This week, the week of Independence Day, several of our local governments held their regular meetings, all of them open to the public, naturally. Were the Founding Fathers here today, we imagine they would be much pleased by what they witnessed, particularly with three of the public bodies.

Although they were divided, sometimes bitterly, about the balance of power between the central government and the states, to a man they held a deep belief in self-government and the execution of local governments, elected by the citizens to do their work, is most often conducted on the city and county level. In some respects, the meetings held Wednesday were very much what the Founders had in mind when they crafted the Declaration of Independence, establishing the colonies as a sovereign nation.

It is unlikely that the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, the Columbus City Council or the Starkville Board of Aldermen had the Founding Fathers in mind when they convened.

For these groups, it was business as usual, a regular meeting.

Nevertheless, we believe these three governments showed examples of leadership on Wednesday that the Founders would have appreciated, something that cannot always be said.

In each meeting, business was conducted with transparency, restraint and in a spirit of harmony.

During the city council meeting, Mayor Keith Gaskin, put in the position of casting the tie-breaking vote on an appointment to the city’s historic preservation committee, voted against naming Bennett Windham to the position. Gaskin said he made the decision to avoid a conflict of interest since Windham served as the mayor’s campaign chairman in 2021. That decision was perhaps made easier by the decision of Amber Brislin, who was rolling off the committee as her term expired, to serve again. Even so, the mayor’s vote against his former campaign manager could not have been easy. We’ve seen plenty of instances in the past of elected officials casting a vote when they should have recused themselves, so the mayor set a good example by his vote.

The Lowndes County supervisors, meanwhile, stared down an issue they’ve been dealing with for the past three years — whether they should approve the shortfall the county school district has requested for the third straight year.

The dispute between the supervisors and the school district centers around how ad valorem taxes are calculated from expiring fee-in-lieu agreements with local industries. Although a chancery court judged in the school district’s favor, the state supreme court reversed that ruling, not on the merits of the arguments but on procedure. The court ruled the case should have been filed in circuit court.

Given that decision, it would have been easy enough for the supervisors to reject approving  the school district’s shortfall. Instead, the supervisors chose to postpone any decision until they could get more legal advice. It was a display of restraint that served the people’s interest.

Finally, the Starkville Aldermen set aside time to honor one of its own, vice mayor Roy A’. Perkins, whose service as Ward 6 Alderman reached the 30-year mark. Current and former aldermen, along with mayor Lynn Spruill, thanked Perkins, now in his eighth term for his long and continuing service. Perkins has been an outspoken and independent voice on the board. Over that time, he’s won some battles and lost some, but he’s never shied away from making difficult, sometimes unpopular, decisions. That a group of diverse citizens can meet and hammer out compromises on behalf of the citizens honors the spirit of the Founding Fathers.

Indeed, Wednesday was a good day for the kind of government our Founding Fathers had in mind.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.

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