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.