The state of Georgia requires public hearings for very good reasons.

The public has both a right and a need to know and the right to have input in matters that directly affect people and property.

It is the responsibility of public officials to respect those rights and even protect the public right to know.

When those rights are violated, the state provides remedies including the rights of aggrieved parties to file a lawsuit.

When the Lowndes County Commission voted June 16 to rezone property located along Howell Road to pave the way for a residential drug recovery facility, it did not comply with state laws requiring transparency. 

Adequate public notice requirements are among the most basic and fundamental transparency laws designed to protect the public’s right to know. 

It is the responsibility of local government to know, understand and follow those provisions of state law. 

Mistakes are mistakes and we fully understand that mistakes happen. 

However, once again, we emphasize lawmakers must be held accountable not only for following open government requirements but for knowing what is required. 

If the board or county staff did not know or understand the notice requirements, someone should have checked before the unique rezoning process began. 

Furthermore, if there was no prior knowledge, and this was just a mistake, the board should have come clean, made the general public aware in a special called meeting and reversed the decision immediately after being made aware of the violation. 

Public notice laws are not intended to make it cumbersome for local government to transact public business but instead are designed to make sure the public’s business is always transacted out in the open, in full public view and the rights of residents are fully protected. 

The Lowndes County Commission was right to set aside its decision to rezone the property on Howell Road. 

Still, it should not have taken a lawsuit to force compliance or even to illuminate the violation of public notice requirements. 

We do commend Chairman Bill Slaughter for taking “full responsibility.”

But again, it should never take a lawsuit — as it did in this case — to force full and complete compliance with all public notice laws. 

The public’s right to know is too sacred to take lightly.