Oxford Eagle Files Complaint with Mississippi Ethics Commission Regarding Supervisors
Today the Oxford Eagle announces that it has filed a Complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission regarding a meeting held by Supervisors Olpihant, Morgan and Sockwell with representatives of local community groups prior to their decision regarding the Circuit Court. The following is excerpted from the article, which can be found here:
After learning about a meeting between three Lafayette County Supervisors and community leaders to discuss the use of the newly renovated Lafayette County Courthouse, The Oxford EAGLE has filed a complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission requesting an opinion as to whether the supervisors violated the Open Meetings Act.
On July 24, supervisors Lloyd Oliphant, Johnny Morgan and Ray Sockwell Jr. met with representatives from the Heritage Foundation and Oxford Convention and Visitors Bureau at the courthouse...
On Aug. 4, two weeks after meeting with the local leaders at the courthouse, the supervisors voted 3 to 2 to not move the Circuit Court back to the courthouse, but to move the Justice Court over instead. They also voted to allocate space for the Heritage Foundation and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The three supervisors at the courthouse meeting — Morgan, Oliphant and Sockwell — voted for this new re-use plan. Supervisors Mike Pickens and Robert Blackmon voted against the motion. Board president Oliphant announced this morning he will be changing his vote.
Don Whitten, editor of The Oxford EAGLE, said the newspaper’s role in the community is not to police every action or complaint heard about the supervisors, but it is to make sure the actions of government officials and boards are done in a “proper manner.”
“We just had too much information given to us about this incident to ignore it,” Whitten said this morning. “We are concerned about the appearance this meeting gives to us as a newspaper, to our readers and the citizens of Lafayette County. We would like an opinion on this matter from the Ethics Commission.”
According to the Open Meetings Act, a quorum of the Board of Supervisors assembled for the purpose to discuss county business without giving proper public notice, is a violation of the act. Three or more members of the Board of Supervisors constitutes a quorum.
Also today the Eagle ran this story detailing Supervisor Oliphant's stated intention to change his vote. I posted his letter here this morning.
I'd like to remain anonymous with this comment. It's to my understanding from speaking personally with individuals at the MS Ethics Commission that when you file a complaint with them that you agree to the following re: confidentiality: "This complaint becomes part of the Commission’s proceedings and records and, as such, is confidential." That agreement is two-sided, meaning that the person/party(s) that filed the complaint is kept confidential but also that the person/party (s) that the complaint is filed against will remain confidential. This is to discourage someone from making public that they filed a complaint against someone else in order to discredit, damage character, etc etc. So, I really don't have an opinion on the issue one way or another but I do wonder about the legality of the Oxford Eagle mentioning in print that they filed a complaint with the MS Ethics Commission. Can anyone add any insight?
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Thanks to lotus on folo for answering this question, which was posed on her blog shortly after it was posed on mine. To "J", looks like your "source" was mis-informed. See lotus' answer here, at comment 14:
http://www.folo.us/2008/08/12/oliphant-concedes/
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