After fielding questions about possible ethics and open meetings violations, the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau will discuss hiring an attorney at a special meeting tonight.
The nine-member board — which has seven members now, including four recent additions — will meet at its new office at 5 p.m.
The meeting was called Friday, a day after Mitchell, McNutt and Sams — the law firm of former board member David Sanders — returned $17,320.50 to the CVB for legal work done by Sanders and his firm while he was on the board.
From February 2009 to September 2010, Sanders billed the CVB for 44 hours at a rate of $170 per hour, bringing in $7,480 for his firm. Others at the firm worked 73 hours, bringing in $9,550. The firm also charged the CVB $290.50 in expenses.
According to staff at the Mississippi Ethics Commission, Sanders appears to have violated this portion of state ethics law:
“No public servant shall: Be a contractor, subcontractor or vendor with the governmental entity of which he is a member, officer, employee or agent, other than in his contract of employment, or have a material financial interest in any business which is a contractor, subcontractor or vendor with the governmental entity of which he is a member, officer, employee or agent.”
Under the law, Sanders could face a fine of up to $10,000 and possibly would have had to pay restitution to the CVB.
In a statement released along with the refund last week, the firm stated that it returned the money when “it, and David, recognized (the CVB board members) were not appropriately charged because of his membership on the (CVB board).”
Even before the CVB began discussing the issue, the firm had already begun looking at whether it needed to return the fees, according to firm attorneys.
Possible open meetings violations
The public may not have ever found out about Sanders” pay if the board had continued to discuss it in executive session, which was possibly a violation of state open meetings law.
Board members voted in secret session April 25 to write Sanders a letter asking for a small portion of the $17,320.50 back, because they felt like some legal work on the new CVB office had been duplicated between him and another attorney, David Dunn.
The board voted to rescind that letter, which Byrd didn”t sign off on because she had unanswered questions, at its May 16 public meeting.
During that meeting, questions were raised briefly by board members about the ethics of paying Sanders” firm for the work.
According to Byrd and Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information attorneys, asking Sanders” firm for a refund was a billing issue that the public had a right to know about.
Not all board members were happy about the decision to discuss the issue in public. They said the issue fell under the “potential litigation” exemption of the law.
According to a 1983 Supreme Court opinion in a lawsuit against Vicksburg, the prospective litigation exception can only be used when litigation is “reasonable” or “likely to occur in the foreseeable future.”
In this case, according to MCFOI attorneys, there was no immediate threat of litigation, which would mean it should have been discussed in public.
During that same secret April 25 meeting, board members also discussed two other items — a personnel item about an unnamed employee, which is a proper executive session item, and another potential litigation item about former executive director James Tsismanakis.
When Tsismanakis cleaned out his office earlier this year, he took several items that belonged to the CVB, which he thought was a “customary” practice, said Interim Executive Director Nancy Carpenter.
Tsismanakis agreed to return the items, which included pictures, books and a Blues Trail silver harmonica, after receiving a letter from the board asking for the items back.
Attorneys at the MCFOI said that there was also no immediate threat of litigation in this case, which would mean the board was again wrong to discuss this issue outside the view of the public.
Carpenter said she”d spoken to other attorneys who thought that both of those open meetings issues were rightly discussed in closed session.
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