By David A. Farrell, Item Staff Writer
The Picayune Item
PICAYUNE —
The Picayune City Council has become the third governing body in the county to place its minutes on-line. The minutes go back to 1925 and the latest minutes are for July 2010.
The minutes went up on the city’s Web site recently without a council vote after City Councilman Wayne Gouguet at the council’s last meeting said that he wanted the matter placed on the Sept. 7 agenda for discussion.
The minutes then went up on the Web site in an administrative decision. The council did not vote on it.
The Pearl River Central school board on Aug. 2 voted 5-0 to place its minutes on line and said that they took the action to become more open and transparent.
Then on Aug. 9, supervisor Hudson Holliday asked County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin, Jr., if he had placed the supervisors’ board meeting minutes on-line and Lumpkin said he had.
Just as with Picayune, no formal board action was taken on the supervisors’ decision; it was an administrative decision. Supervisors in 2007 and 2008 began posting their minutes on the county’s Web site, but then discontinued the process without an explanation.
Picayune’s decision leaves only two public bodies, the Picayune and Poplarville school boards, that don’t place their minutes on their Web sites for the public to peruse, and those two bodies have given no indication of what they might do in regards to the matter.
However, there has been no public pressure on public bodies in the county to place their minutes on their Web sites.
The only interaction with the public on the issue occurred at an Aug. 5 public forum, held at Lee’s Chapel No. 1 gym in Mill Creek, in connection with the District Two Nov. 2 special election for supervisor to fill the unexpired term of late supervisor Charles Culpepper.
One resident, Pat Carter, in the audience, questioned Holliday about the minutes not being on the county’s Web site, and Holliday told her that he would “check on it as soon as possible.” She said that she had found on-line minutes in 2007 and 2008, but none since those dates. Holliday attended the debate as an observer but was peppered with questions by the audience, too.
The next Monday, Holliday questioned Lumpkin about the matter, and Lumpkin told Holliday the process had begun.
Gouguet is the only public official to raise the issue at a meeting, but several Pearl River County school board officials said that they had promised during their campaigns for office to place board meeting minutes on-line.
Usually, the minutes of a meeting have to be reviewed and officially approved by each board within 30 days of the meeting in which the minutes are generated.
The minutes also have to include any decisions taken in an executive session and are a legal document. In certain matters delineated by the law, the boards cannot take action unless the decision is spread upon the minutes.
After the board approves the minutes, they become a public record and can be examined by the public and the press.
Placing the minutes on-line will make it a simple task for residents to access the approved minutes since they will not have to make a special trip to the administrative offices of the body where the minutes are held.
The Pearl River County school board’s resolution placing the minutes on-line also stipulated that they be placed on Pearl River County School District’s Web site within five working days after being approved by the school board.
Minute of the three bodies can be accessed by going to the following Web sites: For the Pearl River County school board, www.prc.k12.ms.us; for the board of supervisors, www.pearlrivercounty.net; and Picayune City Council, www.cityofpicayune.com.
Click on the subheading “minutes.”
