The UNC System settled an ongoing lawsuit with the parent company of the Daily Tar Heel newspaper over potential open meeting law violations on Monday.

The settlement, announced by the Daily Tar Heel, concludes a lawsuit filed in January 2020 by the DTH Media Corp. against the university system, its Board of Governors and individual board members. The media group sued regarding the UNC System’s settlement with the North Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans in November 2019 regarding the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam at UNC. At the time, the university system pledged a $2.5 million trust and the possession of the monument to the pro-Confederate group, as well as a $74,999 payment for members to refrain from demonstrating on the Chapel Hill campus.

Shortly after the announcement of the settlement, court documents revealed it had been negotiated before the Sons of Confederate Veterans had filed its lawsuit against the university system over the statue’s absence from Polk Place. Interim system president Bill Roper and chair of the Board of Governors Randy Ramsey signed the consent judgement on dates prior to the lawsuit’s creation, and individual members of the board later wrote an op-ed in the News & Observer detailing some of the negotiations.

The lawsuit filed by the DTH Media Corp alleged “both agreements with the SCV were conceived, negotiated, approved, and executed in total secrecy in violation of the Open Meetings Law.”

The Sons of Confederate Veterans’ settlement was overturned in February by Orange County Judge Allen Baddour, who cited evidence of the pro-Confederate group’s lack of legal standing to initially file a lawsuit over Silent Sam. Baddour required the monument and all the funds be returned to the university system.

The UNC System’s settlement with DTH Media Corp. includes three conditions.

First, the UNC System will pay $74,999 to UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz for him to use on “initiatives related to racial equity on campus.” Secondly, the university system will provide a written summary detailing how the November 2019 settlement agreement was negotiated with the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The final condition is for the system’s leadership to submit a deposition answering questions related to the op-ed column written by five Board of Governors members. As a result, DTH Media Corp. will dismiss its lawsuit.

General Manager of the Daily Tar Heel Erica Perel shared a statement in the student newspaper Monday about the case’s resolution.

“At The Daily Tar Heel, we feel very strongly that good government happens in the open, that good decisions happen when they are vetted, when the public has the opportunity to comment on them,” said Perel. “And in this case, it became clear that there was very little discussion with the Board of Governors and people who worked there, that there was very little vetting.”

 

Photo via Matt Couch / WUNC.

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