Freedom of Information for Tunica County Employees

On 8 Nov 2012, the Transparency Committee sent the following FOI letter to County Administrator Clifton Johnson through the Board of Supervisors' attorney.

DELIVERED Via Email to: Attorney Andy Dulaney 8 Nov 2012


8 Nov 2012

Clifton Johnson
County Administrator
Tunica, MS 38676

Dear Mr. Johnson:

Pursuant to the state open records law, MS Code Sections 25-61-1 to 25-61-17, I write to request that a list of all persons employed by Tunica County as of 1 Oct 2012 be made available to the public by placing a copy of this listing in the Oct 2012 minutes of the Board of Supervisors of Tunica County, MS. If it is not possible to place this request in the Oct 2012 minutes, please place the requested records in the Nov 2012 Tunica County Board of Supervisors’ Minutes. This list would include the name of each employee, the department to which each employee is assigned and the corresponding salary for this employee for the period covering 1 Oct 2011 through 30 Sep 2012. This request is being made on behalf of the Citizens of Tunica County and their right to know.

It is provided by the MS open records law that a response is expect within fourteen (14) business days (MS Code Section 25-61-5(1)). This is not necessary if you will just make the above request available to the public as stated.

If you choose to deny this request, please provide a written explanation for the denial including a reference to the specific statutory exemption(s) upon which you rely.

Please be advised that I am prepared to pursue whatever legal remedy necessary to obtain access to the requested records. I would note that willful violation of the open records law can result in a fine of up to $100 and all reasonable litigation expenses (MS Code Section 25-61-15).

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Barbara R. Tuchel

cc. Andy Dulaney
Robert Tuchel

On 13 Nov 2012, the Transparency Committee received the following response from Andy Dulaney.

I have this request. Certainly you can request and received a list of the county’s employees and their salaries.

As to the issue to include that information in the requested format in the Board’s minutes, I think that is a Board decision outside of the public records act.

If you would like this list, let us know and we can get it.

Thanks,
Andy

On various occasions, the Transparency Committee has spoken with Clifton Johnson about this annual inclusion.  It is my understanding that the Board of Supervisors decided to only include this listing when raises are involved.  We can not find this decision in the public records.

Additionally, the Transparency Committee has found more then one error in the listings we do have.  When we found these errors, we reported them to the County Administrator and were never given confirmation that the records were corrected.

The Transparency Committee will go to the Board of Supervisors on 14 Dec 2012 and request this information be included in their records as of 1 Oct each year.

Good news.  We made our presentation tonight at the Board of Supervisors' Meeting and the Board voted to make this information a part of their minutes each January.  Making this listing a part of their minutes will put this information in the Public Records and therefore available for all to see.

Thanks to the Board of Supervisors for taking this action.