AGENDA #5a

 

MEMORANDUM

 

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

 

FROM:            W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

 

SUBJECT:       Establishing Notice Procedures for Special Meetings

 

DATE:             May 28, 2003

 

 

The purpose of this report is to outline procedures that we believe need to be followed in order to seek full compliance with notice requirements for special meetings of public bodies.

 

BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION

 

Regular meetings of Town advisory boards, commissions, and other groups appointed by the Council are listed in the Town Meeting Calendar, posted on the Town’s website and regularly made available to the public and media outlets.  The notice process for standard meetings is regularly met by all Town boards.

 

However, we have experienced occasions recently when special meetings of advisory boards or their subcommittees were scheduled without the required public notice and had to be rescheduled to meet notice requirements.

 

In an effort to prevent such occurrences, we have developed a process that would provide proper notice for such special meetings of any of the Town’s public bodies.  We believe such a process is necessary in order to comply with the State’s Open Meetings law (Attachment 4).

 

Attached is a draft letter (Attachment 1) we propose to send to all advisory board chairs and staff liaisons along with the appropriate procedures to be used to publicize a special meeting (Attachment 2) and examples of the special meeting notices should be prepared (Attachment 3).

 

NEXT STEPS

 

We will institute the proposed process to meet notice requirements for special meetings, unless the Council provides other directions.

 

ATTACHMENTS

 

1.       Draft letter to Chairs of Advisory Boards and Commissions (p. 2).

2.       Draft Special Meeting Notice Procedures (p. 3).

3.       Examples of Media Notices (p. 5).

4.       Excerpt from NCGS Chapter 143, Article 33C, Open Meetings (p. 6).

 ATTACHMENT 1

 

                                                                                                                           

 

 

TOWN OF CHAPEL HILL

 

 

 

Date

 

 

Chair

Board or Commission

 

 

Dear

 

The board or commission on which you serve has been identified as a public body under North Carolina General Statutes.  Special meetings of your board and any committees of your board are subject to the Open Meetings Law of North Carolina, Chapter 143, Article 33C of the North Carolina General Statutes (attached).  This law includes provisions regarding the notice required for any meetings.

 

Regularly scheduled meetings of your board are routinely listed in the Town Meeting Calendar, posted on the Town’s website and made available to the media.  We believe that this process satisfies the notice requirements for regularly scheduled meetings.

 

Attached is the process used by the Town to provide proper notice of special meetings.  It is being provided so your board will be informed of the notice requirements and the procedures for satisfying them for any special meetings scheduled by your board, including subcommittees.

 

Please contact your staff liaison if you have questions, or contact Town Clerk Joyce Smith at 968-2757 or email her at [email protected] if you desire further information.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

W. Calvin Horton

Town Manager

 

Attachments

 

ATTACHMENT 2

 

Special Meeting Notices:  Procedures

 

We have experienced occasions recently when special meetings were scheduled without the required public notice and had to be rescheduled to meet notice requirements.

 

The following information is being provided to make you aware of the Town’s process to provide adequate notice of special meetings.  The process sets out the responsibilities of Town staff regarding how and when special notices are given.

 

When followed, this process should eliminate any question of whether special meetings were noticed properly.

 

Procedures

 

Providing adequate notice of special meetings is required under NC General Statutes.  In order to satisfy the requirements of a 48-hour notice, and to assure that all Town public meetings are properly noticed, the following guidelines must be followed:

 

1.                    Regularly scheduled meetings of your board are routinely listed in the Town Meeting Calendar, posted on the Town’s website and made available to the media.  This process satisfies the notice requirements for regularly scheduled meetings.

 

2.                    Staff liaisons for Town Boards and Commissions that are Public Bodies under the law shall provide the Town Clerk with notice of any special meeting 3 business days in advance of the meeting.  The Town Clerk will then have 24 hours to give required notice of the meeting.  If notification was not given to the Town Clerk within 3 business days of the scheduled meeting time then the special meeting may not be held, and must be rescheduled.

 

Ex.:  Notice of a special meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. on Wednesday must be sent to the Town Clerk no later than 5 p.m. on the previous Friday.  Notice of a special meeting scheduled for noon on Friday must be sent to the Town Clerk no later than noon on Tuesday.

 

3.                    The special meeting notice shall be provided electronically or in writing to the Town Clerk, following the format in the attached example.

