A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to require that larger counties and municipalities make recordings of closed sessions.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 143‑318.10(e) reads as rewritten:
"(e)	Every public body shall keep full and accurate minutes of all official meetings, including any closed sessions held pursuant to G.S. 143‑318.11. Such minutes may be in written form or, at the option of the public body, may be in the form of sound or video and sound recordings. When a public body meets in closed session, it shall keep a general account of the closed session so that a person not in attendance would have a reasonable understanding of what transpired. Such accounts may be a written narrative, or video or audio recordings. Such minutes and accounts shall be public records within the meaning of the Public Records Law, G.S. 132‑1 et seq.; provided, however, that minutes or an account of a closed session conducted in compliance with G.S. 143‑318.11 may be withheld from public inspection so long as public inspection would frustrate the purpose of a closed session. When a public body meets in closed session, it shall make a sound or video and sound recording of that session, which may be withheld from public inspection so long as public inspection would frustrate the purpose of a closed session; provided, this sentence applies only to municipalities with a population of 50,000 or more according to the most recent decennial federal census and to counties with a population of 50,000 or more according to the most recent decennial federal census."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2009.