The Stokes News: The Stokes County Board of County Commissioners met in closed session 75 times over a period of four years. Democratic Party leaders in the community are questioning the propriety of the meetings and why minutes have not been released.
Boards, such as the county commissioners, may use closed sessions to deal with personnel matters, lawsuits, land acquisition or sales and a few other narrow reasons under the North Carolina Open Meetings Law. Minutes from closed sessions must be kept in a detailed enough form that a “person not in attendance would have a reasonable understanding of what transpired.”
Those minutes are public records under the North Carolina Public Records Law, although the meetings law allows the minutes to be withheld “so long as public inspection would frustrate the purpose of the closed session.” What that means is that once the reason for a closed session has gone away, the minutes should be made available.
The Stokes News reported that Democratic Party leaders requested minutes related to specific meetings where the Stokes County commissioners dealt with issues that are no longer pressing in the community, such as the transfer of Camp Sertoma to the state park system. The party leaders have questioned why minutes from 75 closed sessions over a period of four years have not been made available.
Read the Stokes News coverage here.