The town’s governing board wants to be more transparent. They direct the clerk to post all agendas, attachments, minutes, and budgets on the town’s website.  The IT director, who manages the website, suggests that these documents should be converted to … Read more

A really hot topic is occupying the city council: to allow food trucks or not to allow food trucks, that is the question. Local restaurants are opposed, but the trucks are really popular and may revive downtown foot traffic. The … Read more

Students of local government law learn first and foremost that all local governments get their powers from the state. In North Carolina, local authority comes primarily from local and general laws enacted by the General Assembly. A particular city may … Read more

We say it until we’re blue in the face: municipal and county governing board members have a duty to vote. There is no authority to abstain, or to be excused for a mere “appearance of impropriety.” Instead, state law is … Read more

Sometimes there just aren’t enough board members to have a meeting. Suppose that a clerk for a North Carolina city or county learns in advance of a meeting that several governing board members have conflicts and will not be able … Read more

North Carolina’s open meetings law creates a broad public right of access to meetings of public bodies by requiring notice of most kinds of meetings, and allowing anyone to attend them. Do those who attend have a guaranteed right to … Read more

Texting, tweeting, emailing, blogging, posting: members of public boards are doing this during meetings using their private or publicly-issued electronic devices, and communicating with each other, with individuals or groups attending the meeting, and with individuals and groups anywhere in … Read more

State law prohibits general public access to most public employee records. The parallel statutes that govern city and county employee records, as well as several of the separate statutes that govern other types of public agencies, contain provisions that allow … Read more

Cell phones and other mobile devices have become essential tools for public employees and officials. Governmental agencies may purchase mobile devices and issue them to employees and officials, or may reimburse employees and officials who use their privately-owned devices for … Read more

The recent annexation reform legislation summarized in this blog post, changed the involuntary annexation laws, but left the basic structure for voluntary annexation in place. The legislature, did, however, modify the petition signature requirements by enacting S.L. 2011-57 (HB 171), apparently … Read more