Pittsburgh City Council schedules more private meetings despite Sunshine Act concerns triblive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from triblive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A Pittsburgh City Council member has canceled a closed-doors meeting scheduled for next week following a TribLive report that such private gatherings might violate the spirit of the Sunshine Act, Pennsylvania’s open-meetings law. The session called by Councilman Bob Charland, D-South Side, had been on council’s calendar since March 15.
Government transparency is black and white. Records are either open or they aren’t. A meeting is public or it isn’t. There are reasons for both. The majority of government activity should happen in the open. It should be well documented. It should be searchable, accessible and with as few hurdles
For years, Pittsburgh City Council members have gathered behind closed doors to talk in private about public policy. No one keeps a log of who attends. No minutes are maintained of what is said. And council members, desperate to ensure they don’t have too many people present, sometimes duck out