The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Trustees unanimously approved a response prepared by board attorney Chris Hemphill to a public records complaint to the Mississippi Ethics Commission that The Dispatch filed against the CVB.
The Dispatch complaint, filed July 10, alleges the CVB, and its CEO Nancy Carpenter, failed to provide requested payroll documents and excessively charged the newspaper for what was provided.
The complaint asks for CVB to provide more documents and refund any amount the Ethics Commission deems it overcharged the newspaper.
On July 20, Hemphill responded to The Dispatch complaint, sending a copy of the response to the newspaper.
Monday, the CVB board approved Hemphill’s response in its regular meeting.
Hemphill briefly reviewed the communications between the CVB and The Dispatch for board members Monday, iterating his position that the CVB had fulfilled the public records request.
Hemphill told the board what he wrote in his response, claiming that the initial request for four pieces of information asked for a “list” of three of the items. Hemphill said that since no list existed, a document was prepared to provide that information.
“What was provided to them was a one-page document that had been prepared and was a compilation of a bunch of information,” Hemphill told the board. “That was the best way to provide the information. They requested a list and that’s what we provided.”
CVB charged the newspaper $308 for the one-page document.
The original request, a letter dated May 31, does use the word list. However, it also specifically requests “records pertaining to” certain payroll information.
Hemphill also did not mention to the board that Dispatch Managing Editor Zack Plair contacted Carpenter by email before the CVB had provided any information to the paper in an effort to emphasize the newspaper was requesting existing records rather than a created document that summarized the requested information — documents CVB still has not provided.
Hemphill also addressed the charges for the information it provided.
“They did question the fee, which was $480, I think,” Hemphill told the board. “I waived my fee and the new fee was $308. … (The Dispatch’s) position is that we charged them too much and we did not respond the way they wanted us to.”
Dispatch Publisher Peter Imes said the CVB has failed to provide the requested material it was obligated to provide by state law.
“We specified we were seeking public records in our initial request and in a subsequent email,” Imes said. “The list the CVB provided is appreciated, but it doesn’t provide the actual public records we were seeking.”
The Ethics Commission has yet to offer a preliminary ruling on the complaint.
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