Oriental Board of Commissioners Pot-Pourri

Last night's board of commissioners meeting was the last regular meeting before residents elect a new board. The board addressed a number of loose ends, most of which will be up to the newly-elected board to unravel or to knit up, as the case may be.

I have attended town board meetings fairly regularly since January of 2006, as an interested citizen, as a member of the planning board, as a commissioner, and as a member of the Pamlico County board of elections. I also attend meetings of the Pamlico County board of commissioners fairly regularly. It's the sort of thing policy wonks do.

Some things I've noticed:
1.  Meetings take too long and are too chaotic;
2.  The board spends too much time on minutes - suggestions: add minutes to the consent agenda; confine minutes to recording what was done, not what was said; keep audio recordings as a record of the meetings in case a member of the public or press wants to listen (that's what we do at the County board of elections);
3.  Rather than having a representative of each town board present a report at every meeting, add reports to the consent agenda. If something the board does or wants to do requires Town Board action, put it on the correspondence agenda. Otherwise, don't waste time on it;
4.  If a member of the public or a commissioner wants his or her comments in the record, encourage that person to submit a written comment to be appended to the minutes;
5.  Be meticulous about following requirements for closed sessions - it generally isn't good enough to mumble the relevant paragraph of North Carolina General Statutes. Western Carolina University has prepared a very good model resolution for going into closed session. I recommend the new board consider adopting it. Here is the model resolution:

North Carolina Open Meetings Law-Model Motion For Closed Session

I move that we go into closed session to:
[Specify one or more of the following permitted reasons for closed sessions]
+prevent the disclosure of privileged information
    +under ___________________of the North Carolina General Statutes or regulations.
    +under ___________________of the regulations or laws of United States.
        {You must identify the specific law}
+prevent the premature disclosure of honorary award or scholarship.
+consult with our attorney
    +to protect the attorney-client privilege.
    + to consider and give instructions concerning a potential or actual claim, administrative procedure, or judicial action.
    + to consider and give instructions concerning a judicial action titled
    _______________ v.____________________________________.
+discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of business in the area served by this body.
+ establish or instruct the staff or agent concerning the negotiation of the price and terms of a contract concerning the acquisition of real property.
+ establish or instruct the staff or agent concerning the negotiations of the amount of compensation or other terms of an employment contract.
+ consider the qualifications, competence, performance, condition of appointment of a public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee.
+ hear or investigate a complaint, charge, or grievance by or against a public officer or employee.
+ plan, conduct, or hear reports concerning investigations or alleged criminal conduct.
(6/24/02)

6.  It has been a frequent practice for the board to take up substantive initiatives, hold a cursory discussion and adopt resolutions during the "non-agenda" period at the end of meetings. Such actions may relate to matters of interest to citizens who attended the meeting, but when nothing came up, they left. Then the board acted. I think this is a bad practice. The Pamlico County Board of Commissioners follows a different procedure. At the beginning of each meeting, the chair asks if any member wants to add anything to the agenda. If all members agree, the item is added. If any member objects, the item is not added. No action is taken on any matter not thus added to the agenda. I have adopted a similar procedure for the county board of elections. I recommend the Oriental Town Board adopt a similar procedure;
7.  The board holds a so-called "agenda" meeting the Thursday before each regular meeting - the purpose is supposedly to agree on the agenda for the meeting (additions to the agenda should thus be very rare). In practice, the board often uses the "agenda" meeting to conduct regular business. Suggestion: If a single regular meeting each month is not sufficient to do the town's business, the board should schedule two meetings a month.