 

4.                    The Town Clerk will provide media notice of all public meetings.  (For this purpose, all meetings of Town Boards and Commissions and any of their subcommittees require public notice. Generally, committees created and appointed by the Mayor  (Mayor’s Committees) are not subject to this rule.

 

5.                    Special meeting notices must state the purpose of the meeting.  For example, stating that a committee is meeting “to discuss current issues” is not sufficient.  Instead, the meeting notice should state the specific purpose for which the committee is meeting, such as “to discuss the proposed amendments to the Cemetery Ordinance”.  The special meeting notice must also state the date, time and place of the meeting.

 

6.                    The Town Clerk will provide notice to the media electronically using the email distribution list maintained in the Clerk’s Office.

 

7.                    The Town Clerk will send a copy of the email notice to the appropriate staff liaison.  This will serve as the staff liaison’s notification that the special meeting was properly noticed.  The staff liaison will be responsible for keeping any necessary records of meetings and notices given.

 

8.                    The staff liaison shall place a copy of the special meeting notice 48 hours prior to the meeting on the main entrance door of the building where the meeting is scheduled to take place so that it is visible to someone approaching the entrance.  This posting is specifically required by law and cannot be omitted.

 

9.                    Subcommittee meetings must be noticed in the same manner as other special meetings; that is, a 3 business day notice to the Town Clerk is required.

 

 

Additional information:

 

• Each department should maintain a list of persons who have expressed an interest in receiving notice of particular meetings.  Notice to those persons is the responsibility of the department/staff liaison.  Assistance may be obtained from the Town Clerk’s office when necessary.

 

• Meetings must be held in a location and at a time that would allow participation by the public.  For example, scheduling a meeting in a restaurant may not allow interested parties to be seated in close proximity to the committee members, nor allow them to hear the proceedings.

 

• Use of public buildings is strongly encouraged for any meetings of public bodies. Information on how to reserve meeting space in Town buildings is available from the Clerk’s Office.

 

ATTACHMENT 3

 

 

EXAMPLES OF SPECIAL MEETING NOTICES

 

 

Example 1:

 

Media Notice

 

Sustainability, Energy, and Environment Committee

 

The Sustainability, Energy, and Environment Committee will meet at 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, 2003, in the Second Floor Conference Room at Town Hall, 306 N. Columbia St. The meeting agenda includes follow-up discussion of the March workshop on establishing an energy office.

 

 

 

 

Example 2:

 

Media Notice

 

Horace Williams Citizens Committee

 

The Horace Williams Citizens Committee will meet Monday, April 21, 2003 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. (rescheduled from Thursday, April 17) in the large downstairs meeting room at the Chapel Hill Public Library, 100 Library Drive. The Committee will continue discussions on principles to recommend to the Town Council regarding the University’s plans to develop the Horace Williams site, now called Carolina North, including reports from subcommittees.

 

ATTACHMENT 4

 

Excerpt from Chapter 143, Article 33C – NC Open Meetings Statute

 

§ 143-318.9.  Public policy.

    Whereas the public bodies that administer the legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, and advisory functions of North Carolina and its political subdivisions exist solely to conduct the people's business, it is the public policy of North Carolina that the hearings,

deliberations, and actions of these bodies be conducted openly.  (1979, c. 655, s. 1.)

§ 143-318.10.  All official meetings of public bodies open to the public.

    (a) Except as provided in G.S. 143-318.11, 143-318.14A, 143-318.15, and 143-318.18, each official meeting of a public body shall be open to the public, and any person is entitled to attend such a meeting.

    (b) As used in this Article, "public body" means any elected or appointed authority, board, commission, committee, council, or other body of the State, or of one or more counties, cities, school administrative units, constituent institutions of The University of North Carolina, or other political subdivisions or public corporations in the State that (i) is composed of two or more members and (ii) exercises or is authorized to exercise a legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, or advisory function.  In addition, "public body" means the governing board of a "public hospital" as defined in G.S. 159-39 and the governing board of any nonprofit corporation to which a hospital facility has been sold or conveyed pursuant to G.S. 131E-8, any subsidiary of such nonprofit corporation, and any nonprofit corporation owning the corporation to which the hospital facility has been sold or conveyed.

    (c) "Public body" does not include (i) a meeting solely among the professional staff of a public body, or (ii) the medical staff of a public hospital or the medical staff of a hospital that has been sold or conveyed pursuant to G.S. 131E-8.

