Jun 18, 2022 2 min read

I am very disappointed that Charleroi Borough is seeking to limit right-to-know requests. It is a right of the people to obtain government information when and if they have questions and concerns.

The Charleroi manager, Matthew Staniszewski, and the solicitor, Sean Logue, are both new to the seats. Staniszewski’s been manager for just over 30 days, and this is what he wants to bring to the table?

The Charleroi Borough website shows no public meeting minutes beyond 2014. Why not?

The borough has money to pay a solicitor to write up this policy that would limit requests, and to pay Staniszewski for managing the borough, money for a website that is not fully utilized but somehow finds the time to upload an event to “Meet Matt, to chat,” and yet, it takes too much time to fill right-to-know requests? I don’t buy it, and I hope the people don’t either. If this is passed in Charleroi, it most certainly will ricochet out into other municipalities. We should all be livid that anyone, right now, is working (and being paid) to make things less transparent in government, especially when local government already lacks huge transparency issues.

There is a solution. Be more transparent. How about updating the minutes on the website? How about adding to the minutes, the full list of bills paid and to be paid, and not just a total? There are, believe it or not, a “few” municipalities in Washington County that “choose” to be more transparent in their minutes, to avoid issues, or time spent filling requests.

What should be occurring is the opposite of limiting right-to-know requests. We are in the 21st century, I might add. Make use of the technology if you are going to bother using it, such as a website for full information, not limited or none.

Unfortunately, people who don’t care to know what’s going on in their municipality don’t know their rights will be infringed upon until they decide to request information. Anyone who supports this should be voted out or fired. Plain and simple.

Lisa Scherer

Marianna