Jackson Free Press

On June 21, Mayor Frank Melton signed a a public records memo addressed to all department heads.

The memo begins: "This is to inform you that this administration's position to Public Records Requests is one of openness. ... The public's right of access is to be liberally construed and exemptions narrowly construed. Doubts will be resolved in favor of openness."

The memo states that no records request will be denied without clearance from the city attorney's office, and that requests should be filled expeditiously. "The fourteen (14) working day period is the maximum provided by law and is not to be our standard response time. ... In no event should you deny a request without referring the matter to the City Attorney's office." (Emphasis in original.)

This is, surely, a good sign, but in the meantime, none of the outstanding requests filed by the JFP from September to April have been filled by the city, despite the memo we provided the Melton administration on May 4. It has been seven weeks since the JFP provided Melton with this list of requests, which should have been filled months ago, and still none of them have been filled.

Previous Comments

ID

172481

Comment

Bump. If I may quote Barry and Levon, $240 worth is a whole lot of puddin', but we ain't even got two bucks worth here. Still, maybe things will improve.

Author

Brian C Johnson

Date

2006-06-25T22:09:46-06:00

ID

172482

Comment

Yeah things look to be improving, maybe they'll begin to pick up the pace, it's idiotic how much effort it takes to get the mayor to begin following the law.

Author

jan2006

Date

2006-06-26T09:28:46-06:00

ID

172483

Comment

The language in this is *better* than what's in The Clarion-Ledger's so-called settlement with the city—another reason not to support the settlement. Now, whether they'll do it is another story.

Author

ladd

Date

2006-06-26T10:46:58-06:00