OCEAN SPRINGS, MS — The Mississippi Ethics Commission has been asked to review whether Ocean Springs officials violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by planning and arranging a series of private meetings with State Rep. Hank Zuber in a manner that excluded the public and media.
According to public text messages obtained through a records request, Mayor’s Assistant Laurri Garcia contacted members of the Board of Aldermen on the morning of October 3 to schedule three separate meetings with Zuber, each involving fewer than four aldermen. Any meeting with four or more aldermen would constitute a quorum, which requires public notification and the ability for residents and media to attend.
Text messages produced in response to a public records request show that one alderman, Shannon Pfeiffer, asked Garcia whether the plan complied with open-meeting laws. Garcia replied, “He’s meeting with three, then three. Bobby and Kevin are at another time.”
This type of practice, often called a “walking quorum,” has been found unlawful by the Mississippi Supreme Court when used with the intent to evade the Open Meetings Act. It occurs when less than a quorum meet in sequential groups to discuss the same issue, effectively deliberating as a full board without appearing together in one room.
Less than two hours after GC Wire published an article describing the setup as a possible violation of the law, the city notified aldermen the meetings were canceled. The filing states that this timing, taken together with the text messages, “confirms the structure was intentional and that officials recognized its legal risk.”
Vital Role of Media in Enforcing Open Meetings Laws
Media outlets across Mississippi have long used the Open Meetings Act and Public Records Act to hold cities, counties, and state bodies accountable. These cases have repeatedly affirmed that journalists and independent publishers are not only permitted but expected to police government transparency.
In 2015, The Commercial Dispatch newspaper in Columbus filed a complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission after reporting that the city’s mayor and council members held back-to-back private meetings in small groups to discuss public business outside public view. The Ethics Commission found the practice violated the Open Meetings Act. The city appealed, and in 2017 the Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Commission’s decision.
In its opinion, the Court wrote that the mayor and council had “held four pairs of prearranged, nonsocial and sub-quorum gatherings over the course of two months” and that these gatherings, though technically under quorum, “illustrated the City’s intent to circumvent or avoid the requirements of the Act.” The ruling established clear precedent that prearranged, nonsocial sub-quorum gatherings on public business, when intended to avoid the Act, must be open to the public.
The scheduling of the Ocean Springs meetings with Rep. Hank Zuber closely resembles that description. As in Columbus, the meetings were prearranged, nonsocial, and structured in groups smaller than a quorum while addressing public business. In Ocean Springs, the plan was canceled after it was publicly reported.
GC Wire continues a longstanding Mississippi tradition of journalists using open-government laws to enforce transparency. The exposure is not a personal dispute but a public-interest action. When sub-quorum meetings designed to exclude the public go unchallenged, the purpose of the state’s transparency laws is undermined.
A Pattern of Secrecy
Documents also point to the administration’s earlier decision to stop using the word “committee” in favor of calling aldermen “assistants” to departments, a change that critics say was intended to avoid the legal obligations of public committees, including public notice and keeping minutes. Taken together these actions show a deliberate disregard for the transparency requirements of state law.
Mayor Bobby Cox was asked whether the city recognizes that the arranged meetings may have violated the Mississippi Open Meetings Act and whether he is committed to allowing the public and media to attend future meetings with state officials. He did not respond before publication.
(Article last updated October 17, 2025)
Well it sounds as if this mayor is worse than the last. And possibly most of the BOA as well. Hopefully this ethics complaint takes care of this issue.