Barbour won’t release vote, commission says

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 10/4/7

Gov. Haley Barbour has refused to allow the state Ethics Commission to release how each of its members voted in April on allowing him to place his assets in a blind trust, the executive director of the commission said Tuesday.

The Daily Journal and other groups have asked that the vote of the eight-member commission be made public.

Commission Director Tom Hood has said that under state law, opinions issued by the commission at the request of public officials are private unless the public official agrees to release it. The governor had asked the commission to rule on whether his blind trust is proper.