THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, April 16, 1995                 TAG: 9504160075
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3A  EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: Mason Peters
                                             LENGTH: Short :   30 lines

LAW OUTLINES RULES FOR OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS PERSONNEL ISSUES DURING CLOSED SESSIONS

Nearly every full meeting of the Northeast Economic Development Commission ends with a closed session, when the members discuss certain matters privately.

Most closed meetings are called because the members say they want to consider proposed personnel changes. In 1994 the General Assembly amended the state's ``open meetings'' law and included the following provision:

``A public body may not consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, appointment, or removal of a member of the public body or another body and may not consider or fill a vacancy among its own membership except in an open meeting.''

The revised statute also requires that detailed minutes or recordings of all closed sessions must be kept.

The new law further states that ``minutes of a closed session . . . may be witheld from public inspection so long as public inspection would frustrate the purpose of a closed session.'' by CNB