A Lehighton Borough official believes that borough council has been in violation of the Sunshine Act.

Borough resident Joe Flickinger has questioned borough officials several times for not following the required transparency standards.

Councilman John Kreitz said at Monday’s borough council meeting that he didn’t disagree with Flickinger’s previous claims that council was violating the Sunshine Act.

“We absolutely are,” Kreitz said.

Kreitz said that the meeting minutes from council’s February 2024 meeting is missing from the borough’s website.

Mayor Ryan Saunders then asked borough Manager Dane DeWire if his staff has a time frame to have certain tasks to be completed by.

It was then noted that the Jan. 6 borough council meeting amended agenda wasn’t posted on the website in the required amount of time.

With regard to changes to agenda, the agency is to post the amended agenda on the agency’s publicly accessible internet website, if available, and at the agency’s principal office location no later than the first business day following the meeting at which the agenda was changed.

Kreitz said that upon being contacted about the matter, he checked the borough website to see if it was updated; it was not.

DeWire asked Kreitz why he didn’t bring it to his attention if he knew of the discrepancy.

Kreitz then cited DeWire’s salary, and that as borough manager, that’s his job.

Councilman Steve Hawk told DeWire to put an emphasis on letting his staff know the proper procedures to follow.

Councilwoman Becky Worthy said that council members are to work as a team, and that if any council member notices something, it should be shared.

DeWire noted that in his position as borough manager, there are often instances where he fields inquiries about borough business at any and all times.

Last month, Flickinger told council he wanted to know why the borough continues to violate the Sunshine Act.

Flickinger said that December’s meeting agenda was posted on the borough’s website at 11:20 a.m., which was not 24 hours in advance as required.

In addition, he called out council for using what he called generic wording when describing what they plan to discuss before going into executive session.

Flickinger cited several instances in which action has been taken against governing bodies.

One of those instances occurred when The Reading Eagle Company brought action against Reading City Council in 1993 saying that the subject of closed meeting must be announced with specificity before closed executive session could be held.

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court held that city council had to give specific reasons before calling a such private sessions.