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Commissioners adopt public-records policy, agree to develop online request portal
Summary
Cleveland County's attorney presented a proposed public-records policy emphasizing clarity, transparency and efficiency; the board approved the policy and staff said a web-based portal and centralized handling would be implemented, with fees to be addressed separately.
The Cleveland County Board of Commissioners approved a proposed public-records policy at its Sept. 16 meeting after a presentation from County Attorney Donald Sink.
Sink told the board the policy is intended to increase clarity and efficiency in handling public-records requests and that staff are working on a county-run public-records portal so residents can submit requests online. "We're gonna get it to you as promptly as possible because we are a high volume, public records request county," Sink said. He identified Christy Wooten as the current staff member functioning as the hub for requests and said in-house counsel (Logan) and the county attorney would provide legal review where needed. "If it's public, if it's public document, public's entitled to it. We're gonna get it out as promptly as possible," he said.
Sink emphasized that the policy before the board did not set a schedule of fees: any fees would be handled later through the county manager's designee and would be limited to recouping actual costs allowed by North Carolina law. After board discussion clarifying that fee schedules were not part of the motion, a commissioner moved to approve the policy, a second was recorded, and the board voted aye.
What the policy would do - Establish a single point of contact for requests (Christy Wooten identified as the paralegal handling requests). - Authorize the county manager or designee to apply reasonable, actual-cost fees if a fee schedule is later approved. - Direct staff to develop an online portal to streamline requests.
What comes next County staff will proceed with implementing the administration and the portal; any fee schedule would be brought back separately for board consideration.
