Citations
Miss. Rev. Stat. § 109.005 et. Seq.
(http://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneChapter.aspx?chapter=109)
Exemptions to Disclosure
- Preliminary deliberations not retained nor presented by agency at public meeting
- Work product
- Confidential
- Privileged
- Negotiations [any minutes, voting records, etc. to be made available upon execution of agreement]
- There may be some protection for records that relate to proprietary “scientific and technological innovations.” Miss. Rev. Stat. § 610.021(15). The Sunshine Law does provide that “public records relating to scientific and technological innovations in which the owner has a proprietary interest” may be closed. Miss. Rev. Stat. § 610.021(15).
Access Rights
- Any member of the public
- Upon request, response within reasonable period of time, no more than 3 business days
- Detailed explanation must be given re: cause of any delay and place and earliest time and date record will be available – may exceed 3 days for reasonable cause
- Written statement of grounds for denial, citing specific provision of law (w/in 3 business days of original request)
- Description of exempt data severed from record with exempt and nonexempt,if separation/redaction is readily apparent to requestor – unless description would defeat purpose of exemption
- Fees for both copying and inspection access
- Up to $5K penalty for purposeful, up to $1K for knowing, violation by custodian (preponderance of the evidence)
- Good faith non-employee reporters and employee whistleblowers exempt from liability and discipline [610.028]
- Custodian strongly encouraged, but not required, to provide online access to its records kept in electronic format
Destruction of Public Records
- 109.210: No records shall be destroyed or disposed of unless state records commission or local records board first determines the records have no administrative, fiscal, research, or historical value; no records can be destroyed until they meet the minimum retention period
