Spotlight PA takes Penn State to court

Real quick: Spotlight PA is asking a Centre County judge to determine whether the Penn State Board of Trustees violated Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act.

A little more: Spotlight PA on Wednesday sued the Penn State Board of Trustees over what the newsroom contends are violations of Pennsylvania’s open meetings law.

The lawsuit asks a Centre County judge to determine whether the board and its committees misused exceptions to the state’s Sunshine Act to potentially conduct public business behind closed doors on Nov. 9 and 10.

Paula Knudsen Burke, a lawyer for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Spotlight PA in the Centre County Court of Common Pleas. Burke previously sent the university a letter requesting that it comply with the law as required.

“By regularly meeting in secret, Penn State officials are not just violating the state’s Sunshine Act, they are also violating the public's trust. In order to hold an institution as large and influential as Penn State accountable, we must demand greater transparency,” Burke said of the lawsuit.

The university could not be reached immediately by phone or email for comment.

The filing alleges that the board did not publicly state why its Audit and Risk Committee held two executive sessions Nov. 9 — one before its public meeting, which lasted less than 10 minutes, and one after. The law requires that an organization state during a public meeting why it met in executive session based on any of several legal justifications.

The next morning, the full Board of Trustees was scheduled to meet for more than four hours in “conference and/or privileged executive session,” according to the board’s calendar. A “conference” and an “executive session” have separate legal definitions and applications for governing bodies. 

On the morning of Nov. 10, a Penn State board employee told a Spotlight PA reporter the board was meeting in “conference.” That afternoon, during the full board’s public meeting, board chair Matthew Schuyler said the board had met that morning in “executive session.”

Schuyler said the board met to discuss “various privileged matters,” and offered no specific explanation for the executive session.

“We do not take legal action lightly, but we have unfortunately exhausted all other avenues on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania — and especially those who care about the well-being of Penn State — to ensure the university’s Board of Trustees complies with the state open meetings law,” said Christopher Baxter, Spotlight PA president and CEO. “Spotlight PA will never relent in its mission to demand accountability and transparency from powerful institutions, especially when they benefit from taxpayer dollars.”

The full story: Read more here.