Pa. Solicitors:

1. Attached is the Governor's Executive Order on the crisis.  The last two paragraphs have some relevance to the myriad of local government issues that are being presented.  More is clearly needed. If your municipality has an emergency management plan, you will want to activate it if you haven't already.

2. The Office of Open Records has issued these two guidances:

Regarding the Sunshine Act:  https://openrecordspennsylvania.com/2020/03/11/the-sunshine-act-and-covid-19/

Regarding the Right to Know Law:  https://openrecordspennsylvania.com/2020/03/12/the-rtkl-and-covid-19/

Both links should be active, but you can paste both into your browser if you encounter problems.

3. Yesterday, IMLA (our host for our listserv) conducted a call-in webinar yesterday on the coronavirus issues facing municipalities.  Some takeaways you will want to consider:

• Congress is considering financial relief legislation.  On 3/14, the House passed the Family First Corona Virus Response Act, https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/democrats.appropriations.house.gov/files/Families%20First%20summary.pdf .  The Senate is scheduled to take action this week.
• Each municipality may wish to consider its own declaration of emergency.  Check your emergency management plan.  I see no downside to this.
• Each municipality should be moving to create policies applicable to essential and nonessential employees (check applicable CBAs), public meetings (see the Sunshine Act guidance above), RTK timelines (see the RTK guidance above), and the like.
• Where timelines in municipal administrative matters are creating difficulties, consider seeking a voluntary extension by agreement, or an order from a judicial or administrative tribunal.
• Judicial proceedings, timelines, etc. are matters committed by the Pa. Supreme Court to the Judicial Districts.  A copy of the Supreme Court's Order is also attached.  I have seen the Courts of Common Pleas in the two counties where I am a member of the local bar issue orders and you may have seen this type of order as well.

4. Recall the provisions of 35 Pa. C.S.A. section 7501(d). I read this excerpt as allowing broadly to suspension of legal requirements:

(d) Temporary suspension of formal requirements.--Each political subdivision included in a declaration of disaster emergency declared by either the Governor or the governing body of the political subdivision affected by the disaster emergency is authorized to exercise the powers vested under this section in the light of the exigencies of the emergency situation without regard to time-consuming procedures and formalities prescribed by law (excepting mandatory constitutional requirements) pertaining to the performance of public work, entering into contracts, the incurring of obligations, the employment of temporary workers, the rental of equipment, the purchase of supplies and materials, the levying of taxes and the appropriation and expenditure of public funds.

§ 7501. General authority of political subdivisions, PA ST 35 Pa.C.S.A. § 7501(emphasis added).  The last provision seems especially broad.  As I have respectively suggested earlier, municipalities might want to exercise this provisions judiciously. Rather than dispensing with a requirement entirely, it might be better in some situations to modify the requirement, and honor the intent to the extent practicable under the circumstances.

5. Please use this listserv to share your questions, suggestions and comments.  You can direct them to the group (there are about a 100 of you), or to me individually for circulation on a blind basis.

William W. Warren, Jr.
Moderator PML Listserv
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP
2 North Second Street, Suite 700
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Office (717) 238-7698 | Cell (717) 979-5570
william.warren@saul.commailto:william.warren@saul.com

"Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP (saul.com) " made the following annotations:
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This e-mail may contain privileged, confidential, copyrighted, or other legally protected information. If you are not the intended recipient (even if the e-mail address is yours), you may not use, copy, or retransmit it. If you have received this by mistake please notify us by return e-mail, then delete.
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Pa. Solicitors:

PBA has just provided a link that lists the various Judicial District orders: http://www.pacourts.us/ujs-coronavirus-information .

William W. Warren, Jr.
Moderator PML Listserv
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP
2 North Second Street, Suite 700
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Office (717) 238-7698 | Cell (717) 979-5570
william.warren@saul.commailto:william.warren@saul.com

From: Warren Jr., William W.
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 11:52 AM
To: pmlsolicitors@lists.imla.org
Cc: Richard J. Schuettler (rschuettler@pml.org) rschuettler@pml.org; Chuck Thompson cthompson@imla.org
Subject: Pennsylvania Guidance on Municipal issues

Pa. Solicitors:

1. Attached is the Governor's Executive Order on the crisis.  The last two paragraphs have some relevance to the myriad of local government issues that are being presented.  More is clearly needed. If your municipality has an emergency management plan, you will want to activate it if you haven't already.

2. The Office of Open Records has issued these two guidances:

Regarding the Sunshine Act:  https://openrecordspennsylvania.com/2020/03/11/the-sunshine-act-and-covid-19/

Regarding the Right to Know Law:  https://openrecordspennsylvania.com/2020/03/12/the-rtkl-and-covid-19/

Both links should be active, but you can paste both into your browser if you encounter problems.

3. Yesterday, IMLA (our host for our listserv) conducted a call-in webinar yesterday on the coronavirus issues facing municipalities.  Some takeaways you will want to consider:

• Congress is considering financial relief legislation.  On 3/14, the House passed the Family First Corona Virus Response Act, https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/democrats.appropriations.house.gov/files/Families%20First%20summary.pdf .  The Senate is scheduled to take action this week.
• Each municipality may wish to consider its own declaration of emergency.  Check your emergency management plan.  I see no downside to this.
• Each municipality should be moving to create policies applicable to essential and nonessential employees (check applicable CBAs), public meetings (see the Sunshine Act guidance above), RTK timelines (see the RTK guidance above), and the like.
• Where timelines in municipal administrative matters are creating difficulties, consider seeking a voluntary extension by agreement, or an order from a judicial or administrative tribunal.
• Judicial proceedings, timelines, etc. are matters committed by the Pa. Supreme Court to the Judicial Districts.  A copy of the Supreme Court's Order is also attached.  I have seen the Courts of Common Pleas in the two counties where I am a member of the local bar issue orders and you may have seen this type of order as well.

4. Recall the provisions of 35 Pa. C.S.A. section 7501(d). I read this excerpt as allowing broadly to suspension of legal requirements:

(d) Temporary suspension of formal requirements.--Each political subdivision included in a declaration of disaster emergency declared by either the Governor or the governing body of the political subdivision affected by the disaster emergency is authorized to exercise the powers vested under this section in the light of the exigencies of the emergency situation without regard to time-consuming procedures and formalities prescribed by law (excepting mandatory constitutional requirements) pertaining to the performance of public work, entering into contracts, the incurring of obligations, the employment of temporary workers, the rental of equipment, the purchase of supplies and materials, the levying of taxes and the appropriation and expenditure of public funds.

§ 7501. General authority of political subdivisions, PA ST 35 Pa.C.S.A. § 7501(emphasis added).  The last provision seems especially broad.  As I have respectively suggested earlier, municipalities might want to exercise this provisions judiciously. Rather than dispensing with a requirement entirely, it might be better in some situations to modify the requirement, and honor the intent to the extent practicable under the circumstances.

5. Please use this listserv to share your questions, suggestions and comments.  You can direct them to the group (there are about a 100 of you), or to me individually for circulation on a blind basis.

William W. Warren, Jr.
Moderator PML Listserv
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP
2 North Second Street, Suite 700
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Office (717) 238-7698 | Cell (717) 979-5570
william.warren@saul.commailto:william.warren@saul.com

"Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP (saul.com) " made the following annotations:
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
This e-mail may contain privileged, confidential, copyrighted, or other legally protected information. If you are not the intended recipient (even if the e-mail address is yours), you may not use, copy, or retransmit it. If you have received this by mistake please notify us by return e-mail, then delete.
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+