Orange County NC Website
3 . Senate Bill 844 . This bill will require narrative <br /> written accounts or audio or video taped accounts of closed <br /> sessions . The "account" would be a public record although it <br /> could be withheld from public inspection if making it public <br /> would frustrate the purpose of the closed session. This bill <br /> intends to overrule a recent Supreme Court decision allowing a <br /> generalized account of closed sessions as part of the n;inutes of <br /> a Board meeting. If enacted into law, this requirement of an <br /> "account" of the closed session likely will have a chilling <br /> effect on Board members ' willingness to openly discuss matters <br /> which are sensitive and therefore are afforded, by the Open <br /> Meetings Law, closed session status . <br /> 4 . House Bill 949 . This bill effects the medical, <br /> hospital and any other records, including DSS investigatory <br /> records, of a child who is killed as the result of suspected <br /> abuse or neglect . These records in the custody of government <br /> agencies will be public records if House Bill 949 is enacted into <br /> law. Under present law a court can open these confidential <br /> records to inspection under certain circumstances . House Bill <br /> 949 would place the burden on the public agency to seek a court <br /> order to protegt the confidentiality of the child records . In <br /> addition to the privacy concerns, this bill likely will cost <br /> counties . It will force the local department of social services <br /> and the local health department to choose between protecting the <br /> privacy of the deceased children in question knowing that the <br /> privacy option will cost money, and, knowing that a decision not <br /> 2 <br />