September 12, 1996
William R. Gilkeson, Staff Attorney North Carolina General Assembly Legislative Services Agency Legislative Building Raleigh, North Carolina 27602
RE: Advisory Opinion; Open Meetings Law, Article 33C of Chapter 143; Telephone Membership Corporations Established Pursuant to Article 4 of Chapter 117
Dear Bill:
You ask our opinion whether a telephone membership corporation established pursuant to Article 4 of Chapter 117 of the General Statutes is subject to the Open Meetings Law, Article 33C of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes.
For reasons which follow, such telephone membership corporations are subject to the Open Meetings Law.
It is the public policy of the state that the business of the state and its political subdivisions is the public’s business, and meetings wherein the business of the state is conducted should be open to the public. N.C.G.S. §143-318.9. Therefore, the Open Meetings Law requires that meetings of public bodies are, for the most part, open to the public.
N.C.G.S. §143-318.10 defines a "public body" as any elected or appointed authority, board, commission, council, or other body of the state, or of one or more counties, cities, school administrative units, constitute institutions of The University of North Carolina, or other political subdivisions or public corporations in the state that (i) is composed of two or more members and
(ii) exercises or is authorized to exercise a legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, or advisory function.
Article 4 of Chapter 117 of the General Statutes sets forth the purpose and method of
establishing telephone membership corporations. Within Article 4 is N.C.G.S. §117-33, which
provides in pertinent part that "(a) telephone membership corporation heretofore or hereafter
organized under this Article shall be, and is hereby declared to be a public agency, and shall
have within its limits for which it was formed the same rights as any other political subdivision
of the state . . . ." It is clear, therefore, that the General Assembly intended that telephone
membership corporations established pursuant to Article 4 of Chapter 117 are public bodies and
poliltical subdivisions of the state. Because of the very broad definition of a public body set forth
in N.C.G.S. §143-318.10(b), telephone membership corporations established pursuant to Article
4 of Chapter 117 are public bodies subject to the Open Meetings Law.
Andrew A. Vanore, Jr.
Chief Deputy Attorney General