Between October 1998 and July 1, 1999, were the ex officio members of the NC Child Fatality Task Force allowed to vote on Task Force matters?

Plain-English summary

Thomas Bennett at the NC Child Fatality Task Force needed to know who could vote at the next meeting. The General Assembly had recently passed two bills with overlapping but inconsistent rules about ex officio members. Bennett wanted a clear answer before the Task Force took up substantive matters.

General Counsel Andrew A. Vanore, Jr. parsed the legislative history. The Task Force operated under G.S. § 143-573 (under Chapter 143's general government provisions). Section 143-573(c) provided that all members (including ex officio members) could vote. That had been the rule for some time.

Then came two bills in close succession:

• Senate Bill 1260 (Session Law 1998-202), enacted October 22, 1998 and signed into law October 27, 1998. Section 6 added new Chapter 7B to the General Statutes, which recodified large portions of the juvenile code and child welfare laws. The new Chapter 7B included § 7B-1402, which limited ex officio voting on the Task Force: only the Chief Medical Examiner among the ex officio members could vote on Task Force matters. Section 37(b) of S.B. 1260 set the effective date of Chapter 7B at July 1, 1999.

• Senate Bill 1366 (Session Law 1998-212), ratified October 28, 1998 (six days after S.B. 1260) and signed into law October 30, 1998. Section 12.44, effective July 1, 1998, retained the existing rule under G.S. § 143-573(c) that all members (including ex officio) could vote.

The two enactments did not actually conflict; they simply had different effective dates. Until July 1, 1999, the older § 143-573(c) regime was operative. On and after July 1, 1999, the new § 7B-1402 regime kicked in. The AG laid the dates out cleanly:

• October 1998 through June 30, 1999: all members (including all ex officio members) may vote.
• July 1, 1999 onward: among ex officio members, only the Chief Medical Examiner may vote.

The opinion was short. The legislature had created the timing puzzle but had not actually created an irreconcilable conflict. The two acts read together produced a clear timeline, and the AG simply restated it for the Task Force's operational benefit.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1998. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here. The Child Fatality Task Force's governance has been amended multiple times since 1999, and the ex officio voting roster has been adjusted.

Background and statutory framework

The NC Child Fatality Task Force. Created in the 1990s in response to growing recognition that child deaths from preventable causes were under-investigated, the Task Force gathered representatives from many state agencies and child-serving programs to review patterns and recommend policy responses. Its members included agency heads (ex officio) and appointed members from various sectors.

Ex officio versus appointed members. Ex officio means "by virtue of office." An agency head who serves on a task force ex officio is on the body because of the office held, not because of a personal appointment. Whether ex officio members can vote is a recurring design choice for advisory bodies. Some are voting, some are non-voting observers, and the line is set by the enabling statute.

The pre-1999 rule under § 143-573(c). Section 143-573 was the Task Force's original enabling statute. Subsection (c) listed the members and provided that all could vote. This was the rule that had been in effect.

The Chapter 7B recodification. In 1998, the General Assembly undertook a major recodification of the juvenile code and related child-welfare statutes into a new Chapter 7B. The recodification was substantively far-reaching and took until July 1, 1999 to take effect to give agencies time to prepare. Among the substantive changes was a tightening of ex officio voting on the Task Force, retaining the Chief Medical Examiner's vote but converting other ex officio members to non-voting status.

The S.B. 1366 cleanup. S.B. 1366 was passed six days after S.B. 1260 and contained a section (12.44) that retained the existing § 143-573(c) regime. Without § 12.44, the question would have been even thornier (S.B. 1260's effective date of July 1, 1999 left an arguable gap between October 1998 and that date). S.B. 1366 confirmed that the existing rule remained in effect through June 30, 1999.

