fBy Colin Gooder
Editor

As hot as it's been, you'd think there's been no shortage of sunshine lately, unless you take into consideration our county and town governments. The "sunshine " to which I'm referring is a term for North Carolina's open meetings and public records laws, or "sunshine laws," which were created to allow public and press open access to the meetings and records of government bodies.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper states, "The spirit with which public officials work to comply with the law is as important as the law itself...In fact, the policy of the state of North Carolina is to allow public access to the activities of government." He continues, "...when in doubt about how to interpret the state's open records and meetings laws — always work to resolve the question in favor of openness."

Apparently both county and town officials could use a crash course in the sunshine laws. Highlands' Town Board recently went into closed session to supposedly discuss possible pending litigation regarding political signs posted on a private residence within city limits. The problem is, there was no threat of litigation to discuss. The minutes of that closed session were not recorded properly under the state statutes, and now town representatives are refusing to answer questions or calls regarding the closed session.

On Tuesday, following a written complaint by our News Editor Linsey Wisdom, School Superintendent Dan Brigman informed representatives from the county commission and board of education that the Facilities Planning Committee would have to make adjustments to its operations after holding closed meetings for more than year and a half.

In February 2007, Commissioner Charlie Leatherman created the committee, comprised of commissioners Jim Davis and Ronnie Beale and board of education members Donnie Edwards and Susie McCoy. Violating state open meetings statutes, the group has met regularly since that time, but without taking minutes or giving any public notice.

The Macon County News had made requests to attend the meetings earlier this year, but reporters were told that the meetings were not subject to sunshine laws.

From this point forward, all committee meetings will be open to the public, with notices published and minutes taken at each meeting, in accordance with North Carolina's open meetings law.

The statute states that all public bodies— including appointed committees with two or more members which acts, among other things, as an advisory or administrative function—must allow access to the public and media.

Commissioner Jim Davis said he had confirmed with the county attorney that the group was subject to open meetings law. Opening the meetings now, he said, "may exude confidence to the citizens of the process we've gone through."

But it's too little, too late to bring the public any confidence. All the purchases have been determined, tens of millions of dollars in tax money spent, in violation and with no public scrutiny of the discussions going on behind the scenes. Mr. Davis and the other county officials should realize that it was illegal because, as is often the case, it was wrong.

As for the town of Highlands, there's no excuse for their silence on the issue of the recent closed session, as if they ignored the matter it will just go away. Not only is there no justification for discussing the signs in closed session, but the board apparently didn't keep appropriate minutes. Even in a closed session, minutes must be kept that describe the discussion in some detail “to provide a general account to let a person who wasn’t there have a reasonable understanding of what transpired.” Minutes to closed sessions are, by law, meant to be released to the public after the situation that warranted the closed session has passed. But the minutes that were released describing the discussion of the political signage reads:

" 3. MOVED BY COMM. DEWOLF AND UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED TO GO INTO CLOSED SESSION PURSUANT TO G. S. §143-318.11(A), (2), (3), (6) AND (5) TO REVIEW SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS, DISCUSS PERSONNEL MATTERS, DISCUSS ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY, AND CONSULT WITH THE TOWN ATTORNEY ON LITIGATION.

" ... A. Planning Director Joe Cooley, Code Enforcement Officer Josh Ward, and the Town Attorney briefed the Board on some potential zoning litigation."

If there are detailed minutes of the closed session then they should be released at this point because the situation has passed.

But if our elected and appointed officials don't know the law, who does? Who is responsible for failing to allow public scrutiny of the discussion of the school consolidation project over the past two years? Town and school board attorney John Henning Jr. suggested that the Facilities Planning Committee reduce their members to one representative from the school board and one from the county commission so that the meetings could remain closed, in direct contradiction to N.C. Attorney General Cooper’s directive to err on the side of openness.

We believe that an attorney that represents the town and county school board should conform to the intentions of the state attorney general, and above all should be well-versed in the open meetings and public records laws of North Carolina. As Cooper stated, “the spirit” of the law is as important as the law itself.