If the City of Natchez were a publicly traded business, talk of a hostile takeover would be growing.

Turmoil abounds at the moment and the taxpaying stockholders are left in the dark about what’s going on at the corporate headquarters.

As best we can tell, the city’s administration appears to be plodding through the self-created financial briar patch of atrocious financial practices with the grace of a stampeding elephant.

Unfortunately, terminated city workers are not the only things trampled in the process. The state’s Open Meetings Laws and the simple, but important, trust that voters give elected representatives also appear to be in line for some hoof traffic.

We understand the city may simply open today’s special meeting and immediately adjourn into executive session to avoid having the public at the table.

In doing so, we expect the city to cite the “personnel” exemption of the open meetings laws.

But city leaders should use care when using that exemption.

Reducing expenses by cutting a position, multiple positions or even entire departments is a budget concern, not a personnel one, and thus the public has a right to be part of the discussion.

Only if the aldermen are discussing an individual’s performance or pay should the public be excluded for the sake of the employee’s privacy.

We’re only two years into this political term and already the grumblings over how to oust elected officials or who will run in the next election have grown from whispers to openly loud talking.

All of this would likely be lessened greatly if the city’s elected officials were upfront, open and honest with citizens on any and all budget cuts that have been — or soon will be — made.