01.08.05
Councilmen accused of using PDAs
N.C. councilmen accused of using PDAs to violate open-meeting law
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Two town council members have been accused of violating open-meetings laws by using electronic devices to communicate during board meetings.
Mike Gering and Eric Hallman used personal digital assistants, or PDAs, to send messages during meetings, according to Paul Newton, chairman of the Hillsborough Planning Board.
Their “communication of text messages over their PDAs during official town meetings represents a certain level of disrespect to their peers on the town board and the citizens of Hillsborough,” Newton said. “Their actions may be considered unethical and, at the very worst, be considered illegal or fraudulent.”
Hallman and Gering said they tried to use the devices, but they didn’t work.
“It crashes all the time,” Hallman said. “It was just more playing with the technology. Mine crashes every time I try to use it.”
“Eric and I have the same PDA and we attempted once, maybe twice, to see if they could communicate, but we couldn’t make it work so, no, we don’t communicate during board meetings with the PDAs,” Gering said.
Funny. Saved by the fact that their PDAs suck.