Popular Government

Recent state legislation fundamentally changed the role of registers of deeds by limiting their responsibility for reviewing documents submitted for recording. Soon, implementation of widespread electronic recording will change their role even more dramatically.

What does it mean to say that North Carolina city council members and county commissioners “govern”? Local elected officials and their public managers give a lot of different answers to this question. A common one is “Local elected officials are responsible for policy, and public managers are responsible for administration.” Although this statement is true, it fails to capture the wide range of governing responsibilities that local elected officials carry out with the support of their top-level managers. 

This issue of N.C. Journal contains five articles:

• Digests of Bills Now Available Online through School of Government
• Gastonia Mayor Honored as Woman Municipal Leader
• Workshops to Build Community Capacity to Stop Domestic and Sexual Violence
• A Treasure Chest of Practical Knowledge
• First Class Graduates from CIO Certification Program

This issue of At the School contains seven articles:

• Brown-Graham Awarded Two Fellowships
• 2006 Essentials of Municipal Government Course Held, with Major Support from Food Lion
• Former President Broad to Join School Faculty
• Stenberg to Lead MPA Program
• O’Brien Named Director of N.C. Civic Education Consortium
• Volk Becomes Head of Finance and Information Technology
• The Founding of the Institute