East Penn School Board, located in the Emmaus area, was poised to conduct a closed meeting last night to "identify and seek agreement on top goals." Because the meeting would be a policy-making session, I complained that the board would be violating Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act
That's nothing new. Municipalities do that nearly every day, knowing the law is toothless.
But what floors me is that School Board Prez. Francee Fuller, after first classifying my blog as "misinformation," decided to err on the side of the Sunshine Act and canceled the meeting. That's a credit to her and the entire board.
6 comments:
Julian is the one who deserves credit for speaking up! Without bringing this to you, Bernie, and getting this illegal meeting 'out there,' it probably would have gone forward.
Bravo, Julian!
Anon 5:59,
The East Penn Board is comprised of good people trying to do a good job. They are not back room politicians. I know this as I personally know most of them.
Let's not get carried away with terms like "illegal." That gives a connotation that does not apply. The Board was making a mistake, and corrected it. Kudos!
The Banker
Thank you Bernie. The East Penn school board got caught. Their solicitor stated that it would be fine to hold such a meeting. Greater scrutiny exposed reality.
They either don't know what they are doing, or they were hoping to pull a fast one.
More to come on what is really going on with East Penn. Our working group held its first meeting last night.
Thanks for the help.
Banker,
It's good to hear that you have a good board. Even as a board comprised of good people, if they met and discussed agency business (unintentional or not), it would still be an illegal meeting.
From all you've said, it appears that this was unintentional. To avoid this in the future, it would probably be a good idea for them to have a refresher course on the Sunshine Act.
Joe, who is your "working group" and what role does it hope to play in the East Penn District?
Anon 12:23, agreed.
The Banker
The working group is 10 citizens (which will be expanded shortly).
Our "role" will be determine the real fiscal situation in East Penn. They used the same arguments that Allentown Mayor Pawlowski and too many other politicians always use - "If we have to cut $1 there will cuts in education programs". Pawlowski has threatened that if he cannot raise taxes or borrow more money he will have to lay off police and fire personnel. (Not the 40+ new bureucrats added since 2000 or cut the explosion in 'consulting fees'.)
East Penn is the same as any other government entity. They have PLENTY of money. They waste a lot of money on things that are not part of their core functions. Administrative and overhead expenses are exploding.....
5 straight years of tax hikes have been unnecessary. The explosion of debt is hard to explain, especially while facing a significant DECLINE in enrollment over the next decade.
As John Adams said, "Facts are stubborn things." We will get past the P.R. B.S. and bring many facts to the public.
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