The N.C. Press Association and state Attorney General Roy Cooper are working to address that deficiency with a new 12-page booklet.

In question-and-answer format, the Guide to Open Government and Public Records breaks down the sometimes vague and confusing laws into simple terms that even schoolchildren can follow.

Beth Grace, the press association's executive director, said the booklet is intended to help educate elected officials and public employees about the public's right to know.

"Government employees often want to follow the law, but they don't know what the law is," Grace said Thursday at a workshop by the N.C. Open Government Coalition. "I'm going to give the first copy to Governor Easley, so he'll know what the law is."

At the mention of the chief executive's name, the lights in the meeting room at Elon University went out -- plunging the Sunshine Week event into darkness.

"It's the governor!" Grace exclaimed, earning chuckles from the more than 100 people in attendance.

Easley was a popular foil among speakers at the workshop, held by Elon as part of a weeklong celebration of the principle of open government.

The governor has been under scrutiny over the past two weeks for throwing away a potentially sensitive letter he received from a former cabinet secretary and for a policy enacted by his administration. It gives state employees the discretion to delete e-mail messages, which are public records under state law.

A gold-framed proclamation signed by Easley designating Thursday as "Sunshine Day" throughout North Carolina rested on an easel at the front of the room as he was roasted in absentia.

When state Sen. Eddie Goodall, Jr., R-Union, quipped that a bill he sponsored last year seeking to televise meetings of the General Assembly "didn't see any sunshine," the fluorescent bulbs overhead cut out again, as if on cue.

"Boy, the executive branch is certainly powerful here in North Carolina," Goodall said.

Media lawyer Mark Prak lambasted plans Easley announced Tuesday for a special committee to review whether his administration's policies for retaining e-mail follow the law guaranteeing the public's right to review officials' correspondence.

"They're not the government's e-mails, they're my e-mails," said Prak, who has represented several of the state's broadcasters in legal challenges to government secrecy. "He isn't going to have a committee to decide that my property can be buried if it might show something that isn't particularly favorable about the guy in charge."

Debbie Crane, the former spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, was the event's keynote speaker. Fired by Easley on March 4, Crane outlined several ways she said the public's right to access government information can be strengthened, including the automatic archiving of e-mail messages.

A veteran state employee, Crane said her job had changed in recent years from providing the public accurate information to shielding the Easley administration from bad press.

"I don't think the taxpayers should be paying spin doctors," Crane said.