What is going on with the Highlands board of commissioners?
It’s a fair question.
Following a January virtual board meeting that is best described as “disjointed,” the board finds itself the topic of conversation in multiple circles from local coffee shops to Georgia law offices.
While tense conversations and general angst among board members is nothing new to local government, Highlands’ January meeting didn’t just feature some bad blood. It also featured a formal request from the NC Broadband Group, and its Georgia-based legal counsel, asking the town to terminate negotiations with broadband network administrator Hotwire Communications due to what NCBG says were improper bidding practices. Town attorney Jay Coward has since responded that the town acted within its legal rights and that confidential information discussed during a closed session of the board was leaked to a competing bidder by a “public official.”
What is more concerning than an unapproved bidder knowing information about an attachment to the accepted bid, is how the unapproved bidder found out that info.
As Coward pointed out in a letter to the town board members and town administrators, the information in question was discussed during a closed session of the board in December. There were no public records with that information available at the time NCBG issued its letter.
That most likely means a party involved in the closed session leaked the privileged information to NCBG or an associated entity. It’s a short list of people who typically attend closed sessions – usually Coward, the mayor, town manager, town clerk, five commissioners and potentially a town department head directly involved in whatever topic is being discussed.
If someone did in fact leak information discussed under the attorney-client privilege to a business bidding on a contract, that act is despicable and certainly not in the best interest of the Town of Highlands.
Coward called it, in his opinion, “a violation of the Oath of Office in the North Carolina Constitution.” It’s the kind of black eye that takes a long time to heal.