Jackson Jambalaya

They probably had to hire a temp to do the work since Jackson City employees don't do shit all day.

These days they should just be able to let you look at the documents in the office at no charge. In most cases you could take a photo of what you're interested in with your phone and no copies would be needed. This is a clear effort to keep the public in the dark, but our gutless state leaders won't change anything because they might be expected to follow the rules too.

Lieutenant Graham could have gotten it for you for free. But, you'd have to be on speakin' terms.

Meanwhile Young Harvey Yarber believes his own copious self-hype and takes some sort of pyrrhic victory lap for supposedly committing to government transparency.

Why is it not all available electronically?

Talk to Tom Hood. Ethics Commission has model rules (that are now enforceable) for all agencies to follow regarding public records access including costs for records access.

If you don't get anywhere talking to Tom Hood, talk to Tom Head. He's the one who really knows what's going on around here.

While we are exposing documents and rackets, we need to talk about police reports and this Report Beam scam where everyone who wants a copy has to pay $25.

1:22 goes immediately in the 'runner up' category. lol.

Hizzhonor the less than honorable Mayor has said that starting a week or so ago, our fair City was going to be absolutely transparent. All information was going to be readily available to the public. The citizens were entitled to know everything about what its City is doing.

Guess that was just another of his hyperbole, and lies. Or else, just shows how deep into his own ego-belief he is that shows again how he doesn't have a clue about how his administration operates.

But damn, KF. You know that now that the City Clerk's office has increased to almost two dozen employees over the past couple of years, they have to find some way to pay the overly staffed bureaucracy down on the west end of President Street. All them folks need jobs, you know.

The Mississippi Ethics Commission website says that public bodies should NOT charge more than 10 cents a page. AND, they cannot charge more than the actual cost of making the documents available. If they charge for staff time, then they can't charge more that the actual cost of copying, which is probably more like 4 cents a page.

Charging $45 for copying and $35 for "staff costs" is just unconscionable, and probably illegal. The City Attorney's Office is so stupid, though, they can't read the statutes, and certainly they can't fathom legislative intent, from those statues. It's probably going to take a judge to actually read them the case law, along with the statue.

This conduct is SOP for the City of Jackson. WHY? WHY? Why does the City Council tolerate this bullshit from every administration. Most of the shit is already electronic and usually already in somebody's email.

KF, You ought to file for declaratory judgment against the city and force their hands on this.

Also, how in the hell does any of this jive with Yarber's BIG talk this week about transparency in government and putting everything online. He even issued an executive order - No. 2015-06.

http://www.jacksonms.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=443

What a bunch of crap. He says one thing and his own damn lawyers and clerks do something TOTALLY opposite. He's either lying or stupid. Wonder which one it is. politics as usual downtown.

Dale Danks, how about taking this one on and see if you can foreclose on City Hall again!!

An asphalt producer told me that many times City of Jackson Dump trucks fill up with several tons of asphalt and then go ride around for a while, and then they come back and dump the asphalt. So they have to make money somewhere to pay for this Kingfish.

The Mayor does not govern the City Clerk's office. The city clerk is supervised by the City Council. The city council hires and fires the clerk. The Mayor has no veto power over its decisions regarding the clerk.

You guys will believe anything about Jackson and its Mayor as long as it is bad, bad, bad. There is a grant to put everything on line; can't happen in a week! Good grief you all would s**t in your own bed just to try and make things worse. As far as what KF was charged, I would print out a copy of that particular statute and take it to the City Clerk's office. I believe you will find that our City Attorney is competent to read same. Or, you can always go for Public Comment before each City Council Meeting. Have to sign up to comment before the meeting's scheduled time.

Public Comment at City Council as a solution?? You ought to be writing for DonnerKay if you don't have any more sense than that. All public comment is created for is so that the idiots can all get their mugs on camera for the 'hood.

Yes, as a resident of Jackson who has had plenty of 'up close and personal' connection with this administration I have come to the conclusion that they are not capable of managing anything, much less a business as big as our City. All of their actions has proven this - and the idiocy shown by this billing for a public record is nothing more than one little small example of this incompetency.

If the City was competent, it would not need a 'copy of the statute' printed out and shown to it - they have to deal with public records requests every day. They should already know the statute - that's one of the requirements of their job for which they are getting massively overpaid.

No - I don't want to make things worse. I have been fighting in the ditches to make them better. But this current administration - the Mayor and the majority of the Council - has convinced me that there is little hope with this bunch as bad as I wanted to believe differently after the last election.

And KF - it doesn't matter who 'hires' the clerk. The policy is that of the city. Just like the other 'policies' established to make sure contracts are directed toward the favored few, that hiring is limited to those that meet the political clearance, that consultants are selected on criteria that assures the favored few are awarded and others excluded. If the Mayor issues an 'executive order' about transpency, it applies to the City Clerk's office along with the other departments. If he really meant what he said, which as he has proven before, is not the case.

The City Clerk must also be in charge of street maintenance.

Kingfish, have you ever thought about adding a section to JJ that is a repository for interesting state documents? Traffic would no doubt spike. Maybe include detailed budgets from agencies which include employee names and salaries, including universities. I think the public would be wide-eyed to see the salaries some people at our universities (cough UMMC) are making as "public servants." Any agencies who give you trouble getting the information, well that would sure make for a worthwhile blog post.