Jackson Free Press

In Mississippi, two laws govern public records and meetings—the Public Records Act and the Public Meetings Act. These acts make clear the obligation of all levels of government, whether state, county or city, to release public documents and make public meetings accessible to citizens.

The Public Meetings Act (§ 25-41) begins with this preamble: "It being essential to the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of representative government and to the maintenance of a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner, and that citizens be advised of and be aware of the performance of public officials and the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the State of Mississippi that the formation and determination of public policy is public business and shall be conducted at open meetings except as otherwise provided herein."

The Public Records Act (§ 25-61) is equally clear about the right of citizens to unencumbered access to public documents: "All public records are hereby declared to be public property, and any person shall have the right to inspect, copy or mechanically reproduce or obtain a reproduction of any public record of a public body in accordance with reasonable written procedures. … No public body shall adopt procedures which will authorize the public body to produce or deny the production of a public record later than 14 working days from the date of request for the production of such record."

There are, of course, certain exceptions to both laws. The Public Records Act, in particular, details many exemptions, some of which have been clarified by subsequent opinions from the Attorney General's Office.

Many of these are common sense. For instance, you do not have a right to see test questions and answers to be used in future academic examinations. (Sorry, kids.) You do not have the right to obtain public officials' tax returns. The public has no right to records involving children, "which include all youth court records, social records, law enforcement records and agency records under the Youth Court Law." You have no right to medical records, library records, a judge's notes to his aides, trade secrets or records "compiled in the process of detecting and investigating alleged unlawful activity if disclosure would harm the investigation."

Note that none of the exemptions covers crime statistics, which the Melton administration has steadfastly refused to release to the media. In fact, the Public Records Act requires their release: "Public bodies which maintain or are required to maintain criminal history records must make those records accessible to the public under the Public Records Act." It is not enough for the city to unilaterally declare that ComStat reports are "for internal use only." As the Act states: "Records declared 'confidential' by a public body are not made confidential by the declaration but must be statutorily exempted from disclosure."

It is also illegal for the city to farm crime stats out to a third body, such as Mayor Melton's SafeCity Watch, and then use that as an excuse to keep crime stats a secret: "A public body may not enter into a contract for the creation or maintenance of a public records database if that contract impairs the ability of the public to inspect or copy the public records of that agency, including public records that are on-line or stored in an information technology system used by the public body."

Other exemptions are more problematic. The exemption which the city has used to refuse the Jackson Free Press' requests for senior administrators' qualifications is the personnel exemption, which states: "Personnel records and applications for employment (are exempt) except those which may be released to the applicant or with the prior written consent of the applicant."

The courts and the attorney general have made it absolutely clear that this exemption does not apply to salaries, even if the employee serves on a contractual basis. It also seems clear that the public has no right to a public employee's disciplinary records. However, it remains unclear whether the exemption covers the education and work history of a senior administrator like JPD Chief Shirlene Anderson. It is one thing to seek the résumé of a city sanitation worker. It is another to seek the résumé of the chief of police, who already cedes some privacy by appearing before City Council to be confirmed.

Of course, the Public Records Act does not require the city to hold such records confidential. Exemptions are discretionary—they do not require that the records be kept confidential. When the Johnson administration brought former Chief Robert Moore's appointment before the City Council, it released his résumé, qualifications and a whole ream of other materials to support his nomination.

As for the Open Meetings Act, it requires all city meetings to be open to the public unless such a meeting goes into executive session. The law specifies very few exemptions, and again, most of these are common sense. For instance, if city administrators are discussing strategy in a lawsuit, they may go into executive session. They may also do so if they are discussing sensitive details of a business negotiation. Also, if a member of the school board is meeting with a student to discuss problems the student is having at school, the public may be excluded.

There are very few exemptions, and the section of the law on exemptions states: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to require that any meeting be closed to the public, nor shall any executive session be used to circumvent or to defeat the purposes of this chapter."

If you would like to file a public records request, you must first fill out the request form. You can get this form from the City Clerk's Office, or you may download a PDF from the Public Eye at jacksonfreepress.com. Take the form to City Hall. You will have to pass through a metal detector, so leave your brass knuckles at home. You will also have to sign a logbook. When these indignities have run their course, the clerk's office is immediately inside, across from the City Council chamber. The clerk will take your form, stamp it and make a photocopy for you. From that date, the city has 14 working days to respond. Weekends and holidays don't count.

Keep in mind that 14 days is the limit on the city's response. The city does not have the right to sit on public records for 14 working days if they can be produced sooner. They are to respond immediately to the request, either by providing the information or explaining why it may take a few days.

However, the current City Clerk's Office seems to think that they should not ever release information until the 14th day—if then.

For more information on the Open Meetings Act and the Public Records Act, including the full text of both, see the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information at mcfoi.org.

Previous Comments

ID

80031

Comment

Where is Ben Allen on this issue?? I would like to hear what he has to say about the breaking of the laws by the Mayor..Since the mayor is mired in so much muck Ben is silent . Is he being ignored by the press?? if so why?

Author

jada

Date

2006-06-01T00:15:26-06:00

ID

80032

Comment

Not only Ben Allen, where is McLemore? He was pretty vocal against Melton in the first couple of months of his administration, and he's pretty much fallen silent since. The press seems to always go to Crisler as the Council President as though he speaks for the entire council.

Author

Jeff Lucas

Date

2006-06-01T06:25:16-06:00

ID

80033

Comment

That's an excellent question. Why won't the City Council step up and demand that this administration follow the law? They can't make the mayor do what's right, but they can say something.

Author

Brian C Johnson

Date

2006-06-01T10:54:04-06:00

ID

80034

Comment

Why have you not looked at Section 1983 actions against Melton and the police officer when you were thrown out of the public meeting for violating your rights? I would also have made the cop physically remove me or arrest me then file a charge against him for assault or false arrest. There is also a thing called malicious prosecution.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2006-06-04T17:21:51-06:00