The Lee County Board of Commissioners voted Monday night to release the full memo sent by County Attorney Neil Yarborough to the commissioners warning them of the potential “legal problems” associated with a town hall public meeting held earlier this month in the gated Carolina Trace community in Sanford.

The Rant obtained a copy of this memo with the names redacted last week.

The memo, of course, proves that commissioners were made aware of the fact that an open meeting isn’t entirely “open” when the public is either kept out because of a gate or asked to provide a name or any other information in order to attend. The meeting was advertised as the first of potentially many “town hall” meetings, but as the Rant reported, the attendee and speaker list more resembled that of a GOP rally than a public meeting.

The full, uncensored memo is below.

On a related note, N.C. Policy Watch reported on the Rant’s reporting of “Trace-gate” (get it … it’s a “gated” community? … nevermind) on its Progressive Pulse blog today. CHECK IT OUT. The story coincides nicely with Sunshine Week.

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