Summit Hill Borough Council has relaxed some of its restrictions on releasing reports to the public and news media.

Council decided a few months ago that no reports would be released.

Last week unanimously adopted a new policy written by Councilman David Wargo.

Wargo had been against the rules forbidding the release of all information to the media.

The policy states:

“Effective immediately, upon request of media, members of the public and/or other interested people or entities, council will provide” specific items if they appear on the agenda.

They include:

• The agenda for the meeting.

• Approved minutes of prior meetings.

• The police report as submitted by the chief of police or his designated officer.

• If submitted in writing, the mayor’s report.

• The aggregated zoning officer’s summary report.

• Receipts.

• Expenses.

According to Wargo, the policy is based on the Official Blog of the Office of Open Records of the State of Pennsylvania, entry posted Dec. 24, 2020, entitled “Providing Minutes, Agendas and other Basic Records” text.

The policy adopted states “news media covering the meeting should notify the borough office if they plan to attend, so council can reserve their packet of documents for the meeting. You must pick up these documents at the meeting. Failure to do so may result in a lack of available packets at the meeting due to limited printing due to the associated costs.”

The policy does not apply to requests submitted under the Right-to-Know Law.

Until earlier this year, copies of police reports and other information were available to the media.

The borough’s solicitor then advised the council to stop making reports available until Council could adopt a formal policy.