Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Board Governance Closed Sessions topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Person County commissioners add closed sessions, list ongoing litigation and adjourn
Summary
The board approved adding two closed sessions under cited statutes for contract/negotiation and privileged/confidential matters and later convened closed sessions that included county leadership and legal counsel; the meeting ended after returning to open session and a motion to adjourn.
At the Jan. 20 Person County Board of Commissioners meeting, the chair moved to add two closed sessions to the agenda and the board approved the agenda with those additions.
The chair referenced statutes to justify the closed sessions' confidentiality protections, citing the General Statutes in discussion of closed session authority (transcript wording). The agenda addition described three closed sessions: one for negotiating terms of real-property or employment contracts; a second to prevent disclosure of privileged/confidential information under the identified statute; and a third for attorney–client privilege to allow updates on named lawsuits (the chair listed Burrow v. Wilburn; Person County v. Reeves; Person County v. Yarbrough; Hartwork Haulers v. Person County) (SEG 030–039; SEG 661–666).
The board voted to approve the agenda with the closed-session additions (SEG 041–049). Later, the chair moved the meeting into closed session and listed attendees permitted to participate in closed-session discussions, including county manager Catherine Cathy, clerk to the board Michelle Solomon, county attorney TC Morphis Jr., economic development director Brandy Lynch, assistant county manager, human services director Brian Hart, and DSS deputy director Christy Perry (SEG 634–661). After returning to open session, the board moved to adjourn and the meeting was closed (SEG 674–682).
What’s next: Closed-session outcomes were not disclosed in open session; any direction, decisions or actions arising from closed sessions would be announced by the board or staff in a subsequent public meeting or record if and when permissible.
