Do North Carolina's rural telephone membership corporations (the cooperative-style entities that provide phone service in many rural counties) have to follow the state's Open Meetings Law?

Plain-English summary

A General Assembly staff attorney asked whether telephone membership corporations established under Article 4 of Chapter 117 must follow North Carolina's Open Meetings Law. The Attorney General's office answered yes.

The opinion relied on two statutes. G.S. § 143-318.10 defines a public body to include a qualifying body of a political subdivision or public corporation that has at least two members and exercises a listed governmental function. G.S. § 117-33 declares an Article 4 telephone membership corporation a public agency with the same rights, within its limits, as another political subdivision of the state. Reading those provisions together, the opinion concluded that these corporations are public bodies subject to the Open Meetings Law. It also cited G.S. § 143-318.9's policy that public business should be conducted in open meetings.

The opinion did not analyze electric membership corporations, public-records requests, particular meeting procedures, or remedies for a violation.

Currency note

This conclusion concerns the statutes as they stood in 1996. Check current Chapter 117 and the Open Meetings Law for a present governance question.

Common questions

Does the opinion cover every kind of membership corporation?

No. Its question and conclusion concern telephone membership corporations established under Article 4 of Chapter 117.

Why did the opinion treat a telephone membership corporation as a public body?

It pointed to the statutory declaration that such a corporation is a public agency with the rights of a political subdivision, then applied the Open Meetings Law's broad public-body definition.

Did the opinion decide whether electric membership corporations are covered too?

No. It did not analyze those entities or their enabling statutes.

Source

• Landing page: https://ncdoj.gov/opinions/open-meetings-law-telephone-membership-corporations-established/

Citations

• Article 33C of Chapter 143 (Open Meetings Law)
• Article 4 of Chapter 117 (Telephone Membership Corporations)
• N.C.G.S. § 117-33
• N.C.G.S. § 143-318.9
• N.C.G.S. § 143-318.10

Original opinion text

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 political 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