Raleigh News & Observer reporter Leah Friedman blogged last Wednesday on her dubious experience with Chatham County officials, who are currently refusing to release minutes of closed-session meetings at which the recent residential moratorium was discussed. The blog posting includes fascinating details of Friedman’s previous run-in with county officials. You can read her entire posting here, but it includes this:
If you recall, back in 2005 the county also refused to release a recording from a meeting where Commissioner Patrick Barnes claimed then Commissioners Chairman Bunkey Morgan told him he could not a vote on a certain development. Barnes said he was told that if he did vote, the county would be sued. Morgan denied the allegation. So I requested the recording, which would clear up the dispute.
The county eventually agreed to release a recording of the meeting, but then informed me that the first 13 minutes of the tape was gone. The clerk, they said, had left the mute button while she recorded the meeting.
Hmm.
