NCACC kicks off series of six district meetings on April 8

Ethics training to be held in conjunction with three district meetings

In addition to a legislative update, the NCACC's April district meetings will include an opportunity for county officials to learn about issues impacting youths from local students who will participate in the meetings. Lessons learned from the exercises will set the stage for the NCACC's Annual Conference, which will be held Aug. 26-29 in Pitt County and will feature a youth-oriented theme.

Three of those six district meetings will include a two-hour seminar on ethics that will help county officials meet a new statutory requirement. Those district meetings are scheduled for April 13 in Haywood County, April 14 in Cleveland County and April 21 in Beaufort County. Separate registration is required for the ethics training (available online at www.ncacc.org/ethicstraining_2010.html) and the district meetings (online at www.ncacc.org/districtmeetings_2010.html). The ethics training will be offered from 1:15 – 3:30 p.m. All district meetings will run from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. and will include dinner.

The remaining district meetings will be held April 8 in Halifax County, April 22 in Duplin County and April 27 in Forsyth County.

Ethics training will also be offered in conjunction with three N.C. League of Municipalities district meetings and a School of Government webinar scheduled for March 25. There is no charge to attend the ethics training seminars held in conjunction with the NCACC and NCLM district meetings.

NCLM district meetings to be held April 15 in Columbus County, April 15 in Randolph County and April 20 in Johnston County will include the training. The ethics training will be held from 1:15 – 3:30 p.m. For more information on the NCLM offerings, visit www.nclm.org/2010ethicstraining.htm.

For commissioners who cannot attend a training session in person, the School of Government is hosting an ethics training webinar on March 25 from 4 – 6 p.m. For information on the webinar, visit www.sog.unc.edu/courses/0688/.

Session Law 2009-403 (H1452) requires governing boards of cities, counties, local boards of education, unified governments, sanitary districts, and consolidated city-counties to adopt a resolution or policy containing a code of ethics and to receive two hours of ethics training by Jan. 1, 2011.

The School of Government spearheaded a committee to draft a model code of ethics, and at press time for this issue of CountyLines, the model code was being printed. It was scheduled to be made available for purchase on the School's Web site, www.sog.unc.edu, at the end of March, and back from the printer in mid-April.

NCACC Deputy Director Patrice Roesler and Legislative Counsel Jim Blackburn participated on the committee, which was convened by School of Government faculty member Fleming Bell.