From the Wilmington StarNews (1/29/11): Given a loophole, most elected officials can be counted on to opt for secrecy over openness. It happened again this week, when three New Hanover County mayors and the chairman of the county commissioners met in private to talk about tourism.
The meeting, called by Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, was unannounced and, at his insistence, was closed to the public. (The other mayors apparently didn’t object to a StarNews reporter’s request to open the doors). Saffo said he wanted the group to be able to have a “frank” discussion. In other words, their conversation was none of your business.
Except that it was, and is.
Tourism is one of this region’s most valuable industries, and any discussion by elected officials of ways to increase or improve it is most definitely of public interest. Specifically, they discussed the beach towns’ efforts to market themselves and their request to have a seat on Wilmington’s convention center board, according to Saffo’s after-the-fact briefing. Technically, perhaps, they violated no law because North Carolina’s open meetings law conveniently doesn’t consider a gathering of three mayors and a county board chairman to be an “official” public body.
It should.