UNC-Town Meetings Now Open

Under fire from the media, town and University officials have reversed their decision to hold closed meetings and will now conduct town-gown committee meetings openly.

The committee, the brainchild of Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf and UNC Chancellor James Moeser, will discuss issues that affect both the town and the University. Officials on both sides had intended to hold the meetings behind closed doors, allowing them to discuss sensitive issues candidly without raising public ire. But criticism from several media outlets influenced the change, Waldorf said.

"I personally think they could have been legally closed meetings, but it was a close call," Waldorf said.

The committee did not draw much criticism from the general public, the mayor said. Instead, editorials in local newspapers were what swayed the committee to hold the meetings in the open. What effect that will have on the committee is unclear, she said.

"It's pretty hard to say because we've never had meetings of this type, open or closed," Waldorf said. "Certainly people will be more guarded in what they say."

Amanda Martin, associate general council to the N.C. Press Association, spoke out against the closed meetings when the committee first formed. She said she approves of the decision to open the meetings to the public.

"I'm happy for everyone involved that it apparently won't have to be litigated," Martin said.

The decision to open the meetings benefits everyone, especially when the subject matter being discussed is of such importance to both the town and University, Martin said.

"Obviously, I'm happy they made that decision," she said. "And I think the decision was essentially made a few years ago in a memo stating that committees appointed by the chancellors and vice chancellors are public bodies."

Joyce Brown, a Chapel Hill Town Council member who is not on the committee, was one of its most vocal critics. She said she was pleased by the change.

"I think this is a move in the right direction," Brown said.

But the exact direction of the committee is still unclear, Waldorf said. There are still things the committee needs to decide, such as an official name for itself and when it will meet.

The first meeting of the group might not be until after Thanksgiving, she said.

Frequency of the meetings and other format issues will be determined when the committee eventually meets.

Waldorf said while the public will be welcome at the meetings, the town-gown committee would be a "working committee," holding relatively short meetings and trying to get a lot accomplished.

Waldorf said the public can always ask questions, be it at the meetings or through letters or phone calls, but the public would not be given the floor for hearings at the meetings in the interest of time.

"My anticipation is this is not a public hearing time," Waldorf said.

Board of Trustees member Richard Stevens, who is on the committee, said the opening of the meetings will not change anything.

"It's always been the case that the committee would be advisory," Stevens said.

Therefore, the public's presence will not affect how the committee functions, because it cannot act, he said. But he does think opening the meetings is a positive change.

"I support that very much," Stevens said.

The committee decided to open the meetings because of all the negative publicity the committee garnered when it was going to hold closed meetings, Stevens said.

"I think the mayor and the chancellor wanted to be able to proceed in as positive a manner as possible."

The City Editor can be reached

at citydesk@unc.edu.