In my post here, I described how North Carolina’s public records laws may apply to law enforcement body and vehicle video camera records. [I’ve recently updated that post to note a newly promulgated records retention standard for these records.] The push … Read more
[UPDATE: S.L. 2015-225 limits disclosure of law enforcement officer information but does not explicitly affect county tax websites. My colleague Frayda Bluestein blogs about the new law here.) Most of North Carolina’s 100 counties maintain tax websites that allow users to search … Read more
It will now be much easier for county social services agencies and law enforcement officials to investigate reports of suspected financial exploitation of disabled adults and older adults. The Administrative Office of the Courts just approved a new form (AOC-SP-630) … Read more
Do you have questions about North Carolina local government? Want to know what “spot zoning” really means? Confused about what kinds of annexation cities can still do? Looking for a summary of changes in the structure of mental health and … Read more
The North Carolina General Assembly banned internet sweepstakes more than four years ago. The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld that ban more than two years ago. A few months later that court struck down excessive municipal privilege license taxes … Read more
North Carolina is a non-home rule state, which means that its local government entities are created by, and derive all their authority from, the General Assembly. The General Assembly has created a relatively flat local government structure. Almost all governmental … Read more
The need to remove an elected member of a local governing board—the city council, the board of county commissioners, or the board of education—may arise when it is discovered that the board member is for some reason disqualified from holding … Read more
North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law requires all official meetings of public bodies to be open to the public (unless the public body has specific statutory authority to meet in closed session). Think about whether the groups described in the following … Read more