May 22–On this day in Mississippi history . . .

in 2012 Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 211, the Sunshine Act.

“Transparency in government is critical to its integrity,” Bryant said after signing the bill into law. “I have long supported and believed in the need for Mississippi to more clearly define its relationships with outside counsel. Our goal with the Sunshine Act is to make these relationships more open and transparent, and House Bill 211 is a strong example of government being held accountable.”

The bill set new guidelines for the hiring of outside counsel by state agencies and for the hiring of outside counsel on a contingency fee basis.

Under the legislation, state agencies can retain outside counsel in cases where the attorney general declines to represent them or in cases where a state agency feels the attorney general cannot adequately represent its legal interests because of a significant disagreement over legal strategy.

The bill also defines when an outside attorney may be hired on a contingency fee basis.

Before making such an agreement, the attorney general or state official retaining the counsel must provide a written determination that the fee to be paid is both cost-effective and in the public interest.

Other provisions included in the bill:

• Requires outside counsel to keep detailed time records
• Places limitations on percentage of a recovery that can be paid as a contingency fee. It also provides that “[a] contingency fee shall not be based on penalties or civil fines awarded or any amounts attributable to penalties or civil fines”
• Fees paid to outside counsel “shall not exceed recognized bar rates for similar services”
• Fee limitations can be waived by majority vote of the Outside Counsel Oversight Commission, which is comprised of the governor, the lieutenant governor and the secretary of state
• Requires the attorney general to give an agency seven days’ notice before taking any legal action on the agency’s behalf, unless delay would cause the state “irreparable injury”

DOJ fishing for information on MS Voter ID.

The U.S. Department of Justice still is considering whether to preclear Mississippi’s voter identification requirement that was approved by voters in November 2011.

Jan Schaefer, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jim Hood, said information requested by the Justice Department on March 21 “is being sought and will be submitted to DOJ as it is collected from various officials and agencies which have it.”

Pamela Weaver, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, said the Justice Department in March requested “any correspondence between legislators, elected officials, employees and members of the public regarding voter ID. Because this was an unusually broad request without specific dates, we worked with the Justice Department on clarifying the scope of information and time frame.”

Once the Justice Department receives the information, it will have 60 days to respond. Under federal law, any changes to Mississippi elections must be approved by the Justice Department to ensure they do not violate minority voting rights.

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Budget estimate revision could happen before House-Senate negotiations.

It is not uncommon for the Legislative Budget Committee to meet late in the session to change the estimate before the House-Senate negotiations, where final decisions on the budget are normally hammered out.

It will be up to House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, who is chair of the Budget Committee this year, to decide whether to ask the state’s financial experts to look at the revenue picture and whether to call a meeting of the Legislative Budget Committee to consider revising the estimate.

“I think that is an option that is open and obviously something he is looking into,” said Nathan Wells, Gunn’s chief of staff. “It is a definite possibility.”

If the estimate is changed it probably would be revised upward.

Through February, collections are $132.1 million above the estimate made in April 2012 to construct the budget for the current year. Collections for the current year include $35.2 million from the settlement of lawsuits by Attorney General Jim Hood not factored into the estimate.

Still, without those funds, collections are nearly $100 million above the estimate.

When asked about increasing the estimate in the coming weeks, Senate Appropriations Chair Buck Clarke, R-Hollandale, a member of the Budget Committee, said, “It is an option. I am hoping that revenues continue to improve.”

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CL: AG bill: Waste of taxpayers’ money

The new Mississippi House Republican majority voting to limit Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood’s power would be almost comical, if it weren’t so potentially disruptive.

Comical or not, the House on Wednesday voted 59-55 to allow state agencies to hire their own attorneys.

The politics of the move is obvious. A Republican-majority House has voted to sanction the lone Democratic statewide elected official. Everyone understands the politics. But what is hard to understand is the willingness of lawmakers to play politics with something that could have so much negative impact on the legal operations of state government.

This bill would remove the legal decisions from the state’s chief legal officer to agency heads. Proponents say agency heads need to be able to hire outside lawyers without Hood’s approval. Why would agency heads want to go around the AG? Could the reason be, again, politics?

via AG bill: Waste of taxpayers’ money | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.

Overkill on AG’s powers may backfire

Either the voters don’t know about the issue – which would be hard to imagine, given the attention it’s gotten – or they’ve decided it’s OK with them.

That’s what makes the effort this legislative session to take others of Hood’s powers, including allowing state agencies to hire outside counsel when they don’t think the AG’s office will adequately represent them, look a bit like political overkill. Such a bill was killed on a rule technicality last week, but it’s likely to be back before the House quickly.

The attorney general’s office is designated as the legal representative for state agencies. Taking that role away from the AG clearly risks unnecessary additional expense and overlap of responsibilities. It has the clear markings of a politically punitive move around a duly elected constitutional officer of the state, who happens to be the only statewide Democratic elected official amid a sea of Republicans.

Hood isn’t above politics, of course. Few would argue that. But the new Republican majority, which is entitled to push its own program, should consider the other side of this particular question: That Hood, whose powers they seek to eviscerate, was elected three times by the voters as well.

via djournal.com – OUR OPINION: Overkill on AG’s powers may backfire.

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House panel snubs Hoods effort to testify on bill

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Attorney General Jim Hood is steamed because a state House committee wouldnt let him testify on a bill that would cut his authority. Under the bill, any state agency would be able to hire its own lawyer without Hoods approval.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 13-10 Tuesday to approve the bill, setting it up for a vote of the full House as early as Thursday.

