Score one for the public: City eliminates high bill for public records request
Published 6:22 am Wednesday, July 24, 2019
A Mississippi city is dropping its effort to charge $109 for public records that showed an elected official wrote a bad check to rent a city-owned facility for his wedding.
Columbus said for a week that the Commercial Dispatch must pay for the public records. The newspaper reports the city’s chief operations officer reversed course Monday, providing the documents for free.
First-term Columbus City Councilman Fred Jackson got married May 11 at Trotter Convention Center. The newspaper reports Jackson originally was charged $625 for the facility instead of the usual $1,200. He was later charged the usual rate but wrote a check that bounced. He then made a certified payment.
Jackson resigned from the City Council on July 3, saying he wants to spend more time with family.