ORIENTATION FOR NEW CITY AND COUNTY MANAGERS
Open Meetings and Public Records.
Most public meetings and public records must to open to the public in North Carolina. See the following article from the School of Government’s publication, County and Municipal Government in North Carolina.
Article 8: Open Meetings and Public Records
The North Carolina open meetings law (G.S. 143-318.9 through -318.18) extends to all “public bodies.” G.S. 143-318.10(b) defines the term public body as any board, commission, committee, and so forth, in state or local government that (1) has at least two members and (2) exercises or is authorized to exercise any of these powers: legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, or advisory. It is a very broad definition. In county or city government public bodies include the governing board itself; each committee of the board, whether it is a standing committee or
an ad hoc committee; groups created by statute, such as the board of health or the board of social services; and each group established by action of the governing board, such as a planning board, a zoning board of adjustment, a parks and recreation commission, or a human relations commission. (Other public bodies at the local level include local boards of education, community college boards of trustees, and governing boards of public hospitals.)
North Carolina’s public records law is found in G.S. Chapter 132 (although many exceptions to the statute are scattered in other chapters of the General Statutes). G.S. 132-1 establishes a broad definition of public record and G.S. 132-6 entitles any person to examine and have a copy of any public record. The state supreme court has concluded that these statutory rights extend to all documents meeting the definition of public record, unless the General Assembly has enacted a statute that limits or denies public access to a category of record.2 As a result, the great bulk of material held by local governments in North Carolina is public record and therefore open to public access. Financial records, leases and contracts, insurance policies, reports, agency minutes, permit applications, computer databases all must be made available to the public upon request.
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