Letter to the Editor

Impromptu meeting violated FOI law

Thursday, February 14, 2013

To the editor:

Regarding the article about last week's meeting of the Mississippi County Quorum Court, I was appalled to see the words "In an impromptu meeting of the Finance Committee ..."

This is clearly a violation of Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act, which states that notice of all meetings of public bodies, including committee meetings, must be given at least two hours prior to anyone who wishes to be notified.

Just because a Courier News reporter was already there, and because most of the members of the Finance Committee were already in attendance, it is still a violation of the law.

Any persons interested in the discussion of the Finance Committee could not have attended the committee meeting because they weren't notified of the meeting.

As a former newspaper reporter with more than 25 years of experience in covering local government, I am ashamed that the members of the Quorum Court, who are supposed to represent the public, disregarded a law written specifically to make sure the public is informed.

I am also very disappointed that the Courier News reporter did not bother to point this out to the Court, or that editors did not realize that the law was violated.

In today's electronic age, printed media is becoming a thing of the past. I would think that the leaders of this newspaper would work harder to do things correctly.

Yes, I am a former employee of the Courier News. And yes, while there, I attempted to educate many public bodies regarding Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act. Most times, the editor of the Courier News would not back me up, telling me instead to "pick my battles." In effect, I was told to ignore flagrant violations of "the public's law" and allow leaders to continue to do "business as usual."

I'm sorry, but we, as tax-paying citizens, are not allowed to pick which laws we want to obey. We must face the consequences of our actions.

I would hope that everyone would expect no less from our elected officials.

Donna Hilton
Blytheville