Delmont Borough in Violation of PA Sunshine Act?

Delmont Borough is in receipt of an order dated March 23, 2018, to cease and desist its illegal activities with regard to our property. The Borough has made no response to this order.

We shared the order to cease and desist with the public at the April 10, 2018, meeting of Borough council.

Council president Andrew Shissler stated that the Borough had no comment with regard to the cease and desist letter and that the Borough would issue a formal statement during the Borough’s sewage committee report.

That statement was read into the record by sewage committee co-chair Stan Cheyne. We attach here the Borough’s entire statement:

The Trib also posted a video of the reading of this statement as part of a related online article dated April 10, 2018: Delmont, DEP officials work on consent order to address storm water, sewage overflows

And the Oscar Goes to…

The highly rehearsed manner in which this statement was read and subsequent motions made—

• the reading of the statement into the record by sewage committee co-chair Stan Cheyne,
• followed immediately by a series of motions made by sewage committee co-chair Bill Marx,
• each followed by immediate unanimous votes in the affirmative by all members of council, rendered with no discussion whatsoever,

—begs the question: When did Delmont Borough council meet to deliberate the actions it took on April 10, 2018?

The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association provides this description of what is considered a meeting under the PA Sunshine Act:

“When an agency as defined in the Act (for example, a school board or a board of supervisors) has a prearranged gathering attended or participated in by a quorum of its members, the gathering is a meeting. You can call it a work session or a conference or getting together at the diner after the meeting, information gathering, or a fact-finding session, but it's nonetheless a meeting in the eyes of the law. The gathering place is a matter of complete indifference under the Sunshine Act's terms. A meeting can happen anywhere inside or outside a government building; what matters is whether a quorum of the agency is present. A quorum is the number of public officials necessary to take official action, typically one more than half the total number of public officials serving on the agency.

Meetings may or may not be open to the public. Whenever a meeting occurs for the purpose of deliberation or taking official action, it must be open to the public and all the formalities associated with a public meeting - notice, public participation, minute-taking, etc. - must be observed by the agency. Deliberation is broadly defined in the Act as discussion for the purpose of making a decision about agency business. [emphasis added] Official action is also a defined term, and it encompasses a broad range of activity including making recommendations or decisions, creating policy and voting.”

Note that attendees of the April 10, 2018, meeting of Borough council were informed as we entered the meeting that council had just concluded an executive session for purposes of discussion of personnel matters at which no decisions were made.

WE ASK HERE: DID DELMONT Borough council meEt in violation of the PA Sunshine Act some time between its March 13 and April 10 public meetings to deliberate the actions taken at its April 10 meeting?