COA to hear Wake School Board lawsuit Thursday

Exploring violations of NC's Open Meetings Law:

The N.C. Court of Appeals on Thursday will hear arguments about the outcome of a lawsuit that accuses the Wake County school board of violating the state's open meetings law during its efforts to eliminate the use of diversity in student assignments.

There's no doubt that Margiotta and his cohort attempted to skirt the law to keep "animals" out of these meetings, but there is doubt the COA will be able to see through Kieran Shanahan's smokescreen clearly enough to make the proper finding.

Here is the Law itself if anybody's interested, and one particular section that was blatantly violated:

For any other meeting, except an emergency meeting, the public body shall cause written notice of the meeting stating its purpose (i) to be posted on the principal bulletin board of the public body or, if the public body has no such bulletin board, at the door of its usual meeting room, and (ii) to be mailed, e‑mailed, or delivered to each newspaper, wire service, radio station, and television station that has filed a written request for notice with the clerk or secretary of the public body or with some other person designated by the public body. The public body shall also cause notice to be mailed, e‑mailed, or delivered to any person, in addition to the representatives of the media listed above, who has filed a written request with the clerk, secretary, or other person designated by the public body. This notice shall be posted and mailed, e‑mailed, or delivered at least 48 hours before the time of the meeting.

The issuance of a limited number of vouchers (tickets) before the meeting, to determine who would be allowed in the main meeting room, was an official act and part of the meeting itself, even if it happened earlier in the day. By changing the time of when tickets would be handed out, without a 48 hour notice, this section of the law was violated. And the intent of that violation was to stack the meeting with supporters.

When dealing with a finite number of vouchers, any attempt to include a specific group has the undeniable effect of excluding another group (or groups). While the Open Meetings Law might not address this prejudicial behavior explicitly, I think we can safely say it's implied, and the COA should take notice.