This is the fifth installment in a series of posts discussing the efforts of the City Council of Emerald City, North Carolina, to support its local businesses by adopting a local preference policy. (You can find the earlier installments here, … Read more
Do two wrongs ever equal a right in a zoning dispute? Suppose someone starts a business that is not allowed at that site under the zoning ordinance. One wrong. Suppose further that this was done after the town zoning inspector … Read more
On July 1, 2009, Carolina County had outstanding general obligation (G.O.) indebtedness of $32.2 million, revenue bond indebtedness of $7.1 million, and installment-purchase debt totaling $1.5 million. The county used its G.O. bond revenues to fund a new recreation facility … Read more
It is the Sunday after the big football game. People came to town from all across the state to see the local team play. Unfortunately, it turns out that several of the area hotels have been overrun with bed bugs … Read more
As part of its comprehensive planning process, a town commissioned a housing study to determine whether its current and projected housing stock is adequate to meet the needs of its local residents and workforce. The results weren’t terribly surprising. Most … Read more
What happens when the open meetings requirement clashes with the obligation to keep taxpayer income information confidential? This conflict most commonly involves county boards of equalization and review, but the issue could easily arise at the city level as well with privilege license taxes or occupancy … Read more
This is the fourth installment of a series of posts discussing the efforts of the City Council of Emerald City, North Carolina, to support its local businesses by adopting a local preference policy. (You can find the earlier installments here, … Read more
As I have described in several posts (links to these are listed at the end of this post), the legislature’s 2010 amendments to the personnel privacy statutes affecting most North Carolina public employers raised many questions. Several state and local … Read more
Utility Jones arrives for work as a water and sewer utility fee collection agent for a local government. He is met at the door by an irate customer, Dell Linquent, who claims that her water was shut off illegally the … Read more
UPDATE September 2013: The 2013 legislation revising the board of adjustment statutes affects the standards for granting variances. S.L. 2013 – 126 repeals the reference to “practical difficulties” and provides that to grant a variance unnecessary hardship must result from … Read more