The Greensboro City Council will not meet after all with attorney Seth Cohen to gain more information related to the infamous “black book.” ConAlt and Hoggard weigh in. Hogg’s right: What a mess.
Evidently the council received advice from city legal counsel and school board chairman Alan Duncan (geez, he’s everywhere these days, isn’t he?) that meeting with Cohen would violate the state’s open meetings law. Here’s my question: Can the council not retreat into closed session with Cohen during a regular meeting, the way it did to get its first look at the black book? (The N&R’s Doug Clark explains.)
At any rate, the misinformation miscommunication here is incredible. The N&R reports that the council voted last week to meet with Cohen, but Cohen says he’s never been contacted about such a meeting. Cohen also said Monday that, quoting from the N&R, “that city officials have the same information he has and that if council members don’t want to get it from him, they can get it from those officials.”
Cohen elaborated in this week’s Rhino:
“I have not been contacted by the City Council. If asked to brief them on my understanding of the creation of the black book and its purpose and to share with them the information that I have, I will be happy to do so. If they ask me to come talk to them then it would appear that the city manager and the city attorney can not or will not explain to the City Council the true circumstances surrounding the creation of this proper photo array.”
That’s not a blogger saying it. That’s a respected attorney saying it.
