Graham faces transparency questions over closed session on mayor review

Residents were shut out of a closed-door review of Mayor Chelsea Dickey, even though North Carolina law says a council member’s performance must be discussed in open session.

The issue surfaced after Dickey asked Tuesday night to pull an item from the consent agenda when details emerged that the April 14 closed session, added at councilman Jim Young’s request, was not a routine personnel meeting but a review of her performance. Dickey said the discussion should not have been sealed because it involved a member of the governing body rather than a permissible personnel matter.

North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11 is clear on that point. A public body may not consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, appointment or removal of a member of the public body, or of another body, in closed session. The law does allow closed sessions for certain individual personnel matters, but general personnel policy issues may not be discussed behind closed doors.

City attorney Bob Ward suggested the matter should instead be handled in another closed session later that evening, one reserved for a separate lawsuit involving the city of Mebane. City manager Megan Garner also said she had not waived confidentiality regarding her personnel file.

The dispute landed in the open just as Graham was preparing to approve the April 14 regular-meeting minutes and closed-session minutes on the May 12 council agenda. The April 14 agenda packet had been publicly posted, and the timeline now shows how a discussion that began in private became part of the city’s official record.

From the podium, Alamance News publisher Tom Boney Jr. raised his own concern, warning that discussion of any council member would not qualify for closed-session protection. That warning goes to the heart of the issue facing Graham City Hall: whether the city made an isolated mistake or whether it is struggling with a broader pattern of secrecy around internal conflict and leadership review.

The city’s public-policy statement says North Carolina public bodies exist to conduct the people’s business openly. Graham’s regular council meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 201 South Main Street, Graham. The current council roster listed in the city’s spring and summer 2026 CITYgram includes Dickey, Mayor Pro Tem Ricky Hall, Bobby Chin, Bonnie Whitaker and Jim Young.

Dickey’s city biography says she is a Graham resident with more than 10 years of experience in community development and downtown revitalization. In a town where council business is supposed to stay public, the handling of her review has become a test of whether city hall can match its procedures to the law it is sworn to follow.