Editorials - 08/16/01

EDC makes list of Open Meeting Law's violators

- Notice sent Aug. 16

"Whereas the public bodies that administer the legislative policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative and advisory functions of North Carolina and its political subdivisions exist solely to conduct the people's business, it is the public policy of North Carolina that the hearings, deliberations, and actions of these bodies be conducted openly...Each official meeting of a public body shall be open to the public, and any person is entitled to attend such a meeting."

- North Carolina Open Meetings Law

You can call us the "Charlie Browns" of editorial writers. We are in fact the eternal optimists, somehow believing that our opinion will cause local public officials to change their ways and follow the law, despite much evidence to the contrary.

Just as good old Charlie believed over and over that this time, for sure, Lucy really would hold that football so he could come running up and kick it, we believe that if we say it again, somebody will pay attention.

So here it is, one more time: Public bodies need to meet in public places - places accessible to the people who foot the bills for local government.

Somebody tell us, please, how a van traveling the highway between Sylva and Enka affords the public any opportunity to participate in this meeting?

Is the Economic Development Commission planning to take several vans, complete with mobile speaker phones and public address systems so that all who want to attend the meeting can do so?

If not, doesn't it sound like the EDC will violate the law by holding this meeting? N.C. Press Association attorney Amanda Martin certainly thinks so.

"They have to meet in a place and in a way that makes it possible for the public to be there," Martin said Tuesday.

We're not saying the EDC can't ride together on a van to tour an asphalt plant. They most certainly can if they notify all interested parties, which they appear to have done.

But they're also saying they will hold a meeting in the van while riding to (or from) Enka. That just won't do.

It is especially wrong this time, when the issue in question is one that is under study by the EDC only because of the impassioned pleas of Qualla residents.

It's just not right that the EDC has chosen to shut those people out of the very discussion they initiated.

Often, when a situation like this occurs, people shake their heads and say to each other, "There ought to be a law."

What's especially sad about the EDC's "let's-meet-during-the-van-ride decision" is that this time there is a law - one the EDC is apparently choosing to ignore.

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