You have a right to know what NC politicians are doing. They want you kept in the dark.
You’re a small-business owner in Eastern North Carolina, a straight-ticket Republican. You’re worried about rumors of a casino deal and how out-of-town higher wages could lure your best employees. But the lawmaker you’ve voted for again and again isn’t talking.
You’re a college student who is stressed about gun violence and campus safety. But when you protest with others in Raleigh, your representative derides the group’s message. You seek a meeting with him; you get none.
You’ve taught for 20 years in an economically struggling school district. You’re an unaffiliated voter. Each year, you buy school supplies and store them away, knowing many students need them. But the new state budget shows you’re getting a pay raise that’s about half the cost-of-living increase. You have questions for the hometown senator, who voted along party lines, but worry if expressing concerns could lead to retaliation.
Where do you get answers? Do you trust your politicians to do the right thing?
Factual or fantastical, transparent or tainted, Republican or Democrat, this is our North Carolina. The collective we — no matter party affiliation, ZIP code or favorite college team — just got punked. The people running the North Carolina legislature prefer that you keep your mouth shut and let the public’s business stay private.
Keeping secrets is bad public policy
I’m preaching today — even if the only ones in the pews are the choir. Yes, you’d expect an editor to be biased toward the First Amendment and the public’s right to know. I’m unapologetic that The News & Observer’s work holds officials accountable and speaks truth to power.
But when North Carolina lawmakers inserted a provision in the budget bill that gave lawmakers greater discretion on what to keep secret, this was about the public and not just the press. Even philosophically divergent organizations such as the ACLU and the John Locke Foundation think this is bad public policy.
Senate leader Phil Berger contended that the change in the state’s public records law settles a dispute between the legislative services office, which key lawmakers essentially oversee, and the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which archives public records.
Berger was misled or misunderstood. Or he lied.
“Archives staff met with the Legislative Services Office in 2021 and last answered their questions on this topic over a year and a half ago,” communications director Schorr Johnson wrote in an emailed statement to The N&O’s Dan Kane. “We are not aware of any dispute.”
Johnson also told Kane, “This new provision appears to be the legislature entirely exempting themselves from the public records law and the archiving process that has retained government records throughout the state’s history.”
You won’t mistake the chemistry and trust between Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore with The Jonas Brothers. But give NC’s power couple credit for knowing how to keep the meek from inheriting 16 W. Jones Street. Apparently no other lawmaker wants to lip off and get sent to the dungeon-esque storage closet now occupied by Rep. Terence Everitt, who sought a criminal investigation against Moore on a grocery list of possible charges, including misconduct. Everitt now gets to hang out in the basement — neighbors to the Capitol press.
Records requests filed before lockdown
The N&O filed nine public-records requests last week — before the public-records lockdown goes into effect — because YOU have a right to know about issues such as the state’s budget, the casino issue, changes with the State Bureau of Investigation, redistricting and public records.
The N&O also has six other pending public-records requests, including a letter from our attorney seeking “copies of emails, text messages, and other electronic messages, including messages sent through independent encrypted software applications, sent or received by House Speaker Moore.” The letter was dated July 28, 2023.
Magically, two months later, the speaker’s office responded on Friday with one sentence: “There are no documents responsive to this request.”
If you are skeptical or convinced by the shadiness of it all, you can:
Reach out to lawmakers who should be representing you in the General Assembly.
Go to the North Carolina Department of Justice site, click on “How We Help” in the navigation menu and notice a link to “Open Government.” Click on it and this message appears: “The policy of the state of North Carolina is to allow public access to the business of government. We help by acting as a liaison between public officials and the public.”
Vote.
This is your home, your state. The state’s business should be your business.
Bill Church is executive editor of The News & Observer.
This story was originally published September 29, 2023 at 2:58 PM.
