Dear Editor:

As a state legislator who has voted for measures to increase the accountability of elected officials to the public, I believe I have the right to expect the Mississippi Ethics Commission to give us a quick answer on the complaint Commissioner Dick Hall has filed. Hall accuses Transportation Commissioners Bill Minor and Wayne Brown of breaking the open meetings law by meeting on an admitted quest by Madison County Supervisor Tim Johnson, County Engineer Rudy Warnock and Jackson attorney Ed Brunini asking the commissioners and Transportation Director Butch Brown to promise a larger state match for the Reunion interchange in Madison.

The open meetings law is a law that gives the public some measure of protection from public officials who, in a majority of the body they represent, meet in private, with no public notice, to make decisions concerning their business.

While we await the answer to this complaint, I can’t help wondering what other meetings have taken place on behalf of Madison County supervisors’ projects. Do the other supervisors know and approve of this rendezvous, or was it a power move by one supervisor and our county engineer? Don’t Madison County taxpayers pay two lobbyists a pretty penny for services such as this?

No matter. The question is: Was this a violation of the open meetings law and what will be done to keep it from happening again?

State Representative Rita Martinson, Madison County, District 58