WRAL: EDUCATION Student newspaper says secret negotiations leading to ‘Silent Sam’ deal broke NC law
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Daily Tar Heel student newspaper has sued the UNC Board of Governors over the Silent Sam bribe. The lawsuit alleges that the BOG violated the North Carolina Open Meetings Law by making secret deals with the white supremacist group behind closed doors without any public acknowledgment.
Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour said last month that he is rethinking his approval of the deal, questioning whether the SCV had the legal right to enter into the agreements. No date has been set for the hearing he wants to hold on the matter.
Under an agreement Baddour approved on Nov. 27, the SCV agreed to take ownership of the “Silent Sam” statue, which stood for more than a century on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus before protesters toppled it in August 2018, and build a center to preserve it. The university agreed to put $2.5 million into a trust to help defray the costs of the new center.
Separately, UNC-Chapel Hill paid the SCV nearly $75,000 so it wouldn’t display Confederate flags or similar banners on any UNC system campus during any meetings or demonstrations for five years.
The BOG should be reprimanded for giving hush money to a white supremacist group without North Carolinians awareness. The BOG violated a North Carolina law and should be questioned for their covert actions.