NC Open Government

The Hildebran Heritage & Development Association appealed a superior court judge's decision not to overturn the results of  a town of Hildebran meeting in violation of the Open Meetings Law. The town council voted at the end of January to demolish an old school after improperly discussing the matter in an October closed meeting. 

Jonathan D. Jones, director of the N.C. Open Government Coalition and an instructor in Elon University's School of Communications, authored a guest column for several North Carolina newspapers about recent changes to state public record laws.

Lawmakers added several new exemptions to the public records law related to school safety during the budget bill compromise discussions. The bill unveiled Monday night would exempt anonymous safety tips made to school systems and a new statewide database. The expansion of the terrorism exemption to include law enforcements response to organized criminal activity survived budget negotiations as well. 

The city of Belmont hired an outside firm to investigate complaints about conduct and management of its police department. The police chief was fired following the investigation, but the city has refused to release the investigative report.  

The N.C. Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeals Friday in a public records case brought by LexisNexis against the Administrative Office of the Courts. LexisNexis was seeking access to the Automated Criminal Infractions System (ACIS) database. The Supreme Court found that a separate statute governs access to court system records so the Public Records Law does not apply, and the separate statute allows the court system to enter into exclusive contracts for access. 

The General Assembly has passed its seventh new exemption to the Public Records Law this session, this time creating limitations about what information can be released about law enforcement personnel. The new limitations exempt records of first responders' cellphones and law enforcement officers' addresses, and other "identifying information." 

The General Assembly passed a bill that would create a 100-year time limit on exemptions to the Public Records Law, regardless of the reason. The Department of Cultural Resources requested the change to reopen some 19th and 20th century records in the State Archives. Another provision of the bill will also settle who owns the rights to visual images of shipwrecks. 

Community activists filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Hildebran alleging the Burke County town violated several laws, including the open meetings law, in deciding to tear down an old school. Following a trial, Superior Court Judge Joe Crosswhite ruled the town council violated the Open Meetings Law but the violation did not effect the board's decision to demolish the school. 

A coalition of media outlets and public policy groups filed a public records lawsuit this week against Gov. Pat McCrory and eight of his cabinet secretaries over the executive branch's response to public records requests. The allegations include excessive "service charge" fees, delays of more than a year, and providing incomplete records.   

The Court of Appeals Tuesday provided significant guidance for trial courts reviewing disputes over access to closed session minutes. The court also clarified that when  closed sessions are held for personnel that any policy or political discussions will be public. The decision came in a case brought by the Times-News of Burlington against the Alamance-Burlington Board of Education.