OCEAN SPRINGS, MS — Less than an hour after GC Wire published an article questioning the legality of tonight’s scheduled meetings between Ocean Springs aldermen and State Rep. Hank Zuber, the meetings were abruptly cancelled.
According to text messages sent Friday afternoon by Mayor’s Assistant Laurri Garcia, the gatherings — originally split into three small groups to avoid a quorum — would no longer take place.
The plan, first reported by GC Wire, had divided the board into groups of three and two, ensuring that no four aldermen — the number needed for a quorum — would ever be in the same room at once.
If Board members meet in a quorum they are required to notice the public and allow the residents and media to attend.
When Alderman Shannon Pfeiffer asked Garcia about the legality of the arrangement, Garcia responded: “He’s meeting with three, then three. Bobby and Kevin are at another time.”
Pfeiffer later confirmed she was not planning to attend the meetings out of an abundance of caution.
Why It Matters
Mississippi’s Open Meetings Act requires deliberations of a quorum to be open to the public. The act ensures government operates in full transparency and not via back-room meetings shaded from public view.
Courts and the Ethics Commission have warned that breaking into sequential sub-quorum groups — a practice known as a “walking quorum” — still violates the law if the intent is to keep deliberations private.
In 2017, the Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the City of Columbus violated the Act by using nearly identical tactics. The court described the sub-quorum meetings as “prearranged, nonsocial” gatherings meant to “circumvent or avoid the requirements of the Act,” and held that they must be open to the public.
A Quick Retreat
Faced with those legal concerns, and with scrutiny after GC Wire’s reporting, Ocean Springs officials pulled the plug on Friday’s meetings. It remains unclear whether the city will attempt to reschedule Zuber’s discussions in a public setting.
And the never ending story continues…..