Military panel skirts open-meetings law

Last week, a state commission that advocates for the military dodged a public discussion of a controversial wind-energy project.

In doing so, government-transparency advocates say the panel appears to have violated North Carolina’s open-meetings law.

The Military Affairs Commission chairman refused to allow a scheduled presentation at a committee meeting to proceed because a reporter was present, according to The Carolina Journal, a publication of the conservative John Locke Foundation. The presentation was on a large, nearly complete wind farm near Elizabeth City.

The reporter, Dan Way, said commission staff at the meeting asked him to identify himself before he entered. Way said he was allowed in after pointing out it was a public meeting. Brig. Gen. Mabry “Bud” Martin and Larry Hall, the newly appointed secretary of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, were present.

Martin asked Way if he would agree not to print or disclose any information from the meeting, Way reported. Way refused to agree, and so Martin announced the wind farm item would be removed from the agenda until a later date. Hall told the reporter the commission didn’t want just one news organization to have an exclusive story about the meeting, Way reported.

Way later discovered that after he and other members of the public left the meeting, the wind farm presentation was taken up for discussion. Hall confirmed that.

Hall, in a phone interview Monday, said he didn’t want the committee to be used as a platform for a one-sided presentation on an old report. He said John Droz, an opponent of wind energy development who was to make the presentation, had only notified one news media outlet about the meeting.

Hall said Droz and someone with an opposing viewpoint would be invited to the next meeting of the full commission in order to have balanced information.

“We were trying to strive for more openness,” Hall said. “We didn’t want the committee to be manipulated to make it appear we were somehow endorsing this two-year-old information.”

Jonathan Jones, director of the N.C. Open Government Coalition, said on Monday that the commission’s actions were “a pretty clear violation” of the open-meetings law.

Jones said he more often hears about members of public bodies tabling controversial items until after they emerge from closed session, in hopes that no one sticks around for the end of the meeting.

“I see that a lot more frequently than something quite this blatant,” Jones said.

News media attorney Amanda Martin told the Journal: “The actions of this board appear to violate the open meetings law. The public has a right to be present for proceedings of any public body, and it certainly is improper for any public official or public body to trick members of the public in order to avoid their presence.”

The commission has also failed to post notices of meetings. The Carolina Journal reported on Monday that a spokeswoman said meeting notices would be improved, noting that a change in administration was part of the reason.

Ten state lawmakers, including Republican leaders, have signed a letter asking the Trump administration to halt the nearly completed Amazon Wind Farm, saying the 300-foot-tall wind turbine towers would pose a security threat by interferring with ocean-scanning radar.

Last month, The Associated Press reported that the Navy disagreed the project poses a security threat.

The project is under construction by Portland, Oregon-based Avangrid Renewables. Amazon plans to buy energy the wind farm generates to use in data centers in Virginia.

This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Military panel skirts open-meetings law."