From The Mount Airy News (10/08/08): Mount Airy officials met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss an undisclosed “real estate matter.”
Membersof the Board of Commissioners convened in council chambers for about 90minutes before emerging and taking no action on what had been discussed.
Wednesday’ssession was a continuation of a regular meeting of the board lastThursday night. At the end of it, city officials gathered in closedsession for about 30 minutes to discuss the same real estate matter,also taking no action but recessing the meeting until Wednesday.
Itis not known whether the item in question pertains to property the cityis proposing to buy or sell, or some other aspect of real estate.
CityManager Don Brookshire said Wednesday that he did not know if thematter will be considered again, or voted on, by the Board ofCommissioners at its next regular meeting on Oct. 16.
Localgoverning bodies in North Carolina are allowed to discuss such issuesas land negotiations behind closed doors. The state Open Meetings Lawsays that a public body may hold a closed session during one of itsofficial meetings only when such a session is required to preventpublic disclosure of seven different types of information.
Theseinclude legally confidential information; honorary degrees,scholarships, prizes and awards; attorney-client discussions; thelocation or expansion of businesses (including agreement on a tentativelist of economic-development incentives that might be offered by thepublic body in negotiations); contract negotiations; certain personnelmatters; and criminal investigations.