Pennsylvania meeting agendas and notices: what to post, where, and when
Short answer
Before every meeting, a Pennsylvania board posts an agenda listing each matter it will or may discuss or act on: on its public website, if it has one, at least 24 hours before the meeting, and at the meeting place and its office. A special meeting, or a rescheduled regular meeting, also needs public notice at least 24 hours ahead, printed in a newspaper and posted. An emergency meeting needs no public notice.(65 Pa.C.S. § 709(c.1); 65 Pa.C.S. § 709(a))
Where this fits in your meeting cycle: Clarivis is software that helps a board follow these steps: it counts the deadline for each meeting's agenda and each special meeting's notice and drafts the minutes for your board to correct and approve; it does not post the agenda, send the notice to a newspaper or track the newspaper's own deadline for you.
See how Clarivis helpsQuestions on this page
What must the agenda list?
Every matter the board will or may take up:
Statute text
“a listing of each matter of agency business that will be or may be the subject of deliberation or official action at the meeting”
Where does the agenda go, and how far ahead?
If the board has a public website, the agenda goes on it at least 24 hours before the meeting:
Statute text
“If the agency has a publicly accessible Internet website, the agency shall post the agenda, which includes a listing of each matter of agency business that will be or may be the subject of deliberation or official action at the meeting, on the website no later than 24 hours in advance of the time of the convening of the meeting.”
The agenda is also posted at the meeting place and at the board's office, and copies are available for those who attend (§ 709(c.1)). As Clarivis reads the law, the website of the borough, township or city the board serves counts as the board's website.
Which meetings also need a newspaper notice?
A special meeting, and any rescheduled regular or special meeting:
Statute text
“An agency shall give public notice of each special meeting or each rescheduled regular or special meeting at least 24 hours in advance of the time of the convening of the meeting specified in the notice.”
A special meeting is one the board schedules after it has set its schedule of regular meetings for the year (§ 703). Public notice means the place, date and time printed in a newspaper of general circulation, either one published and circulated in the municipality or one whose paid circulation there is at least as large as any newspaper published there, and posted at the board's office or the building where the meeting will be held:
Statute text
“Publication of notice of the place, date and time of a meeting in a newspaper of general circulation, as defined by 45 Pa.C.S. § 101 (relating to definitions), which is published and circulated in the political subdivision where the meeting will be held, or in a newspaper of general circulation which has a bona fide paid circulation in the political subdivision equal to or greater than any newspaper published in the political subdivision.”
The notice must go to the newspaper in time for it to be published before the day of the meeting:
Statute text
“the agency, to satisfy its legal obligation, must give the notice in time to allow it to be published or circulated within the political subdivision where the principal office of the agency is located or the meeting will occur before the date of the specified meeting.”
On request, copies of the public notice go to any newspaper of general circulation in the municipality, any radio or television station that regularly broadcasts there, and any interested party, if the newspaper, station or party supplies a stamped, self-addressed envelope before the meeting (§ 709(c)).
A recessed or reconvened meeting needs a posting and notice to those who asked for it, not a newspaper notice (§ 703).
The first regular meeting of each year has its own notice, with the schedule of the year's remaining regular meetings:
Statute text
“An agency shall give public notice of its first regular meeting of each calendar or fiscal year not less than three days in advance of the meeting and shall give public notice of the schedule of its remaining regular meetings.”
See the yearly meeting schedule guide.
How are the hours counted?
As Clarivis reads the law, the 24 hours are clock hours counted back from the time the meeting starts, and no weekend or holiday is left out. Pennsylvania's general rule for counting time, 1 Pa.C.S. § 1908, speaks of the first and last day of a period, and leaves out a weekend or holiday only when it is the last day:
Statute text
“Whenever the last day of any such period shall fall on Saturday or Sunday, or on any day made a legal holiday by the laws of this Commonwealth or of the United States, such day shall be omitted from the computation.”
On that reading, the agenda for a Monday 7 p.m. meeting goes on the website by 7 p.m. the Sunday before. Clarivis counts the same time for the posting at the meeting place and the board's office, so if those are closed that weekend, post the agenda there before they close on Friday. For a Tuesday 7 p.m. meeting after a Monday holiday, the website deadline is 7 p.m. on the holiday; if the office and meeting place are closed for the weekend and the holiday, post the agenda there before they close on the Friday before. When in doubt, post earlier; nothing in the law stops a board from giving more notice than the minimum.
Can the board act on something that is not on the agenda?
