The UNC System Board of Governors heard a briefing on North Carolina open records laws on Thursday.
The UNC Board of Governors has been under fire throughout the year for different reasons: firing Tom Ross, how they handled that firing, the secretive search process for Ross’ replacement and possible violations of open records laws, to name a few.
Board vice chair Lou Bissette said he was hopeful that a 90-minute briefing on North Carolina open records laws would be helpful to the 32-member board, especially because so many of the members are coming from the private sector.
“It’s a very specific set of statutes, there are a lot of issues related to it and it was just a great refresher course for me,” Bissette said. “And for those who’ve been in the private sector all of their lives, it was probably really an eye opener.”
The presentation was given by Frayda Bluesetin and Robert Joyce of the UNC School of Government.
The briefing covered a large variety of topics but had a certain focal point on disclosure of pay raises. After all, the decision to have the open records presentation came after a controversial board meeting in late October when the board decided in closed session to give pay raises to 12 chancellors across the system but did not make the information public during the subsequent open session of the meeting.
Bissette, who is leading the board after former chair John Fennebresque resigned earlier this year, said after hearing the report Thursday, he may have made a different decision about disclosing the raises, conceding that it now appears that information was public record.
“It would appear to me that in that case it probably was,” he said.
Bissette said he was happy with the meeting held on Thursday and the information that came forward when board members were able to ask questions regarding specific circumstances and what the law would require of them.
“It just tells me, and I’m a lawyer you know, that these things are not totally black and white,” he said. “There are a lot of gray areas.
“And what we want to do in the future – we don’t want to violate any statutes, any confidentiality statutes – but where we can, we want to err on the side of openness.”
Bluestein said it is not unusual for individuals who are new to a public service role to have issues complying with open record and open meeting laws.
“I think the records arena is a danger zone because they’re creating them themselves all the time,” she said. “And it’s just so incredibly broad.”
Bluestein said another danger zone was drifting off topic during closed session portions of a meeting.
Bissette said the board would likely be looking to implement new policies to avoid falling out of compliance in the future.
The full board will meet on Friday morning beginning at nine o’clock. A protest is scheduled to be held at eight o’clock objecting to the recent selection of Margaret Spellings as the new System President.
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