Luzerne County Council members are violating the Sunshine Act when they deliberate on issues through emails sent to all members, a media law attorney says.
"It defeats the purpose of the law," said Melissa Melewsky, counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, explaining the Sunshine Act requires members to deliberate at public meetings or permissible closed meetings.
The issue recently surfaced after Kathy Dobash, a Republican candidate for county council, saw some email exchanges between council members. She accused them of violating the Sunshine Act at Tuesday's meeting.
Several council members responded that they supported showing email exchanges on the county website. But publicly releasing emails between council members does allow them to avoid deliberating at public meetings, Ms. Melewsky said.
"That is not a Sunshine Act compliance method," Ms. Melewsky said. "It is a Right to Know Law compliance method."
The Right to Know Law requires government agencies to provide access to public records and information.
The Sunshine Act requires official action and deliberations from a quorum of the members of an agency to be at a public meeting, unless the meeting is closed based on a permissible exception. The law says deliberation is "the discussion of agency business held for the purpose of making a decision."
"It is my belief, after seeing some of these emails, that decisions are being made, and they are being made in between meetings," Ms. Dobash said at Tuesday's meeting. "And the public doesn't have the privilege to see this correspondence."
Strictly adhering to the Sunshine Act could make council meetings, already considered by many to be too time-consuming, even longer.
"So be it," council Chairman Tim McGinley said. "So we go an extra half hour."
Councilman Rick Morelli asked for a legal opinion, and Assistant County Solicitor David Schwager said he could not provide an opinion "off the cuff" at the meeting.
On Friday, Mr. Schwager said council members could be violating the Sunshine Act when they send emails to each other.
"It depends on what is said," he said, adding he agreed posting emails online does not allow deliberating through emails.
Contact the writer: mbuffer@citizensvoice.com