The spotlight is on the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act in Northampton Area School District after the board of education approved a request to investigate whether the act was violated by NASD school directors and/or district administration officials.

NASD school directors voted unanimously 9-0 at the Aug. 11 school board meeting for Atty. Eric J. Filer, of KingSpry Attorneys and Counselors, to determine whether emails concerning change orders for a $5.7 million heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) project at George Wolf Elementary School, Bath, circumvented the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.

The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act, also known as the Open Meetings Law, was enacted in 1986 and took effect Jan. 3, 1987, replacing older versions from 1974 and 1957.

The purpose of the Sunshine Act is to ensure public agencies hold open meetings, requiring that official actions and deliberations take place at public meetings. The act pertains to emails.

“An agency member is permitted to discuss agency business with members of the public, whether by email or social media (or in person, on the telephone, via postal mail, etc.). In many cases, such communications are public records available under the Right-to-Know Law,” according to the website for the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records (OOR).

“However, voting members of an agency are not permitted to deliberate except at a public meeting. In other words, agency members exchanging opinions about an upcoming vote or encouraging other agency members to vote a particular way in an email discussion or a discussion held via social media would violate the Sunshine Act,” the OOR website states.

The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act requires agencies to deliberate and take official action on agency business in an open and public meeting, according to the website.

“It requires that meetings have prior notice and that the public can attend, participate and comment before an agency takes that official action,” the OOR site says.

The Sunshine Act applies to “any state or local government body and all subunits appointed by that body that perform an essential government function and exercises authority to take official action or render advice. It can include boards, councils, authorities, commissions and committees,” according to the OOR website.

“The Sunshine Act permits anyone attending a public meeting to object to a perceived violation at any time during the meeting. ... For local agencies, a member of the public can file a legal challenge with the local Court of Common Pleas,” states the OOR website.

“Any legal challenge must be filed with the appropriate court within 30 days of the public meeting in which the alleged infraction occurred. If the alleged infraction occurred during a closed meeting, the legal challenge must be filed within 30 days of the discovery of the infraction, as long as it is no longer than one year from when the meeting was held,” the OOR website states.

“In addition to being assessed attorneys’ fees, any member of an agency who is found to have willfully violated the [Sunshine] Act can face criminal charges and subject to fines of $100 to $1,000 for the first offense and $500 to $2,000 for the second offense. Any fine must be paid personally; an agency cannot pay the fine,” states the OOR website.

“A court can also award attorney fees to the prevailing party if the court determines that either:

(1) an agency willfully or with wanton disregard violated the Sunshine Act or

(2) the legal challenge was of a frivolous nature or was brought with no substantial justification,” according to the OOR website.

“To the extent anyone knows or suspects that a criminal violation of the Sunshine Act occurred, the county district attorney in which the agency is located has jurisdiction to decide whether prosecution of such complaints is appropriate,” the OOR website states.

When asked by a reporter for Northampton Press after the Aug. 11 school board meeting when KingSpry might complete its review of the Sunshine Act with respect to NASD emails about the George Wolf HVAC project, NASD school board President Kristin Soldridge said, “At least give us a minimum of 60 days,” adding, “[Filer] has to look at the communications to address if it was a violation of Sunshine Act.”

When asked about probing NASD with respect to the Sunshine Act, Filer said attorney-client privilege between KingSpry and NASD prevented him from commenting.

Concern about the Sunshine Act was voiced at the school board meeting by school Director Brian McCulloch, who, before the vote on authorizing the KingSpry probe, said, “I intend to run this by (Pennsylvania) Auditor General Timothy DeFoor and make a complaint with the proper authorities about violating the Sunshine Act.”

The NASD Board of Education next meets 6:30 p.m. Sept. 8 in the Northampton Area High School auditorium, 1619 Laubach Ave., Northampton.