Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
The Mountain Xpress reports that four Asheville City Council members – Esther Manheimer, Bill Russell, Gordon Smith and Brownie Newman – went over to nearby Pack’s Tavern to have a drink and a chat after Tuesday’s council meeting. Xpress rightly questions whether or not the council members violated the North Carolina Open Meetings Law. The law requires that a public body notify the public if a quorum of the public group is meeting to discuss business.
The law allows a quorum of a public body to gather for social occasions, and when confronted about their meeting, the group said it was not discussing business, according to Xpress.
That may be true, but Manheimer, Russell, Smith and Newman should take the spirit of the law to heart and do more than just assure a passing reporter. After all, these folks just left a busy meeting. Do they really want us to believe that they never once talked over an issue from their recent meeting? The reassurance sounds awfully arrogant, and there’s pretty much nothing I despise more than an arrogant politician.
If four or more council members plan to get together and socialize, they should announce their meeting to the public. That way, any question of impropriety can be deflected.
The Buncombe County commissioners faced this issues several years back. The commissioners used to leave their meetings and get together for drinks and food at the steakhouse that used to sit at the corner of Montford Avenue, where the Asheville Chamber of Commerce building is now. The meetings had the appearance of shady, backroom dealing. Gadfly Jerry Rice called them on it, and the board adopted a policy – if the group was planning to convene at the steakhouse, they announced it at the end of their regular meeting.
That’s a good policy. Asheville City Council – shape up and do the right thing.
Gordon Smith
July 13th, 2010 at 12:05 am
The Planning and Zoning Committee will meet on July 22nd at 4pm at City Hall to consider alteration in the UDO to allow for increased density on corridors and in neighborhoods.
Please attend and offer your input!
CORRECTION: ACTUALLY IT IS JULY 22ND WHEN CITY COUNCIL WILL PASS THIS ACT AND MAKE IT LAW.
I think if they were going to do "shady, backroom deals", the very public Pack’s Tavern isn’t the place they would choose. Give them a break.
June 10, 2010 | Jarrod
Jarrod, don’t you realize that without "shady backroom deals" the Pack Tavern would not even exist? Expect to call it the Pack Condo project within 5 to 10 years if the economy recovers "Go Stewie" (either smarter than the entire city government or just rich enough to buy em!)
Silly public, after the vote on July 27th we will finally get to build whatever we want, wherever we want without the silly public input. We all know that Asheville will only be great when we can build more and much larger structures so we can be like Atlanta and New York. Good thing this City Council knows that bigger is better and only by building to overshadow all this stupid existing architecture and neighborhood infrastructure will we survive. Hooray for City Council passing the “right to build bigger” act or whatever it is called on July 27th. It will go in place fast since no one else really knows what it is or that it is coming. Build it big enough to tip the earth, screw this “neighborhood character” defense. Build them 100 stories or more, ANYWHERE and screw the NIMBY’s! Put workforce housing on EVERY block and make this city really great, they cannot stop this! We will develope every square inch of this city and make it affordable for EVERYONE !
who cares what the nutjobs do – or more accurately – don’t do. was brother christopher there? the assville drunks could care less! Assville + Drunk City USA! IDIOTS!
Yep, I was there and the first thing Esther said was "I couldn’t wait to get outta there and tell you guys how I really feel about Larchmont…"
I think if they were going to do "shady, backroom deals", the very public Pack’s Tavern isn’t the place they would choose. Give them a break.
The council members must have talked about letting MHO run rough shod over the Larchmont neighbors in one-to-one or two-by-two groups to get around the open meetings law, since the decision was obviously made before they listened (or didn’t listen) to the neighbors’ concerns.
Wow, what’s the big deal about them having a beer after the meeting? I actually see it as a good sign that they’d want to hang out and have a beer together. Heck, even if they were talking business, I’ll bet chatting about stuff over beer is a lot more productive than arguing about it in a meeting.
Lighten up people.
You ever sit through an entire City Council meeting? Let them have a beer and leave ’em alone.
Good advice. It’s not necessarily the proof of impropriety but the appearance that creates the conditions for concern. Same holds true for conflicts of interest. Appearances and perceptions make or break credibility, which is an essential qualification for good government.