Jussely advocates internet for Canton sunshine

Edd Jussely has the perfect solution for Canton's sunshine troubles in a letter to the Clarion Ledger.

The solution is simple.

The Open Records Act was enacted before something called the Internet came to be. Canton should put all its records on the Internet and there would be no cost for copies or labor. All levels of Mississippi government should put their records on the Internet. And, yes, that includes salaries of public employees, FuelMan records, travel expenses, hotel expenses, etc.

The Legislature should repeal the clause that allows government entities to charge for information and require all public documents to be available on the Internet.

Bravo!

Canton opposes voluminous sunshine

Outrageous. A group in Canton wants to know how taxpayers' dollars are spent. This includes - gasp - how much public employees are paid! Can you imagine that a government be accountable to taxpayers? I mean really, that is "ridiculous and stupid."

Two residents are questioning Canton's public records policy after receiving a combined $600 bill for requested copies of the city budget and bank statements.

Susan Coulange and James Cockrell, top officers in a grass-roots Canton government watchdog group, allege the charges do not reflect actual costs and likely were meant to dissuade their inquiry.

Mayor William Truly vehemently defends the fees and characterizes the request for bank statements - because they contain employee salary information - as "mean" and "ridiculous and stupid."

"I could understand how a group would want to know what elected officials are doing, but why would you want to know what ordinary employees are paid? That's mean," Truly said. "It is the most ridiculous and stupid request of which I am aware."

Cockrell said the purpose of the records requests made on June 8 is to track how taxpayer money is spent.

Truly acknowledged the city often waives fees for small-scale records requests, but the mayor said it was necessary to charge for nearly 650 copies and more than nine hours of labor needed to research and copy the city's budget and bank statements from January to June.

If only someone would invent something that could put all 650 copies on one computer file that would cost nothing. Imagine that.

"When you have such a voluminous request that takes them (city employees) away from their customary duty to prepare this voluminous amount of material, it disrupts their work day," Truly said.

Truly described the records probe as an "attack" and a way to "target" his administration and employees.