Republicans have been trying for years to limit Hoods authority, now the lone Democrat in statewide office. They had discussed ways to inhibit him from hiring lawyers to pursue large cases against corporations. But Tuesdays bill instead gives every other agency head the ability to hire lawyers without Hoods approval any time that an agency head finds that Hood cant adequately represent the agency.

via House panel snubs Hoods effort to testify on bill – WLOX-TV and WLOX.com – The News for South Mississippi.

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12 of Barbour’s pardons won’t be challenged

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Twelve ex-convicts who committed mostly non-violent crimes in 11 Mississippi counties no longer need to worry whether their pardons from former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour will stand.

“I feel like a weight’s been lifted,” said Barry Sanderson Jr., who served more than three years on probation for kidnapping in the late 1990s. He received a full pardon a week ago today. “I’m real grateful to Gov. Barbour.”

In a review of 181 files from the governor’s office, Attorney General Jim Hood found that 12 included evidence the applicants had met the constitutional requirement for requesting a pardon.

Hood said the five former Governor’s Mansion trusties released Jan. 8 did not meet the requirement, and neither did five pardoned criminals still being held in prison on a court order. Barbour has said his office sent notices for the former trusties on time.

via 12 of Barbour’s pardons won’t be challenged | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.

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Curbs on AG’s hiring counsel have historical precedent

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Claims from Democratic lawmakers that Republican legislation aimed at changing the state’s outside counsel process for the attorney general’s office is “retaliation” against Attorney General Jim Hood‘s stance on former Gov. Haley Barbour‘s controversial pardons ignore a substantial amount of Mississippi legal and political history.

State Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello, called Senate Bills 2084 and 2102 “retaliation” against Hood against fighting Barbour’s “release of over 200 Mississippi felons, including murderers, rapists and child sex offenders” at the end of Barbour’s gubernatorial term. The legislation would limit fees outside counsel attorneys can receive from contingency fee contracts with the state. Current law places no limits on attorney’s fees in such suits.

“This retaliatory stunt couldn’t come at a worse time,” said Evans. “At this moment, General Hood is working to recover tens of millions owed to the state’s retirement system, now is not the time to tie his hands.” Evans went on to assert that Hood had recovered over $500 million for state taxpayers that “didn’t cost taxpayers a dime.”

But the fact is that the furor over outside counsel contracts has been raging long before Barbour was elected governor and the legislation filed this session had absolutely nothing to do with the pardons.

The outside counsel fight has been ongoing in Mississippi since the late Gov. Kirk Fordice and former Attorney General Mike Moore battled over Mississippi’s $4.1 billion tobacco settlement.

Current Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, while serving as state auditor in 2006, filed suit to get back $14 million in legal fees from the state’s MCI-Worldcom lawsuit – claiming the legal fees belonged to the state and must under law be appropriated by the Legislature. Current Republican State Auditor Stacey Pickering carried on the Bryant lawsuit.

via Curbs on AG’s hiring counsel have historical precedent | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.

Gunn led House likely to focus on AG’s appropriation of funds in legal settlements

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Gunn has argued that the attorney general is not elected to decide how taxpayer money is to be spent. That, he has said, is a job for the Legislature.

That is why Gunn, who has served in the House for nearly eight years, wants to see an attorney general “sunshine law” passed in Mississippi.

Such legislation would also bar the Attorney General’s Office from hiring outside attorneys — especially those with ties to Hood’s office — without legislative approval.

Previous attempts to pass such legislation have been blocked because of the House’s Democratic control.

Now, it could have a chance of surviving.

But whether any action will be taken this upcoming session, on the measure or any tort reforms, Gunn said he is unsure — that is, even with the GOP‘s hold on the House and the likelihood he will be speaker.

The House won’t choose its new speaker until it meets in January.

If Gunn is selected, it will be the first time in nearly 140 years that the post has been held by a Republican.

via LegalNewsline | Miss. Speaker candidate baffled at AG Hood’s re-election.

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Fitch: No learning curve for me

Since 2009, Fitch has served as the executive director of the Mississippi State Personnel Board, an agency responsible for directing more than 130 state agencies and overseeing 32,000 employees. Gov. Haley Barbour selected her for the job.

She said in the position she has cut spending, maximized assets, increased public and private partnerships, improved technology and brought more accountability and transparency to the agency.

The treasurer’s job would be run the same way if she were in charge, she said.

Fitch’s other career stops have each added to her experience on a path toward the treasurer’s post.

She served as deputy executive director of external affairs and support services at the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, where she helped people get into jobs across the state.

And because the treasurer also serves on the state Bond Commission, Fitch could put her experience as a bond lawyer to good use. “No learning curve there, either,” she said.

Fitch also served as counsel for the state House of Representative’s Ways and Means Committee.

She began her career 26 years ago as special assistant attorney general with the state Attorney General’s Office, representing the state Bond Commission, Department of Banking and Consumer Finance, Department of Economic and Community Development, Department of Finance and Administration and Office of the State Treasurer.

All of her experience has given her the ability to make hard, informed choices, she said.

“I don’t mind at all when it’s time to say no, be it as an agency head, be it as the treasurer, be it as a bond commission member,” she said

via Fitch: No learning curve for me – Elections – SunHerald.com.

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