Jackson Free Press

The Jackson Free Press recently submitted an information request to the city of Jackson for some fairly modest figures. We asked for the ratio of the number of police cars to the number of working police cars the city owned. We also asked for the most recent major crime figures at the time (figures that should already conceivably exist for the benefit of precinct commanders), and we asked for JPD's fuel expenditures for 2005 through 2008.

We got back three pages of mostly blank space: one page contained a four-line paragraph; one contained a list of four numbers; and the last contained a list of six numbers. One of the numbers on the last page proved wrong, according to other media sources, so we didn't bank too much on the rest of them.

The city charged us $33.75 for that piece of work. Moments later, though, we found that the city has nothing on the Secretary of State's office.

The JFP submitted another information request for copies of executive orders for pardons by Govs. Kirk Fordice, Ronnie Musgrove and Haley Barbour. To provide that public information, the SOS said they'd charge us $1 per page for paper, amounting to $59. They'll also charge us $48 for administrative costs ($6 per hour for two interns to pull the orders from books) and another $56 to get salaried lawyers to approve the information, which was already released to the public and, therefore, public knowledge.

The $160 fee is clearly punitive. We're not even going to ask why the state won't accept cash, credit or debit cards or personal checks for the information. Money orders, or certified or corporate checks, if you please. Pfeh.

Getting information out of the state government in Mississippi has rarely been easy. Ours is a government designed to protect those in power, to safeguard Jim Crow-era policies that appear downright barbaric to outsiders. It was never intended to be a system of checks and balances—unless of course, it means corporate surrogates in government putting the check on lawyers and regulation.

It's time for Mississippi government, both local and state, to step up and be a government of the people. In case you didn't know: The media qualifies on every count as the ears and eyes of "the people." We wouldn't have our jobs if people didn't value our information about the government, and right now, our information is telling them that you have something to hide.

Punishing the Jackson Free Press for requesting public information will only make us more determined to pry it out of officials with backward ideas.

Previous Commentsshow

So, yesterday Pamela Weaver of the secretary of state's office sent a new letter indicating that, whoops, she thought we wanted "certified" copies of the executive orders -- thus, the $1 a page. She altered it to 25 cents. She still says we have to pay all the others "administrative" costs of getting copies of the executive orders about pardons. She told me on the phone that the $48 is $6 an hour for two interns to "take them out of books" to be copied. So we should assume that it will take the interns four hours to take 59 pages out of books? Of course, this is punitive. This is very, very different secretary of state's office than the last one, which just gave out information as requested without charging. Ms. Weaver, et al., seem to forget that that the taxpayers pay their paychecks. We'll keep you posted as this progresses, and I'll post all the documents later today. Oh, and City Clerk Cedric Morgan has not called me back yet to explain why they charged us $30 for one page of incorrect crime statistics. Mississippi, we have a very serious problem. And the JFP is about to turn a very hot spotlight on all these publc officials trying to keep information from the taxpayers. Anyone who doest hat should be sent home immediately.

DonnaLadd

Aug 21 2008

Oh, and if I had to guess, I would say that the govenor would prefer the JFP not have copies of the executive orders. So Mr. Hosemann is trying to make it expensive hoping we'll just go away.

DonnaLadd

Aug 21 2008

And we thought Tropical Storm Fay was only putting a damper on the Sunshine State. Now, she's putting a damper on the sunshine laws. Perhaps our leaders think it's a little too sunny and thus want to keep us in the dark by charging us money and keep what they're hiding in the dark. I'm sure we will, uh, weather this somehow.

golden eagle

Aug 21 2008

What's so grating is that punitive policies *never* work. They only make media wonder what those agencies are hiding. So far, Ms. Weaver has seemed offended that I would even consider questioning their fee policies and sunshine practices. The first thing a PR flack for an elected official should learn is to expect to be questioned about open records. She certainly stands in start contrast to David Blount when he was in that position. I never remember having to beg him to give easy and immediate access to public information. Never. Usually a fax arrived, or we were told when we could pick up information. Ironcially, Ms. Weaver is probably spending more "hourly" time trying to make it harder for us to get the information than it would take just to provide it. The question is: Why is Delbert Hosemann running an office that wants to punish the public for requesting public information? This is very, very disturbing. I remember one of his campaign guys calling and telling me how progressive he was going to be as secretary of state—if a public servant doesn't even get the public's right to get information quickly and cheaply (or for free), how can you argue that you're progressive? There is nothing more backward in public office than making public records difficult or expensive to view.

DonnaLadd

Aug 22 2008

Ladd please keep up the presure on both governments. People need to know why some of us are so angry with system. They have no clue as to what is really going on behind the scenes.

jada

Aug 25 2008