The harmonization principle. When the legislature enacts two seemingly inconsistent provisions in the same session, the standard interpretive move is to harmonize them where possible. Different effective dates are a clean harmonization tool. The earlier-effective-date provision (§ 143-573(c) per S.B. 1366) governs until the later-effective-date provision (§ 7B-1402 per S.B. 1260) kicks in. Both can have full effect on their own timeline.

The Chief Medical Examiner carve-out. The decision to keep the Chief Medical Examiner as a voting ex officio member while making other ex officios non-voting was substantive. The Chief Medical Examiner brought direct technical expertise to fatality reviews. The legislature evidently judged that vote worth preserving while removing the votes of other ex officio members whose role was more representational.

Common questions

Q: Could the Task Force adopt a recommendation between October 1998 and June 1999 using ex officio votes?

A: Yes. Under the AG's reading, all members (including ex officio) could vote during that window.

Q: After July 1, 1999, which ex officio members lost the vote?

A: All ex officio members except the Chief Medical Examiner.

Q: Did appointed (non-ex-officio) members lose any voting rights?

A: No. The amendment affected ex officio voting only. Appointed members continued to vote.

Q: Did the AG say what happened to past votes that included ex officio voting?

A: Past votes were valid under the law in effect at the time. The amendment was prospective.

Q: Could the Task Force have changed its voting rules on its own?

A: No. Voting rules were statutory.

Q: Where did the new § 7B-1402 sit in the recodified juvenile code?

A: Chapter 7B, Subchapter XIV (the Child Fatality Prevention System provisions). The recodification grouped child welfare and juvenile justice statutes into one chapter.

Citations from the opinion

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-573(c)
• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7B-1402
• Session Law 1998-202 (Senate Bill 1260), §§ 6, 37(b)
• Session Law 1998-212 (Senate Bill 1366), § 12.44

Source

• Landing page: https://ncdoj.gov/opinions/nc-child-fatality-task-force-ex-officio-members-as-voting-members-of-the-task-force/

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from the NCDOJ landing page; the opening paragraphs were not in the scraped capture, so the text below begins where the capture starts. The linked landing page is authoritative.

• N.C. Child Fatality Task Force
• P. O. Box 29597 Raleigh, North Carolina 27626-0597

RE: Advisory Opinion; N.C. Child Fatality Task Force; Ex Officio Members as Voting Members of the Task Force; N.C.G.S. § 143-573 (c); Senate Bill 1260 (Session Law 1998-202); Senate Bill 1366 (Session Law 1998-212)

Dear Mr. Bennett:

You ask whether ex officio members of the N.C. Child Fatality Task Force may vote.

For reasons which follow, all ex officio members of the Task Force may vote on all matters until July 1, 1999. Thereafter, the Chief Medical Examiner is the only ex officio member who is entitled to vote on matters coming before the Task Force.

Senate Bill 1260 (Session Law 1998-202) was enacted by the General Assembly October 22, 1998, and signed into law by the Governor on October 27, 1998. Section 6 of Senate Bill 1260 added a new Chapter 7B, which among other things changed the structure of the N.C. Child Fatality Task Force. One change is reflected in N.C.G.S. § 7B-1402, which does not become effective until July 1, 1999. That change is to prohibit all ex officio members of the Task Force from voting on matters before the Task Force, except the Chief Medical Examiner. As provided in Section 37 (b) of Senate Bill 1260, the new Chapter 7B, which includes N.C.G.S. § 7B-1402, goes into effect July 1, 1999.

Senate Bill 1366 (Session Law 1998-212) was ratified by the General Assembly on October 28, 1998, six days after Senate Bill 1260, and signed into law by the Governor on October 30, 1998. Section 12.44 of Senate Bill 1366, which became effective July 1, 1998, reflects the present status of the law that all members of the Task Force, including ex officio members, may vote. See, N.C.G.S. § 143-573(c). When Chapter 7B becomes law on July 1, 1999, the Chief Medical Examiner will be the only ex officio member of the Task Force entitled to vote.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.

signed by:

Andrew A. Vanore, Jr., General Counsel