Newspapers throughout the country are recognizing efforts to keep the taxpaying public aware of what their elected officials are doing as part of National Sunshine Week.
It’s worth noting one way that this state’s newspapers have helped promote better government and empowered ordinary citizens with little influence or resources to get access to the public records and meetings to which they are legally entitled.
The Mississippi Press Association helped back legislation over the past decade that has led to people denied access to open meetings or public records to file complaints with the state Ethics Commission, which issues rulings and has authority to order fines.
Previously, the only recourse if a public records request was denied was to sue in chancery court. The cost and sophistication required to do that effectively limited anyone but professional media organizations from doing so.
But starting in 2008 the legislature gave the Ethics Commission authority to hear open meetings disputes. And since then through a series of bills the Ethics Commission has been able to hold officials personally responsible for open meetings and public records violations.
The Ethics Commission’s website lists 127 public records and 84 open meetings opinions. In many other cases, it has been able to negotiate an acceptable resolution to both parties before deciding a case.
All it takes to get an opinion about whether a meeting was closed to the public or a record request denied illegally is to fill out a form available on the commission’s website; any layman can do it.
In what seems to be an ever-darkening world, it’s a heartening example of a simple, common-sense policy that has increased the level of light on our local and state governments in Mississippi. n
— Charlie Smith
