Picking on the Wrong Commission

Many of you remember last year's "Sunshine Act" that sought to strip the Attorney General of his authority. It seems that they are at it again, this time taking on the Public Service Commission.

According to Patsy Brumfield over at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, "Twin bills before the Mississippi Legislature aim to strip the Public Service Commission of its powers to investigate public utilities."  If you have a quick minute, I suggest you read the whole thing.

These bills follow a 2011 investigation in which the Public Service Commission investigated the management of the North Lee County Water Association, which led to an indictment of its former executive director, and new management. 

Perhaps the most telling part of the PSC's value comes from Brumfield's interview with the North Lee County Water Association's new board President, Dan Clemons:

“Nothing would have ever changed at North Lee without the Public Service Commission,” Clemons said, expressing his concerns about the bills.

He recently reported improved operations and expansive plans to upgrade the water system.

“If the PSC hadn’t come in,” he noted, “the Health Department would have had to shut us down in another two or three years.”

With all of this talk about a new Sovereignty Commission, what's wrong with one built for public service?

Charlie Mitchell: Attorney General "Sunshine" Law not what it's advertised to be

In an opinion piece on today's Daily Journal website, Charlie Mitchell outlines the losses the state will likely see going forward as a result of the so-called "Sunshine" Act that was the darling of corporate defense lawyer Philip Gunn (R - Clinton).  Gunn, of course, was elected Speaker of the House following the Republican takeover in January.

Some excerpts:

It's not about allowing citizens to learn more about what public officials are doing. 

It's about trying to curb the enthusiasm of Attorney General Jim Hood in signing contracts with private attorneys to file suits on Mississippi's behalf. 

It comes with a cost because, like them or not, these cases have been part of the state's revenue picture for almost 20 years.

...

Nobody likes trial lawyers, right? Ambulance chasers. That's what they are. So flushing them out into the open is a good thing, right?

Well, except for the fact that their efforts have ginned up hundreds of millions of dollars for the public treasury in this, the poorest state in the union.

...

But aside from the stench is that Big Tobacco (through its customers) is paying the state Big Money to offset Medicaid and other state expenses in treating people with tobacco-related illnesses. 

The 2011 payment was $113 million. Compare that to state revenue from casinos, which was $150 million during the same period. It's not a pittance. Over 25 years, payments are expected to total $3.6 billion.

There was also the MCIWorldCom settlement that provided the state treasury with $100,000,000.00 and a new building to house the Department of Environmental Quality.  There have been others as well.  I hope we won't need money like that going forward, because under "Sunshine", we ain't going to get it.

***BREAKING*** - Senate sends Sunshine Act to conference

With most (if not all) Democrats voting no, the Senate sends the Sunshine Act to a conference committee after a brief debate.

***BREAKING*** - HB 211, the "Sunshine" Act, is before the Senate

Sen. Briggs Hopson, III (R - Vicksburg) is presenting HB 211 to the Senate at the moment.  This is the bill that would allow agencies to hire their own outside counsel.  This bill has been discussed here before.  Oh yeah, this bill had its genesis in ALEC.

ATRA takes a swing at Jim Hood and misses terribly

The American Tort Reform Association issued a press release yesterday containing an email from its Communications Director, Darren McKinney, to Attorney General Jim Hood.  In the release, ATRA says McKinney was responding to "what he felt was a misleading campaign email" Hood sent regarding HB 211.

That's funny, because apparently no one at ATRA bothered to read HB 211 before criticizing Hood about his opposition to it.

Not wimps or rabbits

For veteran legislative Democrats who have spent considerable time worrying about whether they extended enough respect to their Republican counterparts, these are strange times. Where Speaker McCoy anguished over the fairness of his decisions and often erred on the side of deference, Speaker Gunn and the replacements have chosen to deal in raw partisanship and compensate for their lack of institutional knowledge with sneak attacks and surprise. Even "sunshine" legislation, the centerpiece of the Republican election effort, was too incomplete and underdeveloped to be rolled out in the plain light of day. Containing nothing resembling what a reasonable person would consider "sunshine", the recently-deceased HB 122 stands as a reckless fantasy of a Speaker confused by a state that would permit a law and order Democrat to be elected Attorney General in a ruby red state.

The stops and starts of the first month of non-work in the House have rightfully drawn the ire of House Democrats. In a press release labeled "HB 122: The bill that was never properly before the House", Rep. Cecil Brown (D - Jackson) was quoted as saying:

"Republicans are fast-tracking selective legislation by subverting the committee process and bringing bills out on the floor well before their time.  This method of forcing bills down our throats has happened twice and it needs to stop.” 

For those who missed the point, Rep. Bob Evans (D - Monticello) told WLBT there would be no rolling over if Republicans stand determined to steamroll the rules of the House and of basic decency. Hopefully, Speaker Gunn is learning that the Speaker's stand is no place to work out your frustrations over seeing Jim Hood reelected. If not, he can expect the likes of Bob Evans and Cecil Brown to be waiting at every turn. Don't let the numbers on the House vote tally fool you, these folks are no "wimps or rabbits."  And if House Republicans continue in their efforts to ramrod shoddy legislation, they will be in for a long, unpleasant session.

Hood: HB 122 would create "a system ripe for cronyism"

As previously reported, HB 122, the so-called "Sunshine Act" was taken up by Rep. Mark Baker (R-Brandon) and the House Judiciary A Committee at 8:30 a.m. this morning.  Baker, denying requests from numerous members of his own committee and Attorney General Jim Hood, refused to allow the Attorney General to testify or even speak during this morning's meeting.

