Columbus city administration on Monday reversed course on a week-long effort to charge The Dispatch $109.18 for records that show a city councilman’s check to rent space in the Trotter Convention Center for his wedding in May bounced.
Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong provided copies of the six pages of documents needed to fill the request free of charge Monday morning, ending a standoff on the issue between the newspaper and certain city officials — namely Chief Financial Officer Deliah Vaughn, Public Information Officer Joe Dillon and City Attorney Jeff Turnage.
Fred Jackson, councilman for Ward 4, abruptly resigned July 3 with a letter citing he wanted to spend more time with his family and focus on his career. He was married May 11 at the Trotter and was two years into his first term.
The Dispatch previously reported Jackson had initially been given a deep discount for the space in his rental agreement — $625 instead of the regular $1,200 for the upper level. But the discounted rate was later marked out and the full price handwritten above it. The city also required an open records request for inspection of that rental agreement. During the course of inspecting those documents a city employee attempted to stop Dispatch Managing Editor Zack Plair from legally photographing the documents and eventually called the police. Plair was arrested, and The Dispatch is paying to defend the subsequent charges brought against him.
Records show Jackson wrote a $1,200 check to the city on May 10. It was returned for insufficient funds on June 7. The councilman provided the city with certified funds on June 21.
At the time of Jackson’s resignation, questions circulated over whether the councilman had moved from his ward. Both the rental agreement, which Jackson entered on Jan. 18, and the check he wrote on May 10, show a mailing address for him located in Ward 6.
Jackson did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comment on Monday.
History of the records request
The Dispatch submitted the public records request for the check information June 27, six days before Jackson resigned from the council. It was delivered to Vaughn through Dillon.
State law allows a public entity up to seven working days to respond to public records requests, but in this case, Dillon responded on July 15 — just before closing time on the ninth working day — with a letter, signed by Vaughn, quoting a price of $109.18 before the city would provide the documents. The charges included the cost of “copies, research, computer usage and postage,” according to the letter.
By law, an entity can charge a fair fee for copies, the hourly rate for the lowest paid employee qualified to fill a request and any other actual costs borne. The city’s letter noted an hourly charge of $36.06 for the labor, which is the rough hourly rate of Vaughn’s salary based on a 40-hour work week.
In response, Dispatch Publisher Peter Imes, in emails to both Dillon and Turnage, agreed to pay the fee but pressed for a further breakdown of the “research” and “computer usage” charges, and requested a newspaper employee be allowed to supervise the work to verify it would take two hours. He also, in email correspondence with Turnage over several days, indicated The Dispatch planned to file a public records complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission if the city failed to be more forthright about the charges.
Turnage denied Imes’ request for an employee to supervise the work and did not supply a further breakdown of the ancillary fees. He also chastised Imes for attempting to cover the issue at all and said if The Dispatch filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission he felt sure, “the city will ask me to vigorously defend it.”
That proved not to be the case.
Armstrong, after becoming aware of the records request on Thursday upon receiving copies of Turnage’s correspondence with Imes, contacted the newspaper and agreed to supply the documents without further incident.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
