SALISBURY — Rowan commissioners will hold a third closed meeting Tuesday to discuss a lawsuit filed against the county last month over opening county meetings with sectarian prayer.
Commission Vice Chairman Craig Pierce said county leaders aren’t expected to vote following the closed session. The meeting is expected to update commissioners on the suit’s status.
“It’s just simply a closed meeting to meet with the attorneys,” Pierce said. “There’s no voting going to be done. They’re just coming up from Florida to go over the arguments that they’re going to have for our case.”
Commissioners had two closed meetings last month — once to vote on fighting the action filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three Rowan residents and again a week later to hire defense attorney David C. Gibbs III.
Other jurists, like Fayetteville lawyer David Neier, also have rallied to commissioners’ defense.
In a phone interview last week, Neier, who will serve as a local defense counsel, said attorneys had been awarded an extension to file motions and prepare arguments.
The county will meet Tuesday in the second-floor J. Newton Cohen Jr. room at 130 W. Innes St at 6 p.m.