State’s Open Meetings Law guarantees public’s attendance
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has reversed its position with regard to closing committee and sub-committee meetings to the public.
The conversion, ironically, occurred Easter Sunday in an e-mail news release from Wes Seegars of Goldsboro, chairman of the Commission, to “wildlife stakeholders.” The release said the Commission had decided it wouldn’t bar the public from committee or sub-committee meetings.
“We will provide notice of all committee meetings through the Department of the Secretary of State web site (http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/board notices). Our (Commission) web site will also be used as a repository for downloadable committee meeting minutes,” Seegars wrote.
Seegars said during a telephone interview that Norman Young, the Commission’s legal counsel, had said the Opening Meetings Law as it pertains to committee meetings “wasn’t clear.” Seegars said he had asked Young to take another look at the statute.
“I said, ‘You can read the law a number of ways, and I’m making the decision we want to have all the people involved in (Commission) meetings,” Seegars said. “But I want to emphasize what (the Commission) did earlier was proper; we were following legal advice we were given.”
The furor over the Open Meetings Law resulted because of a conflict with the N.C. Bowhunters Association. Shortly after the Commission met March 4 in Raleigh to approve regulation changes for the 2009-2010 fishing-hunting-trapping seasons, Ramon Bell, president of the NCBA, requested a schedule of committee and sub-committee meetings.
A response was sent via e-mail from Betsy Foard, the Commission’s ethics liason, that said under the Open Meetings Law, the Commission wasn’t required to post notices of any meetings except regularly-scheduled “official” meetings and unofficial meetings of the whole body of commissioners.
But Bell said “official” Commission meetings are basically rubber-stamp gatherings after the most important business is conducted in the sub-committee and committee meetings held days earlier. His group wanted to have a presence at early meetings when issues were discussed, approved or discarded.
When Bell continued to get the same negative responses from Foard, it appeared to him the Commission planned to bar members of the NCBA or any other conservation organzations. Bell and two other NCBA members — Tommy Kimball and Mickey Strader — then sent a letter to Gov. Beverly Perdue’s office that detailed allegations of “abuses of authority” by Commission leadership, particularly Seegars, vice-chairman Steve Windham and David Hoyle Jr., head of the big-game committee, that led to the decision to close the meetings.
The three said Seegars dressed them down verbally after the March 4 meeting and said an earlier letter from Bell to Perdue had been re-routed to the Commission, never reaching Perdue’s desk.
According to Bell, Seegars asked: “Did you think I wouldn’t see that letter? Gov. Perdue is a personal friend of mine, and I speak to her often. You have destroyed your credibility with me and every member of the Commission by sending these threatening letters that contain threats against me.”
Bell said Seegars also threatened that the Commission would eliminate the entire archery season for deer if the NCBA didn’t stop stirring up trouble.
In the letter, Kimball said Hoyle Jr., son of a Gaston County state senator, said: “These letters never went on to the governor but were routed back to the commissioners. Governor Perdue is a personal friend of my family” and that Hoyle said former Gov. James B. Hunt had spent many nights at his family’s home. Kimball said he felt intimidated by Hoyle Jr.’s name-dropping of powerful political figures.
Kimball also said Aug. 26, 2008, Windham said he wanted to introduce a blanket crossbow proposal (the bow hunters oppose crossbows) because NCBA didn’t support Windham’s proposal to allow Sunday hunting.
Bell said he personally would like to have Sunday bow hunting, but the NCBA membership was split on the issue, so Bell couldn’t support or oppose such a proposal publically.
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