Lansford Borough Council will now have its solicitor approve all topics for discussion at executive sessions after council members raised objections to a closed-door session last month.

Council President Joe Genits opened Wednesday’s meeting and announced that the May 28 executive session was for grant contract review, the Kafferlin Strategies report and a small personnel item.

“I beg to differ, Joe,” Councilwoman Gwyneth Collevechio said immediately. “We did not talk about personnel in that executive session.”

Genits said that the ARRO Consulting personnel changes fell under the Sunshine Law exemption for personnel.

“We only met them. They weren’t employees, which is what we talk about in executive session,” Collevechio countered.

Genits replied that was her opinion and that they’ll note that for the record.

“Well, I would like that in the record that I said that, because we did not discuss personnel,” Collevechio said.

Council is permitted to meet in executive session for certain matters, such as litigation, contract negotiations, sale of real estate and personnel, under the Sunshine Law.

ARRO serves as the borough engineer and recently had two employees who worked with Lansford leave their employ, and new people were brought in to work with the borough.

Last month, Genits said that ARRO wanted the executive session to introduce the new personnel who would be working with the borough, following the resignations at the firm.

Council also met with Kafferlin Associates, the consulting firm that will be working on reviewing the borough’s operations as part of the state’s Strategic Management Planning Program, for which the borough received a $71,595 grant.

Genits called the closed-door portion of the meeting with Kafferlin “informational” regarding what the firm would be doing related to the contract council executed in mid-May.

Collevechio and council members Bruce Markovich and Michele Bartek and Mayor Denise Leibensperger went on the record immediately after last month’s executive session objecting to what was discussed.

Genits told them then that they could go to county court to file a lawsuit on the alleged violation and had 30 days to do so.

To pursue a Sunshine Law violation, an individual has to file a lawsuit in county court, and to pursue criminal penalties against elected officials, a private criminal complaint must be filed with the district attorney, who will decide whether charges are appropriate, a media law attorney for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association said last month.

On Wednesday, Markovich also questioned whether council appointing a new zoning officer was done properly, because it was not on the agenda.

“Nobody made a motion to go off the agenda to appoint the new zoning officer, and nobody did an amended agenda to reflect the appointment,” he said. “Whether you have a legal zoning officer or not, I don’t know.”

Council appointed Shannon Darker, an ARRO employee, as zoning officer at the May 28 meeting.

Genits agreed that they did not go off the agenda on the appointment, but the borough had no zoning officer as the other person from ARRO resigned. He deferred to the borough solicitor, Bob Yurchak.

“Are we legal for that to use that person as zoning officer?” Genits asked.

Yurchak asked if they hired ARRO or the individual, and Genits explained that ARRO presented a new person for zoning.

“If ARRO was the one that was hired, then we’re only substituting personnel,” Yurchak said.

Markovich said if that was the case, then they shouldn’t have voted on the appointment of a zoning officer.

“We need to get this stuff right,” he said.

Genits agreed, and pointed back to the previous administration.

“We need to get it right,’ he said. “Likewise, some things could be gotten right. Going back in time, why there’s no insurance for a lawsuit. That’s all I’m going to say. Who caused that? So, let’s get it right.”

Markovich, who previously served as council president, pointed the blame on the former mayor, Hugh Vrablic, and Genits ended the dispute saying he only knows what he read in the court documents as he wasn’t on council at the time this happened.

Later, when council approved having the solicitor prescreen topics for executive session, Genits said that no one had objected before that executive session.

He said that he sent an email out to council members ahead of the session and no one replied to make a change.

Leibensperger said that wasn’t the case.

“I most certainly did, and I sent it to the solicitor and you,” she told Genits, “And no one responded.”

Genits replied that no one from council responded. He had also said that those who objected publicly also sat through the executive session in question.

Council will now have Yurchak prescreen executive session topics to keep the discussion to what is permissible in those close door sessions.

“Sometimes we veer in executive sessions,” Markovich said. “I think we need to do this in order to be safe.”