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Closed-session minutes speak volumes
Along with other newspapers across North Carolina, The Sylva Herald has often expressed concern that elected officials use allowed exceptions to the state’s Open Meetings Law (personnel and legal) to cloak discussion that could – and should – be conducted in open session.
With Superior Court Judge Zoro Guice’s decision last week to make public two sets of closed-session minutes, we have proof positive.
Not only do the minutes reflect what we suspected all along – that commissioners couldn’t possibly have approved then-Commissioners’ Chairman Stacy Buchanan’s complicated Jan. 12 five-part motion with no discussion unless they had already hashed out the details during the closed session that preceded it – they show that county leaders violated state statutes in discussing the qualifications of Tom McClure, an appointed member of another public body during that session.
Commissioners subsequently claimed they had to conduct the dialogue privately because they couldn’t separate discussion of McClure from talk about a county employee, Tamera Crisp. That’s not the case, says N.C. Press Association counsel Amanda Martin, who reviewed the closed-session minutes on Tuesday. In addition, Martin said much of the information in the minutes – discussion of the status of loans, history of Jackson Development Corp. and background on the Economic Development Commission – should have occurred openly.
“Public agencies do have an obligation to limit closed-session discussion strictly to those things the statutes provide for,” Martin said, adding that everyone participating has an obligation to object and end the closed session if discussion strays from allowed topics.
This whole episode has a sadder side. As Tamera Crisp pointed out, the confusion, misunderstanding, and hurt feelings could have been avoided if county leaders had asked their questions directly of her and McClure. Commissioners later acknowledged that a potential foreclosure on the former Tuckaseigee Mills property (now QC Apparel) triggered the chain of events that ousted McClure and sent deputies to seize EDC records. Yet the supposedly imminent foreclosure remained a topic that was discussed – openly – through May, so why was it secret in January?
Equally troubling is the minutes’ clear implication that the moves were intended to negatively impact McClure and Crisp. “When the public learns that Tamera and McClure are on leave, they will put two and two together,” the minutes state.
This case should be a lesson to all public officials who might be tempted to flout the Open Meetings Law in the future.
Don’t.
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