By Fredie Carmichael / Executive Editor
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN —
It is with great disappointment that we find ourselves once again using this space to remind the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors of their obligation to follow the law and do the business of the public in public.
In the past two years, we’ve used this space to encourage that our public officials follow — and understand — the state’s Open Meetings law. Supervisors have repeatedly broken the law — at least three times in 10 months — and have abused it ad nauseam.
In the past year supervisors have habitually closed the doors of their meetings to the public by using such terms as “personnel matters” or “litigation” when the law is clear that public officials must be more descriptive when excluding the public.
The state Attorney General has stated that using simple statements like “personnel matters” or “litigation” tells the public nothing. The law does allow exemptions, but the Attorney General has said the reason given must be stated, "with sufficient specificity to inform those present that there is in reality a specific, discrete matter or area which the board had determined should be discussed in executive session."
On Thursday, supervisors broke the law twice: first, they didn’t give a reason for going into “executive session” before closing the door to the public; second, they discussed the compensation of elected tax collector Stanley Shannon during the closed meeting.
Both are against the law, said Leonard Van Slyke, hotline attorney for the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information.
"An elected official can never be a proper subject for a personnel exempt discussion," Van Slyke said. "That was decided by the Mississippi Supreme Court more than 20 years ago."
Supervisor Craig Hitt said he didn’t think supervisors broke the law; Wayman Newell took responsibility but told a reporter he thought there were more important issues facing the county than following the state’s Open Meetings law.
While they continue to dismiss laws they feel are insignificant, we can’t think of a more pressing issue than local elected officials following the law. If they get to pick and choose and bend, why can't everyone else? Doing the business of the public in front of them and not behind closed doors is the simplest of all requests. We can’t think of anything more fundamentally constitutional in nature.
Our goal is simple: if it involves our tax dollars, we demand the opportunity to be included. Months ago, it seemed pleading ignorance was to blame. Now, it seems more arrogance than ignorance is at play. But giving the benefit of the doubt, ignorance of the law is still no excuse. This law should be taken as seriously as any other law. An apathetic response to this law is akin to a person arrested for DUI telling the judge, “I didn’t know I couldn’t drink and drive; I won’t do it again.”
The state’s Open Meetings Law was written to prevent public officials from discussing business and forming decisions in private, whether voted on or not. The intent is to keep the public in the loop, not keep them out of it.
On Friday, Newell said he planned to arrange with Board Attorney Rick Barry where we can all sit down for a roundtable discussion to address these issues. We look forward to such a meeting. But we expect that meeting to be done in public as well.
Let us end with something Woodrow Wilson, our nation's 28th president, once said: "Government ought to be all outside and no inside. . . . Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety."
Again, if any of these words sound familiar, that’s because they are … we copied and pasted many of these quotes and lines from previous editorials. We hope, eventually, our elected officials will take them seriously. If they can stop repeatedly breaking the law, we can stop repeating the theme of this editorial.
