JJ won another round at the Mississippi Ethics Commission after the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority tried to keep yours truly from looking at the minutes last year.
The Kingfish visited JMAA on May 13, 2021 to see the minutes and the attached claims dockets. The minutes are posted online but those minutes do not include the claims dockets or other attachments. The February minutes were not posted online as well.
JMMA also no longer keeps hard copies of the minutes but instead stores them on a computer. However, the terminal is back in JMAA offices where the public is not allowed. The claims dockets are no longer attached to the minutes.
JMAA staff told The Kingfish to file a public records request. Yours truly said the Open Meetings Act allowed me to see them at any time during business hours without submitting such a request. The staff wouldn't budge so off to the Ethics Commission we went.
The Ethics Commission ruled:
That is, the Open Meetings Act requires that minutes of public bodies be recorded within thirty days after the meeting and be available for public inspection during a public body’s regular business hours....
Thus, no public records request is required. Now about keeping minutes on the computer:
Sections 25-61-1 and 25-61-2 of the Public Records Act require that a public body “ensure reasonable access to records electronically maintained.” The Open Meetings Act does not require minutes be posted online or kept in electronic format at all. Public bodies are free to keep their minutes in books available for public inspection in their offices. However, when board minutes, which are statutorily required to be continuously available for inspection during business hours, are maintained only in an electronic format, the public body must provide a public-access computer terminal in the office where the public records are maintained. In any event, a public body cannot require anyone to make a written request for public records simply to inspect board minutes in person during the public body’s regular business hours
The Ethics Commission decreed JMAA violated the Open Meetings ACt by failing to provide a computer terminal for for the public to access the minutes.
Note: The opinion will be posted. Scribd is acting up.
20 comments:
Any punishment for the JMAA scoundrels?
Nice win, KF; however, they will continue to ignore the ruling and do as they may. Rules don't apply to them.
Those people just don't think hell is hot.
JMAA dont give a crap about ethics-
little white boy thank he won but erryone just gone keep ignoring him cuz this blog aint real news
Please dont feed 11:14.
11:14 Wrong & Kingfish didn’t make the rules, state legislature did!
11:14 Another racist heard from............
11:14 is clearly a 3rd grader JPS. His diction, grammar and punctuation is embarrassing, but "he don't care. He gone duit mo".
Heeheeheeheehee, oh yeah, Fish done spanked that ass, again.
I am shocked and appalled by the racist @11:14 AM
What happens when these dummies wipe out the file that contains all the minutes. Does that make all that has been spent not legal.
Pucker factor at JMAA today? This is going to be good!!
When lighting strikes...there won't be no more minutes?
Or the boo boo water backs up when the toilet is flushed or a water main breaks and floods something?
Seems like that's a plan.
So, what happens if they still refuse? Are their consequences?
This is like a dog chasing a car. What’s he going to do when he catches it?
I wish more citizens would participate and hold public official accountable. Too often, the law doesn’t apply to those with the power to enforce it. We all assume the people in charge are competent and decent until the curtain gets pulled back. Well done Kingfish.
"Are their consequences?" Never seen any before so don't expect to see any in the future.
If appointed to the Airport boaes I promise to share all documents given to me with JJ Kingfish, esq, viewable at his leisure, anytime he wants to see them. I hope the job pay covers this foolish promise. So far I have heard nothing about the availability of donuts at the board meetings and am beginning to get worried that I may have make a mistake offering myself as a board member.
I'm still waiting for the results of all of the cold-calling done at the Paris Air Show under the guise of business development for the airport.
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