During the 2012 short session, the General Assembly enacted legislation that covered members of local transportation planning groups, known as RPOs and MPOs, under the State Government Ethics Act (GS Chapter 138A), the same ethics laws that apply to many … Read more

An obligation that many North Carolina counties, school boards and cities have worked under since the mid-1960s ended yesterday. You have probably already read about the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, the challenge to … Read more

UPDATE 3:  In an opinion issued on 12 June 2014, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed in part and affirmed in part the decision of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.  I have blogged about the opinion here and here. UPDATE … Read more

Last summer, the General Assembly adopted legislation that allows North Carolina counties to make significant changes to how local health and human services are organized and governed. In April, my colleague Aimee Wall wrote a blog post describing the three … Read more

I have been getting many questions lately about the applicability and impact of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA. Specifically, people want to know the extent to which the law and its accompanying regulatory standards apply to local … Read more

Each local government and public authority is required to adopt an annual budget ordinance that recognizes estimated revenues, authorizes expenditures, and levies tax(es) for the forthcoming fiscal year. The Local Government Budget and Fiscal Control Act (LGBFCA), G.S. Ch. 159, … Read more

Many folks have never heard of zoning board of adjustment, but this is a critically important piece of the local development regulation machinery.  Every year these boards hear and decide hundreds of appeals of the interpretation of ordinances made by … Read more

The General Assembly’s crossover deadline has come and gone, so now is a good time to pause and take stock of pending legislation affecting public purchasing and contracting.  Bills proposing changes to our state’s public contracting statutes include authorizing design-build … Read more

UPDATE November 2013: In June 2013 the United States Supreme Court declared Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 unconstitutional.  That ruling made Section 5, discussed in the following post, unenforceable.  See these Coates Canon posts:  Supreme Court’s … Read more