The state Ethics Commission has imposed a $500 fine on the mayor of Columbus after finding that he violated a Mississippi Open Meetings Act last year.
The penalty stems from a complaint The Dispatch sent to the commission last year after Mayor Robert Smith sent a letter to the president of the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors regarding the operation and management of a Yorkville Road firing range.
“I am advising by this letter that it is the unanimous opinion of the Columbus City Council, and I totally agree with them, that the small arms range should be operated and managed by the city of Columbus,” the April 28, 2015, letter reads.
The mayor stated in the letter that he had “discussed this matter with each” Columbus councilman. He also stated that he and the council proposed that the city maintain the range and bill the county for half of the costs.
The Dispatch, in a subsequent complaint to the Ethics Commission, alleged that city leaders, by not discussing the matter in a public meeting, violated the state’s Open Meetings Act.
The commission, in a preliminary report and recommendation issued Monday, agreed.
In addition to issuing the mayor a $500 fine, the commission recommended that Smith be ordered to “refrain from using telephone polling to discuss any matter over which the city council has supervision…except during a properly called, noticed and recorded public meeting.”
The city does not agree with the Ethics Commission’s findings.
“It flies in the face of common sense that the mayor can’t talk to councilmen other than the two hours they meet (during council meetings),” Joe Dillon, the city’s public information officer, said Monday.
Dillon told The Dispatch the city has filed a formal objection to the commission’s findings. That means a hearing on the matter is expected to take place at the Ethics Commission offices in Jackson on June 22.
Depending on the results of that hearing, the city will appeal the commission’s ruling to Lowndes County Chancery Court, according to Dillon.
Meeting issues
According to the Ethics Commission report Monday, the city claimed that Smith met with three councilmen, by happenstance, individually, and each time discussed the operation of the firing range.
The Ethics Commission said in its report that those initial happenstance meetings were not an issue. The problem, the commission found, arose when Smith called the city’s three other councilmen about the firing range in the following days.
“The facts show that the mayor then actively solicited, by telephone, the opinion of the three remaining council members with regard to the operation of the small arms firing range,” the commission’s finding states.
Smith, in a statement to The Dispatch on Monday, said he felt his conversations with councilmen did not violate the law. Smith said having some means to communicate with the council outside of meetings is crucial to the city’s operation.
“I know that state law prohibits me from meeting with four or more council members at any one time without prior notice of a public meeting, but as mayor, I have to communicate often with council members,” Smith said. “That is how our system of government works. Citizens go to their councilman with concerns, and I then work with these council members to solve problems.”
“Talking to members of the city council outside of council meetings is legal and reasonable,” the mayor added.
‘Political retribution’
Tom Hood, the executive director of the state Ethics Commission, said Smith’s $500 fine is the maximum that the commission can impose for a first offense.
City attorney Jeff Turnage said he was “amazed” at the commission’s findings. The fine, he said, is “political retribution” stemming from another, ongoing Ethics Commission case involving the city of Columbus.
In December 2014, the commission said the council and mayor violated three sections of the Open Meetings Act by conducting pre-arranged meetings — each attended by two or three councilmen — that took place in January and February 2014. Those meetings concerned the city’s retail partnership with the Golden Triangle Development LINK and project management on the Trotter Convention Center renovation. Former Dispatch reporter Nathan Gregory filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission after becoming aware of the meetings.
The city appealed the commission’s findings in that case to Lowndes County Chancery Court. The city claims that in the absence of a quorum — four members, for the city council — members of a public body should be able to meet without inviting the public.
That case is awaiting a ruling from Judge Kenneth Burns. The judge has already ruled, however, that the commission has no authority to intervene in the appeal process.
Dillon said Monday that the Ethics Commission “got their feelings hurt” when Burns would not allow the commission to intervene.
Hood said the commission did not include the city’s previous violation when considering the case firing range case.
Turnage added that the Ethics Commission did not allow the city to go before the commission to make its case in person.
“As a result of the commission deciding the case without a right to be present and be heard, the commission deprived the city of its right to be heard about our side of the story and answer any questions they might have had,” Turnage said.
“This fine is simply political retribution and that’s proven by the fact that we were not allowed to present our side of the issue,” he added.
Hood said the city has a few avenues open to appeal Monday’s preliminary report.
“We had a county board of supervisors, in a different case a year or two ago, that did not request a hearing because no facts were in dispute,” Hood said. “But they did ask the commission to reconsider its decision. They’ve got more than one option.”
Fines the commission collects are sent to the state of Mississippi’s general fund. The fine’s payment must come from Smith’s personal funds, rather than city funds, according to Hood.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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