economic development records

5 May, 2022

Citizen discovery is most important issue in vetting proposed developments

By |2022-05-05T14:08:54-05:00May 5, 2022|Categories: economic development, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: |0 Comments

It’s hard for citizens to get the information they need about proposed developments in a manner timely enough to make a difference to protect their own property value and interests.

4 Jan, 2022

$200M TNInvestco serves as a cautionary tale, including for lack of transparency

By |2022-01-04T10:58:50-06:00January 4, 2022|Categories: economic development|Tags: , , |0 Comments

Transparency dogged the TNInvestco program from the beginning, including with a lawsuit demanding to know how the recipients were chosen. Lawmakers also, when creating the program, enacted statutes to keep confidential the specific results of the state's investments.

16 Nov, 2021

Despite pushes for more accountability, economic development remains opaque in Tennessee

By |2021-11-16T13:14:06-06:00November 16, 2021|Categories: economic development|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments

Taxpayers don't know what they are getting for their money despite some lawmakers pushing for more accountability and information. Why? A web of exceptions to Tennessee's Public Records laws and lack of meaningful reporting on outcomes prevent transparency in the state's economic development programs.

30 Sep, 2018

TCOG lists 13 exemptions, exemption categories that need revision or elimination

By |2018-11-09T08:19:46-06:00September 30, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Public Records, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |1 Comment

Tennessee Coalition for Open Government recently provided the Open Records Ad Hoc Committee 13 exemptions or categories of exemptions that are interfering with the public's right to know what government is doing. Deborah Fisher, executive director of TCOG "As you will see, many of the exemptions listed have problems related to overbreadth or vagueness that we suspect may exceed the public purpose of the exemption. We know that some of the considerations we are bringing forward were not part of the debate when the exemptions were passed by the legislature," TCOG's letter said. "While this list may not cover every exemption that impairs transparency in government, we wanted [...]

29 Sep, 2017

Appeals court rules economic development organization subject to public records, open meetings law

By |2020-02-23T10:09:55-06:00September 29, 2017|Categories: economic development, functional equivalent, open meetings lawsuits, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments

In a win for a group of citizens in East Tennessee, the Court of Appeals in Knoxville ruled this week that a nonprofit economic development organization in Jefferson County is subject to the state's public records and open meetings laws. The court held in Oliver Wood et al. v. Jefferson County Economic Development Oversight Committee, Inc., that the nonprofit organization, which has received between 60 percent to 68 percent of its budget from local governments each year, is the functional equivalent of a government entity and subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act. The court also ruled that because EDOC has a significant role in making decisions and recommendations to local government [...]

Go to Top