in Mississippi

CHAPTER 5
OPEN MEETINGS, PUBLIC RECORDS,
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Tom Hood
The Mississippi Ethics Commission has the following duties under the Ethics in Government
Law:
• Provide forms for the filing of financial disclosures by public officials and candidates and
make the completed forms available for public inspection upon request;
• Receive sworn complaints and subsequently investigate alleged violations of the law by
public servants; and
• Issue written advisory opinions to public servants with regard to any standards of conduct
set forth in the conflict of interest laws.
• Enforce the Open Meetings Act and issue decisions on the Public Records Act.
OPEN MEETINGS ACT
The Mississippi Open Meetings Act was adopted in 1975 and is recorded in Chapter 41, Title 25
of the Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated. Code, § 25-41-1 states “It being essential to the
fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of representative government and
to the maintenance of a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and
public manner, and that citizens be advised of and be aware of the performance of public
officials and the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy, it is hereby
declared to be the policy of the State of Mississippi that the formation and determination of
public policy is public business and shall be conducted at open meetings except as otherwise
provided herein.”
The Basics
• Public meetings must be open to the public.
• Executive session must follow specific procedure and only for 12 reasons.
• Notice of meeting must be given, and minutes must be kept.
• Social gatherings are not “meetings” unless official business is discussed.
• Act never requires executive session.
Definitions
• “Public body” is any board, commission, authority, council, departmental agency, bureau
or other entity or committee of the state, political subdivision or municipality.
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