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Attorney warns MAPC members that new FOI law changes bar member-to-member talks about future agenda items
Summary
John Baker, an attorney with Mitchell Williams, briefed the commission on recent changes to state Freedom of Information (FOI) law that, he said, prohibit communications between members about matters likely to come before the body outside of convened meetings and create a new judicial enforcement mechanism that can invalidate votes.
John Baker, an attorney with the law firm Mitchell Williams, told the Jonesboro Metropolitan Area Planning Commission on Oct. 14 that recent changes to the state Freedom of Information (FOI) law significantly change how commissioners must communicate outside of convened meetings.
Baker said the statute now clarifies that social encounters such as running into one another at church or a community event are not subject to meeting-notice requirements, but he emphasized a new restriction: "You cannot communicate with one another as members of this governing body about any matter that is likely to come before your body in…
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