For a number of years, the residents of Mahanoy City have not been allowed to make public comments at their borough council’s public workshop meetings.
These meetings are held the week prior to the council’s voting meeting. During workshop meetings, council members discuss the items they’ll vote on next week.
At Thursday’s workshop meeting, Mahanoy City Solicitor Eric Lieberman recommended to council members that they open future workshop meetings to public comments.
“You’re supposed to have public comment whenever you deliberate for the purpose of making a motion to adopt something. Here (in work session meetings), we don’t make motions to adopt, but I think to be on the safe side, it’d be better if it’s added back on to the agenda so that there’s a public comment portion for the agenda items,” Lieberman said.
While motions aren’t made and votes aren’t taken at Mahanoy City workshop meetings, deliberation of the items on which they’ll vote at their regular council meetings certainly takes place. It happened on Thursday.
Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act is very clear on when public comments must be accepted.
The Sunshine Act defines a public meeting as: “Any prearranged gathering of an agency which is attended or participated in by a quorum of the members of an agency held for the purpose of deliberating agency business or taking official action.”
Regarding public participation, the Sunshine Act reads, “The board or council of a political subdivision or of an authority created by a political subdivision shall provide a reasonable opportunity at each advertised regular meeting and advertised special meeting for residents of the political subdivision or of the authority created by a political subdivision or for taxpayers of the political subdivision or of the authority created by a political subdivision or for both to comment on matters of concern, official action or deliberation which are or may be before the board or council prior to taking official action. The board or council has the option to accept all public comment at the beginning of the meeting. If the board or council determines that there is not sufficient time at a meeting for residents of the political subdivision or of the authority created by a political subdivision or for taxpayers of the political subdivision or of the authority created by a political subdivision or for both to comment, the board or council may defer the comment period to the next regular meeting or to a special meeting occurring in advance of the next regular meeting.”
Lieberman said he believed public comment periods during workshop meetings “fell off” the agenda while Mahanoy City was in the state’s Act 47 program for financial distress.
Mahanoy City entered the Act 47 program in 2016 and emerged from it in 2023.
“You were having so many of those long meetings and public comment didn’t seem to make sense when, a lot of times, there was nobody here,” Lieberman said.
The lawyer did tell council members they could limit what is discussed in public comments at workshop meetings, should they follow his recommendation to add them back to the agenda.
“I think with workshop being as long as it is, I don’t think you can open it up at that meeting for anything and everything because then you’re going into God knows what. You do that at the public meeting,” he said.
Lieberman also said that while public comment periods are for just that, comments, he encouraged council members to answer questions that are asked if they can be provided at the meeting.
“It’s up to borough council members whether they want to answer a question,” Lieberman said.
Mahanoy City council members are likely to vote on whether to allow public comments at workshop meetings during their meeting on Tuesday.
PHOTO: Mahanoy City Solicitor Eric Lieberman (right) tells council members, including Michael Connolly (left) his recommendation to allow public comments at workshop meetings in the future. (Coal Region Canary photo)
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