Just a few weeks ago was National Sunshine Week, an awareness campaign that takes place each year focusing on the need for open and honest government.
Sunshine Week highlights the importance of a transparent and accountable government at every level, including local town boards, city councils, state legislatures, and all the way up to the United State Congress.
Last week the Mississippi Legislature took a great step towards improving transparency of government at a local level when House Bill 1116 was signed into law by Governor Phil Bryant.
The bill establishes criteria for notifying the public and media about special called meetings of public bodies. Before this a government body was only required to post a note at the location of its normal meeting place.
Some government bodies are already abiding to this new law, but many have chosen to stick to the bare basics.
Media and interested citizens must be "opted-in" to receive email notification of when a special meeting is called, with the new law that will go into effect July 1. The law also requires that notices will be required to be posted to the city/county/school district (etc.) website for cities and counties with populations of 25,000 and 50,000, respectively.
We applaud the Mississippi legislature along with the Mississippi Municipal League and the Mississippi Press Association for helping craft this important bill for Mississippi.
