SEVEN FIELDS — The Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Commission met behind closed doors Monday night to discuss a situation concerning the Evans City mayor, which it now is calling a legal issue.

Mayor Dean Zinkhann says he is not being allowed to discharge his duty as mayor to oversee the police force as required by state code because he must get permission from commission President Jennifer Sikora to enter the police station.

The commission’s charter includes the policy that anyone who is not an officer is required to get permission from the president to enter the police station, but Zinkhann said he should be allowed at any time because he is mayor.

Tom Smith, the Seven Fields manager and the police administrator, said at Monday’s commission meeting that the majority of commission members, along with the solicitors from both boroughs, say that the regional force’s six-person commission now oversees the police because two boroughs are involved.

Smith said an executive session was needed to discuss the legal issue of a letter to the commission from the Pennsylvania State Mayors’ Association that supports Zinkhann’s position.

After the hourlong session, Smith said that he sent a copy of the charter to the state mayors association’s solicitor, but the association was not swayed.

But, Smith said, neither is the commission in its stance that Zinkhann is now one member of a six-person commission instead of a committee of one that oversees the police.

Commission member Lee Dyer explained last month that the considerable sensitive and confidential information in the police station cannot be compromised by non-officers coming and going at the station as they like.

It is not known if Zinkhann, who attended Monday’s meeting but did not speak, will take legal action against the commission.