At last night’s council meeting, I made public a violation of the Sunshine Law by a member of Council. It would have gone unnoticed if I hadn’t disclosed it.
The violator was me.
I hold myself to the same standard I would expect from anyone else on Council. Since I am a strong proponent of transparency in government, I have to adhere to being transparent, even when it may be embarrassing to myself in missing a rule of law and being open about my error.
At the Council meeting on January 8th I had asked for a few minutes in Executive Session before the meeting adjourned.
As I reviewed my own video recording of that meeting to render it for uploading, I noticed I never stated why we would be going into Executive Session.
I was a bit surprised that I hadn’t. I thought I had, but a video recording doesn’t lie.
The Sunshine Law requires telling the public, without detailed specifics, the reason Council went into an Executive Session (legal, personnel, contract, etc.). This can be done immediately before, or immediately after the session. I failed at both opportunities and though nobody from the public was present when we came out, that doesn’t excuse the fact that it wasn’t stated by me.
When I make a mistake I admit it and I did just that last night. To mitigate the error, I made my mistake public and stated the reason why I requested that Executive Session on January 8th (it involved Ordinance 966).
I apologize to the public and will do my best not to repeat my mistake.
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
