Graham’s city council held a closed session at the end of its monthly meeting last week and for the second time in the past four months it did so without mayor Jennifer Talley.
Talley asked to be recused ahead of the vote to go into closed session, and the council unanimously agreed to her request.
The stated purpose of the closed session was to consult with an attorney.
Only one of the city’s two attorneys was pre-sent, Bryan Coleman, and he accompanied the four remaining council members to a conference room nearby while Talley waited in the council chambers.
The council spent about 15 minutes behind closed doors, then returned to the council chambers with no announcement about their discussion, and adjourned.
Coleman assured Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr., present to cover the meeting for the newspaper, that pending litigation was not the purpose for the attorney consultation. The North Carolina Open Meetings Law requires that public bodies disclose which case(s) they expect to receive advice about during any closed meeting with their attorney(s).
When the council returned, Boney also pressed whether the council had discussed any “general policy matters,” a category of discussion specifically prohibited by the North Carolina Open Meetings Law. He was assured by both council members and Coleman that they had not.
Interviewed during the closed session, Talley said she assumed that the reason for her absence was “because she owns property downtown.”
She also said that she had not known the closed session would be on the council’s agenda. It was the last item on an agenda, the public portion of which had lasted more than three-and-a-half hours.
The council last held a closed session without Talley on September 10 when it also spent about 15 minutes with its attorneys, both Coleman and Bob Ward. Ward was not present for the open or closed portions of last week’s Graham city council meeting.
