If Brunswick County can do it, every municipality can do it.

Every town in Brunswick County should be required to maintain an easily searchable online archive of its Planning Board and Board of Commissioners agendas, minutes, supporting documents, applications, staff reports, maps and development approvals. Not just the current year. Years of records. Because development decisions don't disappear when the meeting ends. A subdivision approved five years ago can still be affecting residents today. A rezoning can change traffic, drainage, wetlands, school demand and infrastructure for decades. Yet in some municipalities, a resident trying to understand how that decision was made may not even be able to find the minutes online. Meanwhile, other government agencies have increasingly sophisticated digital systems for reviewing the consequences of those decisions. To me, that's backwards. The public shouldn't need a public-records request to reconstruct its own government's history. If the county can maintain an accessible online record, every municipality should be able to do the same. And they should base it off of the one the county uses. Honestly, this shouldn't be controversial. No one is asking for special treatment. I'm asking for the basic ability to see what our elected and appointed officials did, when they did it, and why. We are in the same county. The same public. We need the same standard of transparency for everyone. Share this post if you agree! Share Subscribe to support the work ♥️ Subscribe