Meeting Without Media
Wake County commissioners and school board members were so
excited about having lunch together Thursday to discuss the
school system’s new education goal that they forgot to notify the
media as the law requires.
Neither elected board apparently followed the state Open
Meetings Law’s requirement that they give at least 48 hours
notice for the session, stating the time, place and purpose of
the meeting. Notice must be posted on a board’s principal
bulletin board or the door of the board’s usual meeting place and
also must be made to all media that submit written requests for
notice.
School officials said Friday they didn’t have to notify the
media because the lunch was set up by a panel (whose co-chairman
is Orage Quarles III, president and publisher of The News &
Observer) formed by the Wake Education Partnership to help come
up with the goal. School officials also noted that commissioner
Joe Bryan publicly announced the meeting at the Wake Education
Summit on Thursday morning.
During the get-together, the groups agreed over roast-beef
sandwiches to work together on the new goal. The meeting drew
five of the seven commissioners, seven of the nine school board
members, County Manager David Cooke, Schools Superintendent Bill
McNeal and other senior staffers.
FAILING GRADE: Durham City Council member Tamra Edwards
received an F on the local Police Benevolent Association’s new
political report card. It says she “misled” the chapter about her
support for an independent grievance board for law enforcement
officers to appeal disciplinary actions.
Once she received the 588-member PBA chapter’s endorsement and
was elected in 1999, it says, she opposed the PBA on that issue.
Despite her opposition, the grievance board was approved in March
after City Manager Marcia Conner compromised.
Other elected officials fared better. County Commission
Chairwoman Ellen Reckhow received a C-, despite her support of
the grievance board, after she opposed a version of the county
budget that included raises for sheriff’s deputies. Mayor Bill
Bell and council member Lewis Cheek earned Bs. Council members
John Best, Howard Clement and Cora Cole-McFadden got As.
NEW POST: The Wake County Mayors’ Association tapped Apex
Mayor Keith Weatherly to serve on the Centennial Authority, which
owns the RBC Center.
Weatherly’s four-year term on the authority will begin July 1.
Wendell Mayor Lucius Jones is the other authority member selected
by the mayors group.
NEW OFFICERS: The N.C. Republican Party’s 2nd Congressional
District Convention elected these new officers: Chairman Dan
Mansell of Selma, Vice Chairman Duane Royal of Clinton, Secretary
Joey Powell of Dunn and Treasurer Janet Maynard of Lillington.
POLITICAL TRAIL
– WILLIAM SANDERS AND JUNE RIVERS of the SAS Institute will
discuss the federal “No Child Left Behind” law at a $ 15 per
person luncheon sponsored by the John Locke Foundation at noon
Tuesday at N.C. State University’s McKimmon Center, 1101 Gorman
St. in Raleigh.
– RUTH EASTERLING, a former state representative from
Charlotte, will be honored by Lillian’s List of North Carolina at
its 2004 campaign kickoff from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the
home of Sally Wood Creech, 1514 St. Mary’s St. in Raleigh.
– MICHAEL WALDEN, an N.C. State University economist, will
speak to the Wake County chapter of Citizens for a Sound Economy
at 7 p.m. Thursday at the McKimmon Center.