Under Section G.S. 132-1.4(c) of the North Carolina Public Records law, the contents of 911 calls are public information, except for certain information specified in the statute. This provision was modified in An Act To Provide That a Transcript or … Read more

A frequently asked question if there ever was one. It would be nice if the statutes that govern local government activities were consistent and clear about what specific decisions or activities require governing board approval. No such luck. But there … Read more

As summarized in this post, the new annexation reform law requires cities to extend water and sewer services to annexed areas if the owners of a majority of properties in the area request service. The law requires the city to offer … Read more

UPDATE August 2013: In 2012, the legislature replaced the petition process described below with a referendum requirement. The current law is summarized here. Nearly 40 annexation-related bills were introduced during this legislative session. Included in this number were identical House … Read more

In this blog post about citizen information, I noted that some local governments had obtained local legislation to protect email subscriber lists from some kinds of public access. Effective April 21, 2011, that law now applies to all local governments. This … Read more

An email to the town clerk requests electronic copies of the job descriptions for all town positions that are currently filled, and a list of all current town employee salaries. It asks for a response by return email. The email … Read more

A city contracts with a private company to collect solid waste within the city. If not for this contract, city employees would carry out this function. The only connection between the city and the company is the contract. It’s a … Read more

A developer purchases land located outside the city limits and plans to construct a residential development. The area is not served by city or county utility systems, but the city will agree to extend water and sewer services to the … Read more

The March, 2010 meetings of the Wake County School Board attracted lots of interest and overflow crowds. Two meetings occurred on March 23.  The first was a “Committee of the Whole” (COW) meeting, held in a small meeting room in … Read more

This session, legislators have introduced bills (House Bill 87, Senate Bill 67) proposing to amend the North Carolina Constitution to create a right of access to public records, and to require that all meetings of public bodies be open. The law … Read more