Have you been to a Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting lately?

It is a good show — maybe the best reality programming in town.

Watching our city leaders at work is almost like viewing a cross between the popular television shows “Big Brother” and “Survivor.”

Haven’t you secretly rooted for one of those sneaky contestants who will do anything to win $1 million?

I know I have.

And the best parts are the murky camera shots taken in some dark corner where contestants make behind-the-scenes allegiances, isn’t it?

Knowing insider information is delicious and perhaps empowering, especially when it is about that character who has been annoying you since the beginning of the television season.

Well, folks, that’s TV land, where the rules are not only meant to be broken, they are encouraged to be broken.

In the real world (little relation to that MTV reality program of the same name), rules also exist. Those rules are called the law. And unlike reality TV, when laws are broken, there are consequences.

No torches have been seen at recent aldermen meetings and the contestants have not been locked in a house for a month, but make no mistake, the mayor and board of aldermen have been ready to outwit, outplay and outlast.

The problem is that city leaders are not competing against some well-tanned, muscle-toned, made-for-TV contestants.

No. Any backroom dealings are made against the very public our community leaders serve — you and me.

Take a comment from Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis Tuesday night referring to a possible prison development in the county.

If you weren’t listening for it, you might have missed it.

“When we met with the supervisors in December…” she said.

What meeting, you might ask?

You know, the secret meeting between county officials and the mayor and board of aldermen.

You hadn’t heard of the meeting?

Neither had the newspaper.

No record of a notice ever made by the board of aldermen or the board of supervisors for such a meeting seems to exist.

Who called the meeting? The Natchez-Adams Economic Development Authority is claiming it today. But the true answer is still murky.

And what was discussed at this meeting? Mathis mentioned Tuesday night something about prisons.

But was that the only subject of the meeting? Was anything else discussed? How do we know?

The Mississippi Open Meetings Act clearly states that “any special called meeting shall be posted within one hour after such meeting is called.”

Was this part of the law followed? Apparently not. City and county leaders met at the convention center in a meeting without notifying the people they serve.

And was a record of this meeting kept? When asked, neither Supervisors President Darryl Grennell nor Natchez Mayor Phillip West said they knew of any minutes, even though the law clearly states that “minutes shall be kept of all meetings of a public body, whether in open or executive session…” Furthermore, the act says that minutes of any meeting shall be available to the public 30 days after the meeting.

So, was there a meeting? Now some 60 days later, city and county leaders admit there was.

Is that the only time this has happened? Of course not.

Even in front of constituents Tuesday night, the mayor told aldermen he would like to meet with them in private after the meeting’s adjournment.

No executive session was voted on, the law was not followed. But they still met.

The mayor said that it was an item that he forgot to mention during the regular executive session.

Innocent enough, right? How do we know?

Ben Hillyer is the web editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540 or ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.