It is no secret that Penn State leadership is vitriolic wrt SPOTLIGHT PA, but reasonable oversight - even when it comes from an outside party - is crucial to responsible governance:
Penn State Trustee Scolded for Making ‘Spectacle’ in Push to Name Football Field After Joe Paterno | State College, PA
Leaders of Penn State’s Board of Trustees recently admonished fellow Trustee Anthony Lubrano for creating a “public spectacle” and sharing “confidential information” related to his proposal to name the university’s football field after Joe Paterno.
Board chair Matthew Schuyler and vice chair David Kleppinger suggested Lubrano should have instead raised the matter for discussion and deliberation during a private executive session — an action that likely would have run afoul of the state’s open meetings law.
“You chose not to take that opportunity,” Schuyler and Kleppinger wrote in the March 28 letter, first reported by WJAC. “Your public statement and withdrawn proposal were not only a distraction from the business and academic matters on the Board’s agenda for the February 16th meeting, they reflected poorly on the Board as a whole and therefore were not in the best interest of the institution.”
The exchange again raises concerns about whether the Board of Trustees properly follows Pennsylvania’s open meetings law in conducting its business. Under state law, executive sessions can only be held to discuss pending or current litigation, legal investigations, academic standings and employment or property negotiations.
Melissa Melewsky — media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, of which Spotlight PA is a member — said the letter “illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding and potential misuse of executive sessions.”
Penn State Trustee Scolded for Making ‘Spectacle’ in Push to Name Football Field After Joe Paterno | State College, PA
Leaders of Penn State’s Board of Trustees recently admonished fellow Trustee Anthony Lubrano for creating a “public spectacle” and sharing “confidential information” related to his proposal to name the university’s football field after Joe Paterno.
Board chair Matthew Schuyler and vice chair David Kleppinger suggested Lubrano should have instead raised the matter for discussion and deliberation during a private executive session — an action that likely would have run afoul of the state’s open meetings law.
“You chose not to take that opportunity,” Schuyler and Kleppinger wrote in the March 28 letter, first reported by WJAC. “Your public statement and withdrawn proposal were not only a distraction from the business and academic matters on the Board’s agenda for the February 16th meeting, they reflected poorly on the Board as a whole and therefore were not in the best interest of the institution.”
The exchange again raises concerns about whether the Board of Trustees properly follows Pennsylvania’s open meetings law in conducting its business. Under state law, executive sessions can only be held to discuss pending or current litigation, legal investigations, academic standings and employment or property negotiations.
Melissa Melewsky — media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, of which Spotlight PA is a member — said the letter “illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding and potential misuse of executive sessions.”
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