More FAQs

The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act, 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 701-716, requires agencies to deliberate and take official action on agency business in an open and public meeting. It requires that meetings have prior notice, and that the public can attend, participate, and comment before an agency takes that official action.

Note that the Sunshine Act applies any time a quorum deliberates agency business or takes official action, no matter the physical location of those deliberations or actions. The use of the term "prearranged" does not allow agencies to thwart the intent of the Sunshine Act simply by holding an unscheduled discussion about agency business.

 Any state or local government body and all sub-units 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.

The Sunshine Act defines an "agency" as the "body and all committees thereof that are authorized to render advice or take official action" on behalf of the governing body.

The law defines a meeting as "any prearranged gathering of an agency which is attended or participated in by a quorum of the members of an agency held for the purpose of deliberating agency business or taking official action."

The definition of "official action" includes four categories:

1. Recommendations made by an agency pursuant to statute, ordinance or executive order.
2. The establishment of policy by an agency.
3. The decisions on agency business made by an agency.
4. The vote taken by any agency on any motion, proposal, resolution, rule, regulation, ordinance, report or order.

Deliberation is defined as the "discussion of agency business held for the purpose of making a decision. 

 A quorum is the minimum number or majority of voting members of an agency that must be present in order for the agency to conduct business. The number of members needed to form a quorum varies by the type of agency involved.

It’s important to draw a distinction between an individual agency member discussing agency business with members of the public and multiple agency members discussing agency business among themselves.

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.

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.

From https://www.sweetstevens.com/newsroom/board-members-sunshine-act-social-media

“Pennsylvania courts have previously established that the Sunshine Act does not require agency members to inquire and learn about issues only at open meetings. Public officials have an affirmative duty to be fully informed and, as such, may ‘study, investigate, discuss and argue problems and issues’ outside the confines of public meetings. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled that ‘There is nothing in the [Sunshine] Act that expressly precludes private information gathering as a collective effort by members of an agency, including by a quorum. What the [Sunshine] Act does proscribe is private deliberations.’

Accordingly, it does not per se violate the Sunshine Act for school board members to discuss school district business on social media, even with a quorum of the group. But, it is critical that board members be educated on this issue and understand the difference between discussing and learning about school district business, and deliberating for the purpose of making a decision. The latter must be conducted in an open meeting. Given the difficulty in discerning the difference between discussions and deliberations, we suggest that board members avoid this practice altogether.

Furthermore, once a citizen alleges a violation of the Sunshine Act and initiates a civil action in court, all such social media conversations would be subject to discovery and would likely be made public. So while a private social media group may give the appearance of a safe space to air grievances and to speak candidly, it is not the proper mechanism to do so. Board members should be aware of this risk before utilizing social media to discuss school district business.”

 Defamation is the action of damaging the good reputation of someone

Slander is  the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which damage the reputation of another person 

Libel is a written or oral statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression

Targeted harassment is systemic harassment with the purpose of silencing the victim and affect the victim’s social or professional activities