Summit Hill Borough Council has reversed its stand on withholding officials’ reports from the news media.

On a motion by councilman David Wargo, and passed unanimously, the council agreed to release statistical reports by the police department and zoning officer. The council also released a copy of its financial report.

Two months ago, the council acted on a recommendation of its solicitor to withhold all reports by officials from the public, noting they were for council’s perusal only.

Wargo presented a rough draft of a policy which would allow these records to be released to the media.

He said he is still working with the solicitor on finalizing the policy. The police and zoning officer reports were given to the media at the conclusion of Tuesday’s council meeting.

“I would like to make sure the media gets copies of aggregate reports like in the past,” Wargo said.

Attorney Robert Frycklund, solicitor for the council, said the release of the reports is different from requests by the public under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law. It’s also not the same as the Sunshine Law.

The Right to Know Law allows residents to request certain borough records but the decision on releasing those records is up to borough council.

The Right to Know officer is borough secretary/treasurer Kira Steber.

Frycklund said, “Kira and I do not have the right to release requests” under the Right to Know Law; that such authority is strictly up to the council. “If the borough council sets a policy which dictates what reports borough council allows us to disclose, that’s different.”

Frycklund encouraged everyone to read the Right to Know Law, which is available on the internet.

He said there was a lot of “confusion” over issuing police reports to the media, saying, “Everyone wants transparency, but we don’t want to compromise an investigation.”

Borough resident Marianne Szczecina asked the council how many traffic citations were issued by police last month.

Mayor Jeffrey Szczecina (not directly related) said the police reports show there were 49 traffic citations between May 5 and June 11.

The report by Chief of Police Todd Woodward includes, Total calls handled, 376; arrests, 2; juvenile arrest, 1; nontraffic citations, 13; traffic citations, 49; parking tickets, 16; quality of life tickets, 7.

The report showed police responded to 17 assists with other agencies (fire or ambulance), 29 individual assists, 27 assists with other police, 15 parking violation complaints, two drug arrests and 40 traffic warnings.

The zoning officer report for May had 17 informational calls/permits, 12 code enforcement calls and 10 tickets/citations issued.

Four permit requests were received with three approved and one rejected.