Vandergrift website, email system present legal concern for borough

Legal concerns surrounding Vandergrift’s website and email system could make it difficult for borough council members to communicate with the public.

Solicitor Larry Loperfito warned council to stop doing official business through their personal email addresses.

At a meeting this week, council discussed the need to update the community’s website and change the existing email protocol. For years, when a community member would send a council member an email, the message would be sent to the council member’s personal email address.

This presents a legal danger, Loperfito said. Council business should not be done via personal emails.

In the event of any sort of litigation involving a council member’s digital communication, emails could subpoenaed. If council members use one email address for both personal and professional business, then all of their personal messages could be subject to review during a discovery process, Loperfito said.

“For the benefit of members of council, I felt it would be best if they had a Vandergrift Borough email address,” he said.

Council members do have borough email addresses, but emails sent to them are automatically forwarded to personal accounts. Members can only respond to emails from their personal accounts, council said.

Plans to remedy the email problem have been stalled as council considers changes to the entire borough website.

The website and email system were designed about five years ago and are maintained by Jackie Vigna, daughter of Council President Kathy Chvala. According to emails obtained by the Tribune-Review, Vigna is paid $120 a month to service the website. Chvala said that is significantly less than the cost of hiring a professional web designer.

Chvala did not respond to requests for comment but said in emails to council that Vigna had designed a website for her brother’s business. She volunteered to build the borough website at no charge, “to help the borough,” Chvala said.

Loperfito said it is imperative that the borough find an “insured” designer to serve the borough — someone operating a business that could be contracted by the borough to help with computer systems, servers and email.

In the meantime, some council members said the situation would make it more difficult to communicate with residents.

“Now I can’t email anybody and none of our constituents can get any updated information,” said Councilwoman Karen McClarnon.

Council members disagreed Monday over what actions should be taken. Councilman Lenny Collini was content with the current system, and questioned why any change was necessary.

McClarnon said maintaining the status quo is not an option.

“This should have been handled a long time ago,” she said.

She thinks addressing the website and email issues should be made a top priority for the council.

“If we can’t communicate and don’t have a website, I think this is a problem that we need to fix,” McClarnon said.

Loperfito emphasized that halting website updates and emailing is not a violation of state law, but he recommended the current version stay online until a new site is formed. He said it’s important that residents be able to access borough ordinances and other notices that have already been posted.

“The website is an important tool to keep people informed,” he said.