The Chatham County website is a wealth of information about our county government. At least, usually. The problem is that many county meetings have not been posted online.
First, though, what is the North Carolina law about open meetings?
Meetings of county public bodies must be conducted openly. North Carolina official policy is that government operations are the business of the people.
Next, what are county public bodies?
All government boards, commissions, committees, or councils are public if they have two or more members, if their members are elected or appointed, and if they exercise a legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, or advisory function. Of course this definition includes the commissioners meetings. It also applies to the planning commission and its subcommittees.
Finally, which public bodies have to keep minutes?
All of them: every public body is required to keep full, accurate minutes of all portions of all official meetings, including closed sessions.
So what?
Minutes of the Commissioner’s meetings, of the Planning Board, and the Planning Board subcommittees must be kept and must be made available to the citizens.
What is the problem?
Most of the Commissioner’s meeting minutes are on the county website. But as of the 5th of July, the minutes from April 2016 forward have not yet been posted.
More concerning is that none (Zero! Zip!) of two particular county public body meetings have been posted - the ‘Planning Board Subcommittee-Alternatives to open use zoning’, or the ‘Planning Board Subcommittee-Land Use’.
Planning board subcommittee meeting minutes would give us insight into the deliberations about zoning within the western portion of the county.
I asked county officials about why those minutes were not posted. One answer I received was that county staff have been so busy with new committees plus the Comprehensive Plan and rezoning they have not had time to post minutes of zoning meetings. Another, different answer was that they are not required to post those minutes online. The county did agree that these meeting minutes must be kept, and they told me that I could request specific pieces of information by filling out a Public Records Request. I asked to be emailed the minutes from 6 meetings related to zoning discussions. If I get that information I will post it to my blog.
Requesting information might work great if you can take time off to go to the county courthouse, if you know what to ask for, and if you can wait for county staff to provide the information. While that seems to comply with the letter of the law, it certainly does not provide easy access to information. This is a particular problem for those who cannot make it to the courthouse during business hours.
I am very disappointed by the response I received from the County Staff who are employees of the citizens of the County.
So, County Staff, how about helping citizens get access to information that belongs to the county citizens, particularly about such a divisive issue as county-wide zoning?
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