Jackson Jambalaya

Over at the Jackson Free Press, Ladd tries to smear the Clarion-Ledger on open records of all things, a subject on which she has always been rather quiet:

"Is The Clarion-Ledger Intentionally Misleading on Open-Records Law?
Or, is it woeful ignorance of the law? Either way, the corporate newspaper isn't making government transparency any better as Sunshine Week opens to publish articles such as this one today by Chris Joyner that misreads, intentionally or not, both the letter and intent of Freedom of Information laws.
Joyner states:Under state law, officials are allowed 14 working days to respond to a request to see government documents. Jackson officials routinely let all of that time expire before responding.Wrong.
Under state law, government employees are supposed to make government documents available *on request* and within 24 hours. As is the case in many states, the 14-day clause is there to use only when a government agency does not have immediate access to the documents—such as if if it old and is stored off site or such. THEN they have two weeks max to respond to the law..."

Ladd then publishes the section of the statute in question and then returns to her attempt to discuss public records statutes in an intelligent manner:
"Responsible government officials instruct employees to product information immediately (unless there is a damn good excuse), and real journalism outlets would never routinely state that the government officials "are allowed 14 days" when that is supposed to be the absolute maximum when retrieving the information is actually a hardship.
But The Clarion-Ledger has stated this for years now, and is making it worse for everyone by doing so, and allowing the governments here to be less transparent than they should be. I explained this to Chris Joyner in an interview (which he eventually quoted out of context in his paper; sigh) years back when The Ledger was fighting with the city over public records, and had their attorneys trying to make a deal that would essentially be binding on the rest of us. The deal was to allow the 14 days.
This is against the very spirit of open records and sunshine laws, and it is very disingenuous for the Ledger to act all high and mighty on the subject when they themselves are making it worse by not standing up and fighting for immediate access to information that we all own. It's wrong.
All that said, the law should be tweaked to make this as clear as possible, and not lead sneaky public officials or naive reporters to believe that "officials are allowed 14 working days," but the Ledger's work in this arena is going to make that harder to happen because government will point back to their reporting.
Once again, the Ledger shows that it has no idea how to serve the community that supports it financially. Very sad."

What is sad Ms. Ladd is you don't know what the hell you are talking about because you didn't bother to read the law. The law does state that an answer has to be provided within 24 hours. HOWEVER, there is ANOTHER section to the law, which you even included in your smear but clearly didn't bother to read. Here is the law itself (and I'm highlighting the important clauses):
"§ 25-61-5. Public access to records; denials
(1) Except as otherwise provided by sections 25-61-9 and 25-61-11, 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 adopted by the public body concerning the cost, time, place and method of access, and public notice of the procedures shall be given by the public body, or, in the event that a public body has not adopted such written procedures, the right to inspect, copy or mechanically reproduce or obtain a reproduction of a public record of the public body shall be provided within one (1) working day after a written request for a public record is made. No public body shall adopt procedures which will authorize the public body to produce or deny production of a public record later than fourteen (14) working days from the date of request for the production of such record." Ladd's poison pen at work

Since Ms. Ladd didn't finish law school and didn't learn how to read a statute, allow me to put this in plain English for you. If a government body in Mississippi does NOT adopt written procedures, then it has to respond to the request within one day. However, the law also says that the government can also adopt WRITTEN PROCEDURES stating a time period that can range up to 14 business days to respond to a public records request.

Ah, "written procedures". Before you started insulting Mr. Joyner, did you bother to actually read some written procedures, Ms. Ladd? If I was a cub reporter who didn't have a Masters of Journalism from Columbia as you do, I would have done so just to see exactly what they are. Since I'm a nice guy, however, and want to contribute to your education in a meaningful way, I'll help you out and post here some procedures from local governments:

Jackson:
"A response to your request will be provided within fourteen (14) working days of your written request." Jackson Public Records Written Procedures

Brandon:
ARTICLE I. IN GENERAL
Sec. 2-1. Reproduction of public records.
(a) Upon receipt of written request to inspect, copy or mechanically reproduce or obtain any public record which identifies with reasonable particularity the specific record sought, the recipient of such request shall provide such record to the party requesting same, if not exempt under the provisions of the "Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983" (MCA 1972, § 25-61-1 et seq.)....
(b) Upon receipt of a request as provided in subsection (a) of this section, the recipient shall promptly notify the person making the request of the actual cost of searching, reviewing, duplicating, and/or mailing copies of such record, as well as the time and place when such record shall be produced. The person requesting such record shall pay to the city such actual cost in cash or certified funds in advance. Upon timely receipt of payment, such records shall be produced within 14 working days from the date of the request for production of such record..."

Thus in accordance with the statute, several local governments have promulgated written procedures and stated they will take up to 14 working days to answer the written request. As I have personally dealt with several jurisdictions on public records requests, I can state most of them follow the 14 day rule, which is rather frustrating as there is truly no reason for such a delay other than to ignore the public. If Ms. Ladd had learned from experience as I and others have, she would know when such procedures state "within 14 days" they mean 14 days. If Ladd quit surfing google, Nexis, and the Clarion-Ledger so much, she might have learned what the law actually said and how it was applied in the real world.

What is funny is how quiet Ladd has been on opening public records over the years. The only time I can remember her making it a serious cause was when Melton refused to release crime statistics (funny how since Mac took over JPD the JFP became rather silent on crime figures). It's no secret she does not like the Mississippi Press Association as they have refused to allow her publication to join as a regular member. As the MPA has made easing public records laws a mission of sorts, Ladd has been very quiet on this subject as it's obvious she's in a snit because she can't play in their sandbox, even though such changes will benefit her. The Clarion-Ledger has made it a point to fight for changing Mississippi public records laws, which are among the weakest in the country and a complete disgrace.

It is sad seeing someone debase a highly-respected degree in such a manner by smearing another reporter (I must admit, Mr. Joyner is a sloppy reporter and makes more than his share of mistakes.) while making a fool of herself to anyone who is familiar with the law. If she wants to be treated as a real journalist, perhaps she should start acting like one instead of merely claiming to be one.