Jackson Free Press

Debate over the Sunshine Act, which Speaker Philip Gunn introduced last week and failed on a technicality later in the week, continued to rain down on the Legislature as a House committee returned the issue on Monday.

Legislative Republicans have framed the measure as providing greater transparency to the way state agencies handle the hiring of outside firms for legal work. If passed, the law would empower state agencies, boards and commissions to bypass the state attorney general, Mississippi's chief legal officer, and pick their own lawyers.

Democrats think the GOP is simply trying to slap Attorney General Jim Hood for being an annoyance to the Republican-power establishment. Most recently, Hood sought to invalidate Gov. Haley Barbour's pardons; Barbour remains popular in GOP circles. Marty Wiseman, director of the John C. Stennis Institute on Government, thinks the issue goes deeper than run-of-the-mill partisan sniping.

Wiseman explained that the 1890 Mississippi Constitution created a weak executive because whites feared that with their numbers, blacks might have been able to elect the state's governor.

As a result, Wiseman said, "the attorney general is the statutorily most powerful person in the state." In this case, that person just happens to be Hood, the only statewide Democratic officeholder. While he thinks Hood has been largely nonpartisan in the way his office pursues cases, Wiseman said Republicans want to "neuter" the AG nonetheless.

At Monday's meeting 45-minute-long House Judiciary A hearing, members gave Hood the chance to argue against the bill. At the very least, he estimates an additional $11 million in additional cost to the state based on the $65 per hour the AG bills agencies and the $130 per hour private firms charge.

In its reincarnated form, as HB 211, the act went a step further than the previous version to scale back the powers of the AG by incorporating process whereby the state Personal Service Contract Review Board must approve certain contracts. The previous bill called for the board to serve as a clearinghouse for contracts more than $100,000.

Republicans dismissed Hood's argument that the state would incur higher costs because agency directors would still have to work within the budgets the Legislature gives them.

"It's about giving agencies greater flexibility and independence," state Auditor Stacey Pickering said.

Hood also argued that agency directors don't have the legal training to determine if a true conflict exists with his office or to even read legal bills correctly.

"It's important that you get independent advice from an attorney you can't fire," he said.

The bill passed 14-9 out of committee, along a party-line vote. Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, said he had no timeline for bring the bill to a floor vote.

Previous Commentsshow

Let's not forget the fact that this springs DIRECTLY from Speaker Gunn's law firm wishing to get this very same business in the past and it's design to simplify such self dealing. See here and the firm letter to wit: http://cottonmouthblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/bombshell-speaker-gunns-financial.html Speaker Gunn should resign his post in light of this attempt at profiteering out of public funds. Truly lamentable leadership here.

Jason Pollan

Feb 14 2012

Jason, Ryan is writing about that in his print version tomorrow.

DonnaLadd

Feb 14 2012

"Wiseman explained that the 1890 Mississippi Constitution created a weak executive because whites feared that with their numbers, blacks might have been able to elect the state's governor." In 1880 the black population was 57.5% of the total Mississippi population. In 1900 the black population was 58.5% of the total population. For a series of 8 maps that show the evolution of the size of the black population in Mississippi from 1860 to 1966, see the 8 maps created by Southern Echo, arranged on a single poster, on the Southern Echo website at: http://southernecho.org/s/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/downloadphp1.pdf The white community considered black participation in the political process, and black persons gaining effective access to a meaningful liberal arts education, as twin threats to white supremacy in the political and economic spheres. The central purpose of the 1890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention was to create a new state constitution that would disenfranchise the black community through the "devices" of poll taxes and literacy tests, and that would ensure that black children would be systematically under-educated in the public school system. The 1890 Constitution was never ratified by the people. The 1890 Constitution, dubbed "the Mississippi Plan", became the disenfranchisement model for all of the southern states by 1905. The creation of disenfranchisement "devices" in 1890 should be a seriously cautionary tale for all Mississippians today. In the 2012 Mississippi Legislature bills are pending to create the enabling legislation for Voter Photo ID (HB 121 - Rep. Denny), and to create burdensome and onerous restrictions on voter registration (SB 2057 - Sen. Burton). These bills are solutions for problems that do not exist. They are "devices", akin to those created in 1890, to limit, hinder and undermine the right to register and to vote for black citizens. These bills will also adversely affect the franchise rights of the elderly. the disabled, and students. The Republicans may have the votes to pass these bills, but it would be wrong! Four valuable resources, among many, are: "Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow, 1890-1940," by Neil McMillen; "The Education of Blacks in the South 1860-1935, by James D. Anderson; "The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle Over School Integration in Mississippi 1870-1980", by Charles Bolton; and "Mississippi's Four Constitutions" by David Sansing, pages 9-11, a 1948 Mississippi Law Journal article which is posted on the Southern Echo website at: http://southernecho.org/s/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/sansing-david-g-mss-4-constitutions-56-miss-l-j-3-1986.pdf Mike Sayer Southern Echo

Mike Sayer

Feb 14 2012