Williamsport City Council believes it has addressed the need for allowing public accessibility at its newly-formed Committee of the Whole, where members have met twice this year, but have not taken votes on agenda items.

During Sunshine Week earlier this week, the committee held a meeting remotely and provided public access at the city clerk’s office at Trade and Transit Centre II, with a 10-minute delay to get public connectivity issues resolved.

“Every taxpayer and resident should have access to their local government and its decision-making process,” said Council President Eric Beiter, chair of the committee.

“As the City works through the new Committee of the Whole (CoTW) structure, the City will set up both physical and virtual spaces for future CoTW meetings, to allow for public access even beyond that of which may be required by law,” he said.

“We had a few hiccups for the first meeting and steps have been taken to address the concerns,” he said.

“The City has the authority to choose the location of their public meetings,” said Nick Grimes, city solicitor.

“Additionally, members have the right to participate in those meetings virtually. It is my understanding that some unanticipated complications arose at the most recent Committee of the Whole Meeting,” Grimes said.

“Those will be addressed by the City and the City will continue to provide public access both in person, and virtually, to members of the public who wish to access their local government and its decision making process,” he said.

There is no legal justification in Pennsylvania for a virtual meeting, said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.

“Public meetings must be public,” she told Pennlive.com. “This clearly was not a public meeting,” she told that media source.

The council’s regular meeting room was locked and there was no signage advising the public to go to the first-floor clerk’s office, Pennlive said.

Beiter said he disagreed that the city can’t hold a virtual meeting for the committee because the meetings do not include any vote on agenda items.

“This has been past practice with our other committee meetings since it was brought to our attention by Pennlive several years ago,” Beiter said.

At this past committee meeting there was a 10-minute delay in the discussion as the city information technology coordinator was asked if there had been a connection for the public.

The meeting was delayed when it was discovered the conference room in the clerk’s office where the public was to have been able to participate via a laptop did not have WiFi service, according to Pennlive.com.

The laptop was moved to the desk of city clerk where there was WIFI service.

Two or three times during a meeting that lasted just under one hour the clerk’s telephone rang making it difficult to hear the audio from the laptop, according to Pennlive.

Such remote meetings were permitted during the COVID pandemic, but the legislature repealed that law several years ago, Melewsky said.

The committee of the whole meeting was advertised as an in-person session at the Trade and Transit Centre II where council has been meeting in a large third-floor room since City Hall was condemned due to water issues.

But instead the meeting was held in the city clerk’s office, behind a locked door with no council members present. Five of the seven participated remotely.

Council followed the advice of one of its solicitors Nick Grimes, on how the committee meeting could be conducted, Beiter said.

Holding virtual meetings creates potential liability for the agency under the Sunshine Law, Melewsky said.

City treasurer Adam Welteroth, who had a proposal to discuss with council, did so via his cell phone from the conference room instead of moving with the computer, Pennlive said.

Technology issues like those that delayed the start of the meeting and city finance director Jamie Livermore appearing only by audio are reasons meetings should be in person, Melewsky said to Pennlive.

The public must see everything that is going on, she said in reference to the dark screen when Livermore was speaking.

No one from the public attended the meeting that also was streamed.

The committee of the whole that this year replaced the individual committees initially advertised its meetings as being virtual.

This is Sunshine Week, a collaboration of groups in journalism, education, government and the private sector that focuses on the importance of open government and public records.