Council meeting on public meetings held in secret

City Council President Anna Verna and at least nine of her colleagues locked reporters out of a secret meeting yesterday.

The meeting's topic: How to hold public budget hearings.

Verna seemed surprised after the meeting, held in her office, to learn that reporters considered the closure a violation of the state's Sunshine Act.

"If this is against the law, that's news to me," Verna said.

The Sunshine Act defines a public 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."

With 17 members, Council reaches quorum when nine are present.

Verna said that the Council members, all Democrats as far as reporters could tell from out in the hallway, were discussing whether to move some public hearings on the budget out into community forums instead of holding them only in City Hall.

Council's Democratic leaders also met with Mayor Nutter yesterday to discuss that and other scheduling issues, Verna said, emphasizing that there was no deliberation on budget finances.

"You have as much information as we have at this point," Verna told reporters. "We have no information on figures in the budget."

Council Majority Leader Marian Tasco and Whip Darrell Clarke said there was no need to let the public attend the meeting.

"We're not deliberating on an issue that impacts the people," Tasco said later. "It's administrative work as far as I'm concerned." *