The Mississippi Ethics Commission has reversed a preliminary ruling in an open meetings complaint filed against Columbus Mayor Robert Smith.
The commission announced the reversal and dismissed the case at a meeting in Jackson on Friday.
The Dispatch filed the complaint with the Ethics Commission last year after Smith sent a letter to Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders regarding the operation and management of a Yorkville Road firing range the city and county jointly own.
“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.
The Dispatch’s complaint alleged city leaders violated the state’s Open Meetings Act because the matter was not discussed in a public meeting.
In a preliminary recommendation issued in the spring, Hearing Officer Sonia Shurden recommended a $500 penalty against Smith and that he be ordered to refrain from using telephone polling to discuss city business with councilmen except for during properly called, noticed and recorded public meetings.
The original recommendation was based on the belief that Smith met with three councilmen who offered their opinions with him in separate “happenstance” meetings, then called the remaining three by phone. The city objected to the order, and Smith testified during a hearing in September that he called three councilmen, then spoke to the other three by chance.
According to the decision, Smith said “he did not share the opinions of the council members with the other council members in any of these discussions about the firing range.”
The decision also notes Smith said the letter “could have been reworded differently, but no decision was made among the council,” and “no one instructed me from the council…to write a letter to Mr. Sanders…that we need to be in charge of the firing range.”
In the decision, the commission found, despite the wording of Smith’s letter, there wasn’t sufficient evidence to determine that he assembled a “de-facto or piecemeal quorum of the council” or that the council made a decision outside of a public meeting.
Tom Hood, executive director of the Ethics Commission, said the order of events was an important factor in the decision.
“The sequence is what matters,” Hood said. “If the mayor had met the three councilmen, then called the others, that would be a problem. But if he calls and the other three come up independently, that’s not what the courts would call an impromptu meeting.”
In an issued statement, Smith called the Dispatch’s complaint “baseless” and said the MEC’s commission was validation he hadn’t committed an open meetings violation.
“It is unfortunate that defending these charges has taken city resources to prove our case,” Smith said. “Our legal counsel, me and members of the Council have used valuable time on this complaint to prove our innocence. This time could have been devoted to more constructive activities for our city.”
Columbus is still defending another Open Meetings Act complaint a former Dispatch reporter filed in 2014. In that complaint, in which both the Ethics Commission and Chancery Court Judge Kenneth Burns both found the city culpable, the mayor scheduled meetings with three councilmen each (less than a quorum of the six-person body) behind closed doors to discuss the same issue. Once, the separate meetings of three centered on an issue involving the Golden Triangle Development LINK. The other pair of non-quorum meetings resulted in a press release stating the city had decided to be its own contractor for Trotter Convention Center renovations.
The city has appealed the case to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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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 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
