While only a few weeks into his new position as Charleroi’s borough manager, Matt Staniszewski has several ideas and suggestions he believes could help the borough operate more efficiently.

First on his list is a proposal to change the frequency officials and others members of the public are able to ask for official information through the state’s Right to Know Law.

The Pennsylvania Right to Know Law provides citizens the right of access to public records, and sets forth the conditions under which a document maintained by a commonwealth agency is deemed a public record.

During an agenda meeting Wednesday, Staniszewski brought up a suggestion for a new policy that would address excessive or redundant Right to Know requests.

Such requests for the last few months have been fulfilled by Borough Administrator Roberta Doerfler. Staniszewski has stepped in to take over since being appointed to his position.

Council will officially vote to make him the borough’s

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Right to Know officer next week.

To help alleviate the problem, and better allocate resources, he suggested a solution – and sought borough input – Wednesday after doing some research. “I wanted to get a general consensus from council on this,” he said. “In my short amount of time here we have received an excessive amount of Right to Know requests from certain, specific individuals and I did a bit of homework on this.”

Staniszewski said there was a case brought before a judge in Dauphin County that enabled the municipality involved to put a limit on the number of RTK requests an individual can submit each month.

According to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, agencies are not permitted to limit the number of records which may be requested or made available for inspection or duplication.

However, requesters are required to use good judgment in seeking agency records, and additionally, the law cannot be used to harass or overburden an agency.

Section 506 of the Right to Know Law allows an agency to deny repeated requests for the same records by the same requester.

“I want to stress that we want to have a high level of transparency, 100%, we want to process every request in good faith, but also be mindful of our resources and how we allocate those resources to effectively provide municipal service delivery,” he said.

The policy change would limit the number of requests an individual could make for a certain topic or item each month, if it was repetitive or otherwise readily available.

Staniszewski said he wanted input from council before he began to work with the borough solicitor to make a formal proposal.

Council President Paul Pivovarnik asked about the requests that have been “redundant.”

“There are two specific incidents,” Staniszewski said. “One of the individuals who had sent excessive requests, apparently sent requests a month ago or two months ago and did not get the answer he wanted. So obviously the new guy is on the block, he submitted the exact same request and got the exact same answer.”

There have also been cases involving elected officials, he added, though he did not specify who made the requests or what they pertained to.

“Those (elected officials) have requested certain items that are readily available in their council packets, so we are going back having to do redundant work,” he said. “As an example, requesting financial reports that were presented to council for the past three months. Those have already been included in their packets, so I am just asking to be mindful.

“I respect each and every one of you, but if we could kind of limit that. We don’t want to get in the middle of any political issues. We are here to do the business of government and that is what we want to stick to, so if we can calm those down, especially something that has been provided in your packets, that would be a courtesy.”

Doerfler said that in a typical month there are usually two RTK requests.

So far this year, there have been more than 30 requests, she added.

Staniszewski said he will work with Solicitor Sean Logue to draft a policy, which will then be brought before council for formal approval.

“Again, I will work with the solicitor to draft this, Dauphin County already had a case in front of them, so this has been tested and so forth, so we will take a look at what has already been experienced and take a look at how we can make it fit here in Charleroi,” he said. Pivovarnik said he agrees with the change.

“I agree, especially if the information being requested has already been provided to the individual,” Pivovarnik said.

Councilman Jerry Jericho said anyone who is making excessive requests could also save paperwork by attending a meeting.

“For outside people, if they are that interested, they could sit their butt out there,” Jericho said, referring to the audience.

For any residents interested in meeting Staniszewski, a meet-and-greet event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. June 16 at the Market House.

In other business, council also discussed a new method of ticketing for code enforcement, technology upgrades to the borough building and council chambers and options for refuse service after its current contract expires next month.