Meetings: Law a victory for the public

Meetings: Law a victory for the public

For years, Mississippi’s open meetings laws have been toothless in that when public officials broke the law and excluded the public from public meetings, the public was forced to pick up the tab for the bad behavior of those officials.

No more. The Legislature has approved a bill that would require public officials who break the law to pay their fines personally rather than pay them using taxpayer dollars.

Under the current law, public officials could use taxpayer funds to pay their fines when they violated the state’s open meetings laws.

Clarion Ledger
2/22/11