From the Salisbury Post (3/18/11): Public officials sometimes want to tell citizens and journalists more than they do, according to Hope Root, senior assistant attorney for the city of Charlotte.
“We often are caught between a rock and a hard place,” Root said, with privacy laws and public records laws pushing them from both sides.
“It’s not whether the city thinks it should or shouldn’t release” information, she said. Instead, “It’s ‘can we?’ ”
Ross was among the panelists speaking Thursday at a statewide Sunshine Day Conference at the Salisbury Station, sponsored by the N.C. Open Government Coalition.
In some ways, changes in state personnel laws have helped local government, Root said.
For example, aggrieved government employees who turn to the press to tell their stories used to be able to count on state law preventing city officials from commenting on the reasons for dismissal, she said.