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By JENNIFER LEARN; Times Leader Staff Writer
Sunday, April 28, 1996     Page: 4

HAZLETON — After four months in office, a Hazleton Area School Board
member has started running advertisements of meetings of a committee he
chairs.
   
The first advertisement appeared in a newspaper two weeks ago — the same
week the Tri-County United Taxpayers filed a lawsuit against the School Board
alleging violations of the open records and open meetings law.
    The suit says the committee meetings have been held illegally for months.
   
School Board member Ken Temborski, who heads the board’s security and
buildings and grounds committees, said he planned to advertise the committee
meetings all along.
   
But he said he needed time to get organized and set up a schedule.
   
Temborski also said the two or three buildings and grounds committee
meetings held so far without advertisements were emergency meetings. Those
types of meetings do not require advertisements in the newspaper. They do
require a posting of a notice at the administration building 24 hours in
advance, which Temborski says was done.
   
Temborski denied any connection between the timing of the lawsuit and the
first advertisement of the meetings.
   
The two sides in the lawsuit are to appear before Luzerne County Court of
Common Pleas Judge Ann Lokuta on Monday for an injunction hearing, said
Tri-County United Taxpayers lawyer George Hludzik.
   
Lokuta will decide whether to grant two injunctions asking the School Board
to hand over public documents immediately and comply with the laws, Hludzik
said.
   
Three or four witnesses are expected to testify at Monday’s hearing,
Hludzik said, declining to name them. Valley Elementary School Parent Teacher
Association member Monica Cahalan said she and Valley PTA President Becky
Falvello are to testify.
   
Hazleton Area PTA Council President Carmella Yenkevich testified against
the School Board at an April 22 hearing on the charge before Lokuta. That
hearing ended because Hludzik was forced to refile a complaint in the case.
   
The complaint had been filed against the board as a whole but has now been
amended to name board members individually, in part because committees do not
include all board members.
   
Hludzik said school district Solicitor Pasco Schiavo tried to work out an
agreement to settle the lawsuit, but Tri-County refused because Schiavo would
not allow board members to admit they violated any law.
   
Hludzik, who would not disclose Schiavo’s offer, said Tri-County will not
gain any money settlements from the lawsuit. The violation does not carry a
fine unless the district attorney decides to prosecute the board for
intentionally violating the law, Hludzik said.
   
“The taxpayers just want the process to be public as the law requires,”
Hludzik said.
   
George Hludzik