Beaufort County NC School Board Meeting Agendas...Where are the Agenda Packets? | Eastern North Carolina Now

For those of you that attend the Beaufort County NC school board meetings and those that watch the recordings on-line, you often hear the chairman say when introducing an agenda item, “you have two attachments...”.

What attachments? You, as a member of the audience, do not have any attachments to the agenda you viewed on-line prior to the meeting or presented to you when you attended the meeting in person.

The referenced attachments are documents that have the details of the issue being discussed and considered. The board members have them, but you do not.

To be fully informed about what is being discussed and considered, an attendee must have the information provided in the details which are hidden from you. Even when the approved meeting minutes are presented two to four weeks later, the attachments for most minutes are not included.

The Beaufort County NC school board has a Policy Code 2340 that states the following in the preamble:

To the extent not provided for in the following procedures and to the extent that the reference does not conflict with the spirit of these rules, the board shall refer to Suggested Rules of Procedure for Small Local Government Boards, by A. Fleming Bell, II, for unresolved procedural questions.

This book has been updated and replaced by Suggested Procedural Rules for Local Appointed Boards, A. Fleming Bell, II, and Trey Allen.

The book referenced in Policy Code 2340 has not been located.

There is a section in the updated version that has a chapter devoted to ‘Agenda”. This chapter outlines in detail how meeting agendas are created, how discussion items are included, what supporting documents should be included, when the agenda is in draft form, and when it is ready for publication to the board members and made available to the general public.

This chapter is very clear that the entire agenda with supporting documents should be made available to the general public at the same time as it is available to the board members.

The school board does not follow the guidance of these suggested rules.

The NC General Statutes require the meeting agendas for local boards to be made public. However, the statutes do not require supporting documents, commonly referred to as agenda packets to be made available to the public. However, NCGS 132-6 references public documents and the publics access to them. The question to be answered, ‘Are the agenda packets a public document?”

§ 132-6.

 Inspection, examination and copies of public records. (a) Every custodian of public records shall permit any record in the custodian's custody to be inspected and examined at reasonable times and under reasonable supervision by any person, and shall, as promptly as possible, furnish copies thereof upon payment of any fees as may be prescribed by law. As used herein, "custodian" does not mean an agency that holds the public records of other agencies solely for purposes of storage or safekeeping or solely to provide data processing.

132-6 (a1)

A public agency or custodian may satisfy the requirements in subsection (a) of this section by making public records available online in a format that allows a person to view the public record and print or save the public record to obtain a copy. If the public agency or custodian maintains public records online in a format that allows a person to view and print or save the public records to obtain a copy, the public agency or custodian is not required to provide copies to these public records in any other way.

Another NC General Statute does address the issue of agendas and references to agenda items during a public meeting. § 143-318.13 (c) states the following:

§ 143-318.13.  Electronic meetings; written ballots; acting by reference.

143-318.13 (c) Acting by Reference. - The members of a public body shall not deliberate, vote, or otherwise take action upon any matter by reference to a letter, number or other designation, or other secret device or method, with the intention of making it impossible for persons attending a meeting of the public body to understand what is being deliberated, voted, or acted upon. However, this subsection does not prohibit a public body from deliberating, voting, or otherwise taking action by reference to an agenda, if copies of the agenda, sufficiently worded to enable the public to understand what is being deliberated, voted, or acted upon, are available for public inspection at the meeting.

Moreover, the legal council for the NC School Board Association offers the following opinion:

Open Meetings

ALLISON SCHAFER LEGAL COUNSEL/DIRECTOR OF POLICY

NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSN JANUARY 2017, Page 50

Taking Action by Reference

·       Board members may not deliberate, vote or otherwise take action by reference to a document or other item unless copies of the document are made available to the public at the meeting.

·       In other words, the public has a right to know and understand what the board is discussing and voting upon. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-318.13(c).

For the complete report copy and paste in your browser - https://www.ncsba.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/January-2017-Open-Meetings.pdf

For reference, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners meeting agendas are posted on the county website including an agenda packet containing detailed information on every item to be discussed or voted upon at the commissioner’s meeting. This is a discussion the school board members should deliberate upon and respond as to why the agenda packets are not available to the general public. Confidential information as defined by the general statutes is not being requested for release.