by DAVID HAMILTON

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — Though the Natchez-Adams School Board’s Wednesday meeting in which the board approved borrowing $9 million appeared to be hastily called to some people, the board actually gave more notice than what state law requires.

In advance of the board’s approval to borrow the money for a school construction and renovation project, notice of the meeting came just three hours and 33 minutes before it took place, virtually ensuring members of the public were unaware the vote was being taken.

Exactly one week ago, a school board meeting became a melee after residents aiming to put the $9 million loan to a vote clashed with a school board member. A new law that took effect July 1, however, only requires the board to provide one hour’s notice.

Specifically, house bill 1116 — an amendment to the Mississippi Code of 1972 — requires “any public body” to:

4Post notice of the meeting on its website (if one exists) at least one hour before the meeting; and

4Submit notice at least one hour before the meeting via email or facsimile to media outlets or citizens that have requested in writing to be notified.

The school board sent out a notice at approximately 7:27 a.m., with the specially called meeting scheduled for 11 a.m. The body of the email incorrectly listed the date of the meeting as Thursday, the following day. An attached PDF file contained a packet for the board meeting, which displayed the correct meeting date of July 26, though the file’s name also suggested the meeting date was Thursday.

State law requires that when a board calls a special called meeting, a written notice shall be posted within one hour after such meeting is called in the building in which the public body normally meets. In the school board’s case, they were legally required to post a notice inside the Braden Administration Building containing the time, place and subject matter of the meeting, while also posting the notice to its website and emailing the notice to the local newspaper.

Superintendent Fred Butcher said the school board complied with these stipulations.

Before the amendment took effect July 1, public bodies simply had to post notice of a meeting in a “prominent place” inside the building those meetings typically take place and within one hour of calling the meeting.

“Prior to this (bill), they didn’t have to give you any special notice at all,” Mississippi Press Association executive director Layne Bruce said.

But even if a public body did violate the law by providing less than one hour’s notice, any sort of recompense would be unlikely.

“The unfortunate part of this law is that there’s really no teeth to it,” Bruce said. “There is no recourse unless you choose to pursue it legally.

“But it’s at least on the books, and we’ll look to strengthen it going forward.”