Commentary by Sandy Semans Managing editor, the Outer Banks Sentinel: After just finishing an open government legal challenge, it is difficult to look back on the General Assembly's last session and not play "what if."
In November, Superior Court Judge Quentin Sumner granted the Outer Banks Sentinel’s request for a court order mandating that the Dare County Tourism Board maintain verbatim minutes of its closed sessions forevermore.
The order came as a result of a complaint filed by the newspaper in May after it became clear that violations of open meetings and open records laws had become routine at the agency.
Violations alleged in the complaint included:
- withholding draft settlement documents
- altered closed session minutes
- total absence of minutes for a committee meeting
- the legality of two closed sessions
Six weeks after the complaint was filed, the settlement documents were released when Superior Court Judge Alma Hinton signed a consent order. The board’s attorney wanted the order’s protection before releasing the drafts because of a confidentiality clause ?
Read Semans’ full commentary by clicking on the PDF icon at right.