“We started with the last jail update that the board did at Cadence Bank. The board has decided going forward they are going to stream all of their meetings,” County Administrator Ronnie Bell said. “Its more flexibility for the public.”
This was the next step in a series of projects meant to expand the county’s online presence, which includes a website built through the McLean Agency, which is operated by the advertising wing of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. The county also created a new social media page on Facebook.
This comes as multiple supervisors pushed for more transparency in their meetings and multiple residents argued both in and out of official meetings to increase public involvement, increase transparency and offer more accessibility to the meetings.
Bell said while District 1 Supervisor George Rutledge was vocal about the technology upgrades, the other four supervisors also felt it was best for the county and residents.
“(Rutledge) made his position known, but all five (supervisors) want to work together, and they recognize the value of putting the information out there,” Bell said. “It allows people to be more involved. Technology is there to do it and they decided they want to.”
The process began in 2022, when officials mulled expanding their web presence. Two years later, the board, with two new supervisors, tapped the McLean Agency for its website construction. The website and Facebook profile went active last fall.
The Jan. 6 meeting saw almost 800 views at the time of reporting. Before the official streams, multiple residents streamed the meetings on their own Facebook accounts, including Ashely Morris, who created the Facebook page Lee County Voices for Change, previously known as Lee County Citizens Against Mobile Home Restrictions; and Rob Chambers, president of the Tupelo/Lee County chapter of the Conservative Coalition of Mississippi.
Dinetia Newman, who regularly attends meetings, pushed for more transparency through streaming and audio-visual upgrades alongside Donna Wardlaw, an advocate with Indivisible Mississippi. Newman said he spoke often with Rutledge, her supervisor, about the issue and praised him for his effort.
“(Streaming) was a significant step forward toward transparency,” Newman said. Though she did not attend the Tuesday morning meeting, she attended the first meeting of the year. “I was very pleased that, a. They had microphones and, b. They were streaming the meeting.”
Wardlaw said she was happy to see the streaming, but does see room for improvement.
“(The streaming) gives the people more opportunity to understand the board of supervisors is actually a powerful entity. They hold a lot of pursestrings…. I’m glad they are doing it,,” Wardlaw said. “They really need to do something about their sound system. There were times when I couldn’t hear…. If they would improve the sound quality it would be much better.”
While there is a microphone on the board table, Bell said the county is working to improve audio quality as a whole for the meetings and the stream, noting that District 4 Supervisor and Board President Tommie Lee Ivy specifically said he was told by multiple people they had trouble hearing the stream.
Not only did Bell note the meetings are being streamed, but he also noted that starting with Tuesday’s meeting, the county began publishing the meeting agendas online the Friday before the meeting on their website.
© 2025 the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, Miss.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
