Does this person need to take an oath of office? This is by far the most frequent oaths of office question I receive. My colleagues Trey Allen and David Lawrence have written excellent blogs (here and here) on this very … Continued

On July 11, 2022, Governor Cooper’s office published a press release indicating that the statewide state of emergency will end on August 15, 2022.  At that point, Section 166A-19.24, which provides explicit authority for remote meetings, will expire. Many elected … Continued

The Town of Ticketmaster is holding a particularly contentious regular meeting this evening that will draw a much larger crowd than usual. The council wants to require tickets for entry to prevent overcrowding. Meanwhile, in the neighboring County of Corona, … Continued

[EDIT: On July 8th, 2022, Session Law 2022-54 was enacted and made several key changes to remote oath administration by notaries. See Sections 10B-25 and 10B-31 for these changes. This new law governs whether and how notaries may administer remote … Continued

As we continue to wrestle with S.B. 473 and its impact on local governing boards, several additional questions have arisen. I’ll address two of the most common (and interesting!) here.

[UPDATE: This blog post has been revised to reflect practitioner input. Revised portions are underlined below.] Session Law 2021-191 (S.B. 473) modifies governing board members’ duty to vote and recusal procedures. Specifically, Section 14-234.3 prohibits public officials who also serve … Continued

*With special thanks to Kara Millonzi and Elsemarie Mullins As local governments wrestle with administering American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)-funded programs, the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) has prompted public records and confidentiality questions. To administer LIHWAP, state and … Continued