Not as a rule:
Statute text
“an agency may not take official action on a matter of agency business at a meeting if the matter was not included in the notification required under section 709(c.1) (relating to public notice).”
The board may add a matter at the meeting by a majority of those present and voting, after announcing why:
Statute text
“Upon majority vote of the individuals present and voting during the conduct of a meeting, an agency may add a matter of agency business to the agenda. The reasons for the changes to the agenda shall be announced at the meeting before any vote is conducted to make the changes to the agenda. The agency may subsequently take official action on the matter added to the agenda.”
The amended agenda then goes on the board's website, if it has one, and at its office by the first business day after the meeting (§ 712.1(e)), and, if the board acts on it, the minutes record the matter, the vote to add it and the reasons announced (§ 712.1(f)).
The law also lets a board act on a matter that is not on the agenda in three narrow cases: at a regular or emergency meeting, a real or potential emergency involving a clear and present danger to life or property; a small (de minimis) matter that came up in the 24 hours before the meeting and spends no money and makes no contract or agreement; and a matter a resident or taxpayer raises at the meeting, which the board may refer to staff for a later agenda, or act on if it is small in the same way (§ 712.1(b)-(d)).
What about an emergency meeting?
No public notice is needed for an emergency meeting, one called to deal with a real or potential emergency involving a clear and present danger to life or property (§ 709(a), § 703). Clarivis does not check whether the agenda of an emergency meeting was posted.
Checklist for each meeting
- The agenda lists each matter the board will or may discuss or act on.
- If the board has a public website, the agenda is on it at least 24 hours before the meeting starts.
- The agenda is posted at the meeting place and at the board's office, with copies at the meeting.
- A special or rescheduled meeting: notice printed in a newspaper and posted, at least 24 hours ahead and in time for the paper to publish it before the meeting day.
- On request, copies of the notice to any newspaper, station or interested party that supplied a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
- The year's first regular meeting: its own notice, with the schedule of the year's remaining regular meetings. See the yearly meeting schedule guide.
- A matter added at the meeting: reasons announced, majority vote, amended agenda posted by the first business day after the meeting, and the matter in the minutes if the board acts on it.
What the law does not settle
These are questions to take to your municipal solicitor; this guide does not answer them.
- Whether the 24 hours are clock hours, as Clarivis reads them, or whether a weekend or holiday changes the count.
- Whether the posting at the meeting place and the office must also be up 24 hours ahead; the law states that time for the website only. Clarivis counts one deadline for the whole agenda, which is the earlier reading.
- Which advisory committees fall outside the Act because the board did not authorize them to take official action or give advice.
- What counts as an emergency, or as a small matter, for a particular board.
- Whether the website of the borough, township or city counts as the board's own website when the board has no site of its own, as Clarivis reads it.
- Whether an emergency meeting still needs its agenda posted. The agenda rule (§ 709(c.1)) leaves out conferences, a board of auditors' working sessions and executive sessions, and does not name emergency meetings.
How Clarivis helps
Clarivis is software that helps a board follow these steps; it does not post the agenda or send the notice to a newspaper for you.
- Counts the deadline for each meeting's agenda and, for a special meeting, its notice. It does not count the notice for the year's first regular meeting or track how far ahead the newspaper needs a notice to print it; ask the paper. It shows no newspaper step for a rescheduled regular meeting, because it cannot tell one from a regular meeting.
- Checks each agenda item and suggests more detail where a matter may be too thin for the public to know what to expect. It is advice; the board decides.
- Prints the agenda as a document with the board's details.
- Records the posting. After the agenda is posted, you record it with the link to it on the town website, and the meeting shows that step as done. Clarivis asks every Pennsylvania municipality it serves for the website link.
Related guides
- The yearly meeting schedule in Pennsylvania: notice of the first meeting and the restNotice of the first meeting and the schedule of the rest
- Pennsylvania meeting minutes: what they must recordWhat minutes record, roll-call votes, citizens who appeared, no set deadline
- Executive session in Pennsylvania: when a board can meet in private, and what followsThe reasons allowed, the announcement, action in open session
- What counts as a meeting in Pennsylvania: quorum, deliberation and conferencesA prearranged quorum, deliberation, conferences
This guide for other states
Sources
- 65 Pa.C.S. ch. 7, the Sunshine Act (§§ 703, 709, 712.1): www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/65/00.007..HTM
- 1 Pa.C.S. § 1908, computation of time: www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/01/00.019..HTM