Secrecy in Mississippi – Day 5
Just because an organization “looks” like it’s a public agency, it may not be. And if it isn’t a public agency, it’s not obligated to be open in any way. That’s the way Mississippi’s laws read as they address issues of open meetings and open records.
In Lee County, the Community Development Foundation and its associated Council of Governments get public attention and make public impacts, operating outside the view of the general public. But CDF’s business doesn’t belong to the public, even though its impact does. It’s a nonprofit membership organization. If you want to know CDF’s inner workings, you can’t, except for public pronouncements and internally produced publications.
When Houston Nutt was introduced as the new University of Mississippi football coach on Nov. 28, there were certainly reasons for some to be surprised.
But the real stunner was that Ole Miss actually announced what it would be paying Nutt. For years, Ole Miss and Mississippi State athletic officials have declined to give The Clarion-Ledger complete compensation information for its coaches, specifically the supplemental income provided by the Bulldog Foundation at Mississippi State and the UMAA Foundation at Ole Miss.
MORE:
- As part of an ongoing series examining secrecy in Mississippi government, The Clarion-Ledger this week asked a select group of government officials to view a copy of their meeting minutes for December. In each case, the newspaper was able to access the records - where they existed.
- A comprehensive ethics and open-government bill could come up for Senate debate today, and Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant says he hopes it will get unanimous approval.
- Sun Herald: What goes on in the shadows, “between the dark and the daylight,” will remain a mystery until constituents demand that legislators bring all of the public’s business out into the open. Spending public money and setting public policy should be no one’s private affair.
- The Daily Mississippian: Secrets don’t make friends. Nor do they make good citizens. In a nation that has become more and more secretive in its governmental practices since the events of Sept. 11 more than six years ago, Mississippi remains one of the most secretive states. Its public records and open meetings laws are among the worst on the books.
- The Commercial Dispatch: Recently, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors circumvented the open meetings law in still another way by holding meetings between two existing board members and three incoming board members prior to their taking office at the start of this year. Important public business, such as discussions of who would be the next county administrator, took place at back-room meetings, which were legal because only two of the current five-member board were present, which is not a quorum. The three incoming board members, although already elected, were still just private citizens until they were sworn into office.