When the nine justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court all agree that one side in a legal dispute doesn’t have a case, that’s a strong indication that the appellants were wasting the court’s time.
Still, we’re glad that the city of Columbus appealed a lower court’s ruling that it violated the state’s Open Meetings Act when its mayor and City Council tried to keep the public in the dark by using so-called “piecemeal quorums.”
By appealing, Columbus unwittingly added a third and definitive layer of legal condemnation for a gimmick specifically designed to avoid conducting the public’s business in the open.
Three state entities — the Ethics Commission, a chancery court and now a unanimous Supreme Court — have all said unequivocally that the ruse Columbus Mayor Robert Smith tried to pull three years ago was an illegal attempt to circumvent one of the state’s bedrock sunshine laws.
Here’s what happened:
Smith wanted to discuss some matters with the council members that he knew could not legally be done in a closed-door executive session. So, he orchestrated to meet with three council members at a time on four separate dates so that they would not have a quorum and, he thought, be able to talk in secret.
Columbus is not the only one to have tried this either. A similar scenario occurred around the same time in Lauderdale County, and this ruse has been used from time to time in other jurisdictions. The Mississippi Municipal League, the lobbying organization for city officials, has tried to defend the secretive practice.
Had Columbus gotten away with it, other cities and counties almost certainly would have followed suit.
The Supreme Court’s decision should put an immediate end to these shenanigans, although the public will need to remain vigilant against attempts in the Legislature to get around this ruling.
The Open Meetings Act is a creation of the Legislature. That means lawmakers can revise it, either to strengthen it or to weaken it. Historically there have been more attempts to do the latter than the former.
In fact, after the Ethics Commission in 2014 issued the initial ruling against Columbus, state Sen. Lydia Chassaniol, R-Winona, tried unsuccessfully in the ensuing legislative session to revise the Open Meetings Act to legalize these closed-door “piecemeal quorums.”
Her bills got nowhere, once they were exposed, which again is what sunshine does. Whether it comes to meetings or public records, the more transparency, the less mischief that can be done.
The Supreme Court’s decision is a huge affirmation of that principle.