Since that time, General Hood has issued the following press release:

JIM HOOD
ATTORNEY GENERAL

AG Warns New Bill Will Cause Chaos for State's Legal Business
February 7, 2012

Contact: Jan Schaefer
Public Information Officer
601-359-2002
jscha@ago.state.ms.us<mailto:jscha@ago.state.ms.us>

Jackson, MS-Attorney General Jim Hood today is warning that House Bill 122 introduced last night under the cover of darkness and passed out of the House Judiciary A Committee early this morning by Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton and Representative Mark Baker of Brandon violates the constitution which gives the Attorney General the sole authority to speak in court with one voice on behalf of the state. The bill would allow state officials, agencies, boards, commissions, departments or institutions to hire their own outside attorneys over the Attorney General.

General Hood, who had a budget committee hearing this morning at 8:30 before the Senate, asked Mark Baker, Chairman of the House Judiciary A Committee, to give him a day to read the bill before he held a hearing on it, but Baker refused. When General Hood asked Baker to at least wait until he could finish his Senate budget hearing, Baker refused. When General Hood was allowed to leave the Senate Appropriations sub-committee hearing early, he went into the House hearing, but Baker refused to recognize General Hood so that he could advise the Committee members of the constitutional problems with the bill.

General Hood stated, "The people elected Philip Gunn, Mark Baker and me to work together, regardless of party. The least they could have done would have been to give the Committee members an opportunity to hear from the people's lawyer the truth about the bill. It is obvious that by the way they introduced this so-called "sunshine bill" under the cover of darkness last night and passed it out of committee at 8:30 this morning that they did not want the people to hear the truth. I hope the voters in Speaker Gunn's district in Clinton and Chairman Baker's district in Brandon will call them tonight and ask why they railroaded a bill through without even giving the people's lawyer an opportunity to speak to the committee."

State law makes the Attorney General the Chief Legal Officer of the State intrusted with management of all legal affairs of the state, and prosecution of all suits, civil or criminal, in which the state is interested, having power to control and manage all litigation on behalf of the state, and to maintain all suits necessary for enforcement of state laws, preservation of order, and protection of public rights. Kennington-Saenger Theatres, Inc. v. State ex rel. District Att'y, 196 Miss. 841, 18 So. 2d 483 (1944).

HB122 seeks to strip the Attorney General's constitutional authority and amend several state statutes in the process.

"The Attorney General is put in place to defend the state's interests and to provide a unified voice to the state on all legal matters," said Attorney General Hood. "If this bill passes, then agency heads with agendas and interests of their own will be allowed to pursue those interests on the taxpayers' dime over the states interest as a whole with no oversight. We have had several cases where agency directors have been sued for sexual harassment. Their interests have been to spend money defending a losing case; whereas, the state's interest was to settle the case and save money on lawyers."

Take for example, a recent case where the Department of Revenue hired their own lawyers who attempted to settle a case for approximately $3 million. The Attorney General pursued the same case and received $100 million for the state. Moreover, the $4 billion the state recovered from tobacco companies would have never occurred had this law been in place.

"What you have here is nothing more than an attempt to weaken the power of the Attorney General and to create a 'good ole boy' system of doing legal business in this state," said Attorney General Hood.

"I am so disappointed that I was not even allowed to address committee members, many of whom are newly elected lawmakers, to provide them with my perspective concerning the dangers of this bill," said Attorney General Hood. "The chairman of today's hearing refused to even allow me to testify."

The Attorney General added, "This bill creates a system ripe for cronyism, chaos, more government, duplication of services and is a severe waste of taxpayer dollars. It is not in the public interest or the way our constitution intended. Corporate wrongdoers and other criminals will celebrate if this bill passes. I hope lawmakers will see through this ludicrousness and do what is right."

###

So-called "Sunshine Act" rolled out under cover of darkness

During their short time in leadership, House Republicans have been a lot of things, transparent is not one of them.  The long awaited "Sunshine Act" is being forced through the process under the veil of darkness and will be placed in front of members of the House Judiciary B Committee in all of its glory at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.  The bill was not available for review at close of business today but magically appeared online sometime this evening.

House Bill 122 is notable in that it delivers no "sunshine" or added accountability to the current pro-Mississippi litigation process.  A cursory review of the Act reveals that it is little more than a bare knuckled attempt to strip the Attorney General's Office of its Constitutional authority to manage litigation on behalf of the state and hold wrongdoers accountable.  It attempts to give state agencies, boards and commissions the unfettered ability to retain lawyers on a no-limit contingency fee basis and essentially subverts citizens' right to elect their own attorney.

If this bill were law, there would be no health care trust fund because then Governor Fordice and the Division of Medicaid could have stopped then Attorney General Mike Moore from filing the suit which resulted in a $4 billion settlement for Mississippi.  Further, had this proposed law been in effect, Mississippi would have been forced to settle the MCI Worldcom case for $3.5 million instead of the $100 million it ultimately received.

No Republican can say with a straight face that the current system doesn't work.  Over the last 7 years, the Attorney General has recovered over $500 million for the taxpayers of Mississippi without costing taxpayers a dime.

This is a politically motivated solution in search of a problem and proof that Republican "sunshine" is no more than a cynical ruse.