From the Hotline

By Teri Henning, General Counsel
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association

Q: Our school board recently voted in public to terminate an employee, but refused to name the employee. Is this a violation of the Sunshine Act?

A: Yes. The Sunshine Act requires an agency to deliberate agency business in public (with limited exceptions) and requires an agency to take all official action in public. The Act also requires an agency to provide the public with a reasonable opportunity to comment on matters before taking official action.

When an agency refuses to disclose the name of an employee that is being terminated, it is not satisfying its obligation to take all official action in public. Although the vote itself was public, the agency has not sufficiently informed the public about the action that it is taking. In addition, when the public does not know what the agency has decided, there is no reasonable opportunity for the public to comment on the agency’s action.

The agency may not have to disclose the reason for terminating a particular employee (there is one case where the Court held that a school board did not have to publicly disclose the reasons for taking disciplinary action against a teacher), an agency must at least disclose the action it is taking when it votes. The agency must provide a sufficient amount of information so that the public can determine what action it is taking or what decision it is making.

The primary purpose of the Sunshine Act is to permit the public to witness agency discussions and decision making, and to permit the public to comment on that process. An agency cannot sit at a table and take action without providing the public with the necessary information to both understand what the agency is doing and make meaningful comments about it.

On a related topic, the Right to Know Law guarantees the public’s right to access public records held by agencies. Payroll and salary-related records are public records, and anyone who wants to know who is on (or off) an agency’s payroll would be able to get this information by making a records request.

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