Steve Mensing, Editor
♦On Tuesday evening at 6 P.M. the Rowan County Commissioners met in a special closed session with their attorneys from the National Center for Life and Liberty at the Rowan County Building in downtown Salisbury. Commission Chairman Jim Sides informed the Rowan Free Press that the two groups met to discuss strategies, arguments central to the case, and updates critical to the commissioners defense in the future American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) trial. Affidavits will be filed on behalf of each commissioner. Commissioner Sides said, ”We met for a little over 2 hours in discussion and familiarized ourselves with details. It was a very good meeting. All I can disclose at this time is that no votes were taken and some motions will be filed in the near future that will meet the April 30th deadline. In the next few days some discussion will take place about the formation of a financial committee to fund our legal teams. Beyond that there’s nothing official to report.”
The closed session was held in accordance with General Statute 143-318.11 (a)(3) for attorney-client privileged communication related to the lawsuit filed by Nancy Lund, Liesa Montag-Seigel, and Robert Voelker as Plaintiffs versus Rowan County, North Carolina as Defendant. Tuesday evening’s meeting was the third such closed door session. The first two involved the hiring of lead defense attorney David C Gibbs III and the initial 5-0 commissioner vote to oppose the suit filed by the ACLU. Recently, the Rowan County 5′s legal team was granted an extension to file motions and prepare arguments. The 5 Rowan County Commissioners are Jim Sides, Craig Pierce, Chad Mitchell, Mike Caskey, and John Barber.
