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SBI Investigates Secret Recordings Made At North Carolina Town Hall

By The Raleigh Telegram

Saturday, July 10, 2010

ORIENTAL, NC - In this small village in Pamlico County in eastern North Carolina, you’re very likely to hear people talk about the latest sailboat traveling down the Intracoastal Waterway to dock at the town harbor or the fishing conditions on the Neuse River.

However in the past few months, the town has also been abuzz with discussions about the firing of the town manager, a $21,000 investigation by an attorney hired by the town, and the revelation that secret recordings were made at the town hall.

At the request of town officials and a local district attorney, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether some recordings that were made at a town hall were illegal.

Jennifer Canada of the NC Department of Justice confirmed to The Telegram that the SBI is indeed conducting an investigation.

Earlier this year, Town Manager Randy Cahoon, a former New Bern hairdresser who later received a degree in public administration, was fired from the town by the Oriental town commission.

Tales of Cahoon and other town hall employees clashing on issues have been going on for months and citizens in the town have been taking sides on the issue.

Cahoon, who was paid six months salary as severance pay, is now suing the town for what he claims was a wrongful dismissal.

During discussions about these personnel conflicts, town officials confirmed in open meetings that some secret recordings were made in the town hall. However, it is not known exactly who made them nor has it been officially disclosed by the town as to why they were made.

According to an elected town official who did not wish to disclose their identity for this article, the computer is now in the hands of the SBI and the investigation is continuing.

In a letter that was released earlier this year after a public information request from The Pamlico News, the town asked the local district attorney to investigate the matter.

The SBI was later brought in to investigate at the request of Pamlico County and Craven District Attorney Scott Thomas.

The public official who discussed the case with The Telegram also added that the recordings were made in the main office area of the town hall, using a device normally used to record the town meetings that was connected to a computer.

The recordings were made earlier this year in 2010 and were not made directly inside the town manager’s office, said the source, but in the open area where other desks are located and where the public enters the building to conduct town business.

A reporter with The County Compass weekly newspaper in Pamlico County told the Telegram that Oriental Mayor Bill Sage commented on the issue during the town’s meeting on Tuesday night, confirming that the investigation is ongoing.

Earlier this year, a local news website called Towndock.net alleged that one of the website’s owners who serves as a reporter at town meetings, Melinda Penkava, had been one of the people that were secretly taped. However, that has not been confirmed as the contents of the recordings have not been made public.

An attempt to reach Ms. Penkava by email for comment and to ascertain how she knew the contents of the recordings was not successful.

One of the town commissioners also has stated to the Telegram that members of the public and even some town officials were recorded without their knowledge and that some of the recordings were erased, but that has not been confirmed either.

Raleigh Telegram publisher Randall Gregg, who helped The Pamlico News in 2009 as a newspaper consultant, had publicly asked the town in recent weeks to confirm or deny whether his conversations at town hall were also recorded last year.

Gregg said that recent disclosures this week by a town official that the recordings took place in 2010 reveal that he could not have been taped as he only helped the Oriental newspaper through August of 2009.

North Carolina Press Association President Beth Grace recently commented to The Raleigh Telegram that any recordings of conversations with journalists without their knowledge should be frowned upon.

“It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It’s a very bad idea for any government worker or official to record any member of the public – reporter or otherwise -- without their knowledge,” she said in a statement to The Raleigh Telegram. “Local governments exist to serve the public, not spy on them.”

The heart of the investigation is likely to focus on the legal distinction in North Carolina law between taping third parties and taping conversations in which you are a participant.

According to North Carolina general statute § 15A-287, it is a Class H felony to tape or record third parties without their knowledge or consent if they are having a conversation in which you are not participating.

In addition, according to NCGS § 15A-287, anyone who works for town or state governments who makes such recordings is required to be fired, even if they are elected.

“Any public officer who shall violate subsection (a) or (d) of this section or who shall knowingly violate subsection (e) of this section shall be removed from any public office he may hold and shall thereafter be ineligible to hold any public office, whether elective or appointed,” says the statute.

However, under the state statutes, it is perfectly legal to secretly record a conversation in North Carolina if you are one of the participants in the conversation, even if you do not disclose it to the other parties in the conversation.

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