Jul 18, 2022 3 min read

Charleroi council has approved a resolution to limit excessive right-to-know requests.

By a 5-1 vote during Wednesday’s meeting, council passed a resolution that will decide, “on a case-by-case basis,” if someone is making too many requests, said borough manager Matt Staniszewski.

Councilwoman Nancy Ellis voted against the motion.

“The resolution is derived from a resolution that was passed by the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs,” Staniszewski said. “It also demonstrates support for two pieces of legislation in Harrisburg.”

Those are Senate Bill 552 and Senate Bill 312. The former bill addresses excessive requests to municipalities while the latter one addresses charging additional fees for requests.

“There’s several municipalities dealing with the exact same problem and some have taken similar steps,” Staniszewski said. “Charleroi is far from the only one. We’re just brave enough to express our concerns. All we’re looking for is a reasonable balance between being completely transparent in processing those requests and just doing our job to serve the taxpayers.”

The resolution takes effect immediately.

“It’s particularly for excessive requests that are deemed vexatious,” Staniszewski said. “It would be on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately it’s a small handful of bad apples that are really wasting the taxpayer’s money and resources with these excessive requests that are essentially vexatious.”

When the matter was first discussed in June, Melissa Melewski, legal counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said governmental agencies cannot create a policy limiting right-to-know requests.

“Filing a right-to-know request is petitioning your government under the First Amendment,” she said at the time. “Local agencies can’t enact a policy that limits an individual’s rights to petition their government under the Right-to-Know Law.”

In other business, council hired a new code enforcement officer.

By a 5-1 vote, John Snelson was hired for the position at a salary of $55,000. The lone no vote came from Councilman Jerry Jericho.

Staniszewski said Snelson has experience as a police officer and has served the last eight years as a code enforcement official in Elizabeth Township.

The borough was without a code enforcement officer due to Jeremy Hepple’s resignation, which came three hours before council’s June 8 meeting. In a handwritten letter, Hepple said he was leaving because he believed some council members were trying to fire him. He took a position as code enforcement officer in Castle Shannon.

Also, council unanimously approved an ordinance allowing ticketing for certain non-traffic violations of the borough code.

“That will enable us to more proactively address code violations to improve our neighborhoods and our business district,” Staniszewski said. “At the same time, it will expedite residents’ complaints because we will not have to go through the lengthy judicial process.”