STILL thumbing their noses at transparency, open meetings laws (AND the taxpayers)

Don’t be put off by the Moore County theme on this post.  If these things are happening here, they could very well be happening in local government where you live.  It’s good to stay on top of this stuff.

The UNC School of Government appears to be the authority on the administration of North Carolina’s Open Meetings law.

Before we get started taking some folks to the woodshed, let’s show you how transparency and open meetings should be done.   Here’s the page for the Moore County Board of Commissioners. Everything you need – from meeting notices to agenda packets to videos – is right at your fingertips. (Meetings are simulcast and archived for later viewing.)

It seems the two most prevalent abuses of the Open Meetings law occur in minutes-keeping and closed sessions.

TRANSPARENCY.  Sandhills Community College appears to set the worst example in the county.

There doesn’t appear to be any sort of method for transmitting meeting announcements for their board of trustees meetings.    Trustees are regularly given documents that the public never sees.  There have been no documents posted on the Trustee meeting page since early June.  No minutes have been posted for a March or June meeting this year. (I thought those had to be approved by the board at each ensuing meeting.) 

There are no minutes available for NINE trustee meetings going back to March 2020.  (Where are the minutes pre-2020?) Each of the available agendas notes that the meetings get recorded for the sake of keeping minutes, but the recordings get destroyed shortly after. The agendas we could find also note that the meeting recordings are “not public record.”  (It would be interesting to hear what the School of Government and a good attorney has to say about that.)

The county commissioners and the school board make video of their meetings publicly available.  Why won’t the college’s trustees?

We obtained one recording of a trustees meeting. It probably explains a lot about why they don’t want to release the tapes.  The tape we heard featured board chairman Larry Caddell speaking for at least 80 percent of the meeting while everyone else on the board fawned over and giggled at him.  (The word we hear is that The Larry Caddell Show will end its run on Airport Road sometime in 2025.)

The Moore County Board of Education appears to be nipping at the college’s heels.  Under chairman Bob Levy, the board has regularly perpetrated tricks like placing budgets on the consent agenda for regular meetings.  For those not familiar with public meetings, the “consent agenda” is meant for generally non-controversial items that shouldn’t inspire much debate — like re-striping the parking lot or buying new toilet paper, for instance. Generally, there is NO DEBATE or DISCUSSION on a consent agenda item.  A program, project or facility budget seems like something the public really wants — and needs – to hear about and have the chance to talk about.

CLOSED SESSIONS. State law clearly spells out the legitimate reasons for a governing body to enter into closed session.  Some — like Pinehurst’s Village Council and the Moore County Board of Education — read the whole statute aloud which includes every possible scenario.

How is it supposed to be done?  The board announces the specific reason — one of those specifically listed in the statute — the closed session is being called for.  Once a decision is made regarding the closed session discussion — and enough time has passed so as not to prejudice the outcome of what got discussed — the public needs to be told what happened. Moore County’s commissioners seem to grasp this idea well.  Others, sadly, do not.

School Board vice-chairman Shannon Davis has revealed – at least once – in a public meeting that decisions were made in closed session about the formation of future meeting agendas.  THAT is an activity clearly meant for an open meeting.  It’s not on that list of justifiable reasons for a closed session in the General Statutes.

The Village of Pinehurst council is currently fighting an Open Meetings complaint — endorsed by several news media organizations. The council – at the time – was accused of holding  secret meetings involving a council majority and some village staff via email to plot the execution of political dirty tricks aimed at propelling now-mayor Pat Pizzella onto the council and into the mayor’s chair.

It’s pretty clear our local media isn’t looking out for us.  It’s probably the same with your local media.  It’s up to us to demand that these people follow the law to the fullest, and keep us informed to the fullest.