AN ACT ALLOWing pasquotank county TO DISCLOSE LIMITED PERSONNEL INFORMATION TO THE MEMBERS OF THE pasquotank county CITIZENs' advisory council TO FACILITATE ITS REVIEW OF DISCIPLINARY Charges involving sheriff's deputies.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Notwithstanding G.S. 153A‑98, in order to facilitate citizen review of the disciplinary process in the Office of the Pasquotank County Sheriff, it is hereby authorized that the Sheriff, or the Sheriff's designee, may release the disposition of disciplinary charges against a Sheriff's deputy and the facts relied upon in determining the disposition to (i) members of the Citizens' Advisory Council (hereinafter Council) to review the disciplinary process and (ii) the person alleged to have been aggrieved by the deputy's action or the person's survivor. Each member of the Council shall execute and adhere to a confidentiality agreement and shall keep confidential all information released to them that is not a matter of public record under G.S. 153A‑98 or this section, and any person who violates the confidentiality shall be prosecuted as prescribed in G.S. 153A‑98(e) and (f). For purposes of this act, the disposition of disciplinary charges includes determinations that the charges are sustained, not sustained, unfounded, exonerated, classified as an information file, or classified as any other disciplinary disposition category subsequently adopted by the county. In the event that the Council hears an appeal of a disciplinary case as authorized by this act, the disposition of disciplinary charges, as defined in this act, as well as the facts and circumstances of the case, may be released by the county manager or the Sheriff to any person whose presence is necessary to the appeals hearing as determined by the Sheriff, and that person shall keep confidential all information that is not a matter of public record under G.S. 153A‑98 or this section, and any person who violates the confidentiality shall be prosecuted as prescribed in G.S. 153A‑98(e) and (f). In addition, the facts and circumstances of the case shall be made available to the deputy.

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.