I just want them to follow the law. I have said as much to Al now in two letters. His response was a bizarre defense that the court rejected today. Maybe they'll now come to their senses, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anonymous said...

Wow, now that blows my mind that there are no provisions to remove an official, even when they are breaking the law.

One has to think though, that they proposed Gary Asteak for "special council". Being that he has often defended the indefensible, they may be bringing him in to do battle for them on the Sunshine Act.

Anonymous said...

"I don't trust my government". "I don't even want to vote them out of office" Just what is being said here????? Mr. O'Hare?

Bernie O'Hare said...

To Anon 9:08, Let me restate what I said. The constitution does not permit the voters to recall an elected official, even when the law specificaly provided for it. An official can only be removed in accordance with the constitution for the commission of crimes and things like that. The people can vote them in, but can't recall them. The second point I tried to make is that I have no desire to vote against current counsil members in the next election. I'm not interested in that. I'm only interested in seeing that the Sunshine Act is followed. I want them to do the right thing. If Nazareth officials agree to follow the Sunshine Act, then I'd be very happy. If they don't, I'll support anyone who opposes them in the next election. And I won't quit until they're gone. Clear enough?

RossRN said...

Bernie - thanks for the update on the suit as well as the note regarding myself.

For anyone in the position of being on a committee of a government entity, I hope you'll understand the Sunshine Law is in place because it is good for government and for the people government serves.

If you take the perspective that there are people out there interested in helping, but who need to know what help is needed and that they can participate and offer their help, I think you'll find it much easier to adopt an open until I am required to close it approach.

And finally, thanks to everyone who posted and read about this week's meeting and the sunshine law.