HARRISBURG - Local officials would have to keep a recording of a private executive session available for possible court review under a House bill drawing attention last week.
The measure by Rep. Rick Saccone, R-39, Jefferson Hills, aims to strengthen enforcement of the state Sunshine Law regarding executive sessions.
Saccone wants to curb what he describes as abuse of executive sessions being called in haphazard fashion and over the objections of citizens.
By having a recording of an executive session in existence for one year, an individual who believes the session has been called illegally could appeal to a judge who could then review the recording to make a ruling, he said.
The bill would add security and emergency preparedness to allowable reasons for executive sessions under current law and specify that executive sessions are to address employment situations regarding specific individuals only. The current sunshine law allows executive sessions for such matters as employment, labor relations and litigation. A school board member from Wyoming County testified on his own in support of the bill. The recording provision would provide hard evidence for a challenge in court and also prompt board members to be careful in the language they use in executive sessions, said Joseph Strauch, Factoryville, a member of the Lackawanna Trail School Board.
Strauch contended Lackawanna Trail has continued to hold executive sessions in violation of the Sunshine Law despite the findings of a state audit last July. The minutes of the public meetings do not mention all the executive sessions or the reasons for calling them, he said.
The audit report by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale recommends that the board announce the date, time and reason for an executive session at a public meeting.
"At recent executive sessions the discussions deviated into the effects of general raises for all Act 93 employees, how to manage the school lunch program and the need to post for an employee position," Strauch said. "At many other sessions, there were significant discussions about how to grant special tax concessions to a business in an Opportunity Zone. A year ago, the board met on two occasions, in private, to interview and select candidates to fill vacated board positions."
However, an official representing local government associations said a recording requirement would make it impossible to do business.
"If the recording of the meeting constitutes a public record, then the executive session would no longer be private," said Elam Herr, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors. "This provision would effectively eliminate the ability to hold an executive session and place governing boards in the tenuous position of being required to discuss every sensitive issue in public."
The Sunshine Law would benefit by having a legal presumption of openness for government business, said Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition.
"The law can be improved with a stated presumption of openness - such as that written into the new Right to Know Law - that makes clear the legislative intent that all of a government agency's business should be discussed and enacted openly, with rare exception," she said.