NC Open Government

From the Greenville Daily Reflector (1/16/11): The Pitt County Board of Commissioners corrected a judgment error, and a likely violation of the state's Open Meetings Law, on Monday when it voted to release minutes from a recent closed session. It was in that session that members instructed the county attorney to withdraw support for the Pitt County Health Board's appeal of a court decision about the enforcement of the statewide smoking ban.

From the Beaufort Observer (1/4/10): This article is offered not as news but as documentation of how our school board violates the spirit of running our schools in a transparent manner. It is an on-going story so we'll just post it and file it away in the archives until an appropriate time.

From the Charlotte Observer (1/3/11): The city of Charlotte wants to give subscribers to its informational e-mail service more privacy by making it harder to obtain their e-mail addresses under the state's open records law.

From the Raleigh News and Observer (12/22/10): A Wake County judge's ruling Tuesday could make it easier for people to find out whether the N.C. Secretary of State is investigating a complaint about a lobbyist or sports agent. It also could allow the public to know whether any fines were levied if rules were violated.

From M2MPolitics.com (12/17/10): Former state Sen. David Hoyle was into his second term in the Senate when he took his first stand for open government.

From the Wilmington StarNews (12/26/10): North Carolina General Statute 132 allows the general public access to government documents – from town ordinances to e-mails between government officials.

The Sunshine Center has received several inquiries about how citizens may take advantage of the procedure for mediating public records disputes that was enacted by the General Assembly in July. The legislation, which was intended to provide public records requesters and custodians with a process for resolving public records disputes short of litigation, became effective Oct. 1, but as of this writing it is not completely clear how the process will work and, more importantly, whether it will be effective.

From the the Charlotte Observer (12/13/10): The sheriff's office in Lincoln County has apparently found a way around a new law that cracks open previously classified personnel records for government workers: Fired workers won't receive written notification.

From the Raleigh News and Observer (12/4/10): When news broke that UNC football players might have accepted benefits from agents, we requested any campus parking tickets given to 11 players. We wanted to see what they were driving.

From the Charlotte Observer (11/23/10): In an important test for North Carolina's recently revised public records law, a judge on Monday ordered the city to release documents outlining the suspensions and firing of former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Marcus Jackson.