    (d) "Official meeting" means a meeting, assembly, or gathering together at any time or place or the simultaneous communication by conference telephone or other electronic means of a majority of the members of a public body for the purpose of conducting hearings, participating in deliberations, or voting upon or otherwise transacting the public business within the jurisdiction, real or apparent, of the public body.  However, a social meeting or other informal assembly or gathering together of the members of a public body does not constitute an official meeting unless called or held to evade the spirit and purposes of this Article.

   (e) Every public body shall keep full and accurate minutes of all official meetings, including any closed sessions held pursuant to G.S. 143-318.11.  Such minutes may be in written form or, at the option of the public body, may be in the form of sound or video and sound recordings. When a public body meets in closed session, it shall keep a general account of the closed session so that a person not in attendance would have a reasonable understanding of what transpired. Such accounts may be a written narrative, or video or audio recordings. Such minutes and accounts shall be public records within the meaning of the Public Records Law, G.S. 132-1 et seq.; provided, however, that minutes or an account of a closed session conducted in compliance with G.S. 143-318.11 may be withheld from public inspection so long as public inspection would

frustrate the purpose of a closed session.  (1979, c. 655, s. 1; 1985 (Reg. Sess., 1986), c. 932, s. 4; 1991, c. 694, ss. 1, 2; 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 570, s. 1; 1995, c. 509, s. 135.2(p); 1997-290, s. 1; 1997-465, s. 27.)

§ 143-318.12.  Public notice of official meetings.

   (a) If a public body has established, by ordinance, resolution, or otherwise, a schedule of regular meetings, it shall cause a current copy of that schedule, showing the time and place of regular meetings, to be kept on file as follows:

         (1)  For public bodies that are part of State government, with the Secretary of State;

         (2) For the governing board and each other public body that is part of a county government, with the clerk to the board of county commissioners;

         (3) For the governing board and each other public body that is part of a city government, with the city clerk;

         (4) For each other public body, with its clerk or secretary, or, if the public body does not have a clerk or secretary, with the clerk to the board of county commissioners in the county in which the public body normally holds its meetings.  If a public body changes its schedule of regular meetings, it shall cause the revised schedule to be filed as provided in subdivisions (1) through (4) of this subsection at least seven calendar days before the day of the first meeting held pursuant to the revised schedule.

   (b) If a public body holds an official meeting at any time or place other than a time or place shown on the schedule filed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, it shall give public notice of the time and place of that meeting as provided in this subsection.

         (1) If a public body recesses a regular, special, or emergency meeting held pursuant to public notice given in compliance with this subsection, and the time and place at which the meeting is to be continued is announced in open session, no further notice shall be required.

         (2) For any other meeting, except an emergency meeting, the public body shall cause written notice of the meeting stating its purpose (i) to be posted on the principal bulletin board of the public body or, if the public body has no such bulletin board, at the door of its usual meeting room, and (ii) to be mailed or delivered to each newspaper, wire service, radio station, and television station, which has filed a written request for notice with the clerk or secretary of the public body or with some other person designated by the public body.  The public body shall also cause notice to be mailed or delivered to any person, in addition to the representatives of the media listed above, who has filed a written request with the clerk, secretary, or other person designated by the public body.  This notice shall be posted and mailed or delivered at least 48 hours before the time of the meeting.  The public body may require each newspaper, wire service, radio station, and television station submitting a written request for notice to renew the request annually.  The public body shall charge a fee to persons other than the media, who request notice, of ten dollars ($10.00) per calendar year, and may require them to renew their requests quarterly.

         (3) For an emergency meeting, the public body shall cause notice of the meeting to be given to each local newspaper, local wire service, local radio station, and local television station that has filed a written request, which includes the newspaper's, wire service's, or station's telephone number, for emergency notice with the clerk or secretary of the public body or with some other person designated by the public body.  This notice shall be given either by telephone or by the same method used to notify the members of the public body and shall be given immediately after notice has been given to those members.  This notice shall be given at the expense of the party notified.  An "emergency meeting" is one called because of generally unexpected circumstances that require immediate consideration by the public body.  Only business connected with the emergency may be considered at a meeting to which notice is given pursuant to this paragraph.

  (c) Repealed by Session Laws 1991, c. 694, s. 6. (1979, c. 655, s. 1; 1991, c. 694, ss. 5, 6.)