News-Record.com

As you may or may not know, the Lottery Commission is scheduled for a road trip to check out how the Tennessee Lottery does business. The reason you may not know about this is the Lottery Commission - or the governor's press office, which has been doing public relations work for the commission - never sent out and official meeting notice.

Curiously, they sent out notice canceling a meeting that had been scheduled in Raleigh but never advertised the new one.

I will acknowledge here and now that folks around downtown Raleigh knew about the trip early in the week. And I will further acknowledge that it is unlikely the average citizen of the State of North Carolina would be inclined to tag along as the commission visits with a bunch of suits from another lottery.

And I will even cede, as Lottery Commission Chairman Charles Sanders pointed out to me on the phone late today, this is a rather technical matter.

Also by way of full disclosure, I was offered a spot on the jet flying the commission to Tennessee and turned it down. (I’m told at least three reporters are going along for the ride.)

But that's not the point.

Because more than half the commissioners are going, the group will have quorum, the necessary number of members to transact business. It's an official meeting, even if it is out of state, and should be advertised as such.

Reaction to that assertion as I think it'll appear in Thursday’s story:

“We’ve been totally transparent with this and it seems like we’re arguing over a technicality,” said Charles Sanders, the chairman of the lottery commission. “I’ve been advised by the state lawyers that this is not an open meeting.” Sanders said the group did not plan to make any decisions or transact any business other than to learn about the lottery. “I’m just wondering what happened to common sense here,” Sanders said. “If you want to crucify me on a technicality, go ahead.”

Now, I can sympathize with Sanders. Really. There has been a lot of stuff swirling around the lottery, much of it a lot more sinister than this. I believe Sanders when he says this is just a fact finding mission. But I’m not picking on him just to pick on him. There’s a larger point here.

If we give the commission a pass on this, then what else are we going to wave on by when things really get going?

Jill Lucas, deputy press secretary to Gov. Mike Easley, echoed Sanders when I asked her about this.

“They’re not going to be discussing business or taking action. They’re just going to be touring the facility,” Lucas said. It's only an informal educational opportunity and therefore not a formal meeting that needs to be advertised.

But other folks who have law degrees disagree.

David Lawrence, a professor at the North Carolina Institute of Government at UNC Chapel Hill, says that explanation doesn't hold water.

He said that meetings where public bodies deliberate, vote, hold hearings or transact other business under their jurisdiction should be open and full notice should be given.

“Even if this trip doesn’t constitute deliberation, it would seem to me to constitute that 'other business of the public body’,” Lawrence said. And deliberation is defined rather broadly, Lawrence said, so two of the four triggers may apply, he said.

Amanda Martin, General Counsel to the North Carolina press association, had a more direct reaction when told of the explaination for not advertising: “I just think that’s hogwash.”

She continues: “They’re going on a trip to gather information that will influence their decision making. You don’t get much more of a public purpose than that,” said Amanda Martin, General Counsel to the North Carolina Press Association. “It don’t have any question that qualifies as a public meeting.”

What should have happened? Because their trip qualifies as a public meeting, the commission should have at least posted a notice on their regular meeting place - a conference room in the Department of Administration building on Jones Street in Raleigh. Better, they should have circulated an e-mail to interested parties, as they have done with all other meeting notices.

That would have been simple and painfully easy.

What's the consequence to the commission of all this? Not much.

If the group were to take some sort of official action or come to a decision on something, any citizen of North Carolina could sue to void that action and force them revote in public. And if someone was really feeling snippy, they could go to court Thursday and sue to stop them from taking the trip/meeting because it wasn't properly advertised.

I don't expect either of those things to happen. In fact, I'm fairly sure this trip is on the up and up and that the commission members are acting on the best advice of those available to counsel them.

But I'm equally sure that if five or more commissioners are trooping around all in the same place Friday, they will be in violation of the state's open meetings law, which isn't a good precedent to set.

If you think I’m just being a jerk, let me know in the comments section below.