Grant Konvalinka & Harrison

22 Sep, 2014

Citizen wins attorneys fees in Chattanooga Open Meetings case

By |2015-08-18T07:39:03-05:00September 22, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits|Tags: , , , , , , , |1 Comment

Chancellor Pamela Fleenor on Friday issued an order awarding attorney fees, expenses and other costs to citizen Helen Burns Sharp who sued the city of Chattanooga's industrial development board over a Sunshine Law violation. Hamilton County Chancellor Pamela Fleenor The order in the Chattanooga Open Meetings case means the industrial development board could pay a large chunk of Sharp's legal bills, which have grown to roughly $89,000 with a second lawsuit filed earlier this month. Sharp won her initial case in July when Hamilton County Chancellor Frank Brown ruled that the industrial development board violated the Open Meetings Act by deciding to finalize tax-increment financing to a developer [...]

15 Sep, 2014

Chattanooga citizen files second open government lawsuit over economic development

By |2019-09-11T18:50:52-05:00September 15, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Chattanooga citizen Helen Burns Sharp has filed a second lawsuit against Chattanooga's industrial development board, alleging more violations of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act and the Tennessee Public Records Act, among other state laws. (See Chattanooga Times Free Press story here.) Helen Burns Sharp Sharp won a lawsuit earlier this summer when a judge ruled that the Industrial Development Board (IDB) of Chattanooga violated the Sunshine Law when it approved tax-increment financing for a golf course community based on deliberations that took place outside of a public meeting. (See Chancellor Frank Brown's ruling). Sharp has tried to draw attention to the IDB's actions, saying they are making key [...]

4 Aug, 2014

Open Records Counsel: Chattanooga utility EPB wrongly demanded fees to view public records

By |2015-04-28T11:34:23-05:00August 4, 2014|Categories: fees|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments

The city-owned utility of Chattanooga charged a University of Tennessee-Chattanooga student $1,767 to view its public records on advertising spending -- an amount that the state's Open Records Counsel said is not in line with the law. Despite counsel Elisha Hodge telling Electric Power Board of Chattanooga (EPB) that it could not charge labor fees to compile records for a citizen to inspect, the utility stood by its decision in a story in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and tried to justify its action by saying the student was working with a national think tank. Ethan Greene, a student at University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Student Ethan Greene on March 24 requested [...]

20 Feb, 2014

Chattanooga must pay woman $71K for attorney fees in public records lawsuit

By |2018-11-16T15:08:52-06:00February 20, 2014|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , , |1 Comment

  Rebecca Little sued the city of Chattanooga after it didn't respond to her public records request as required by state law. She was trying to find out the progress of services promised for an annexed area. An appeals court says the city owes her $71K in attorney's fees because it was "willful" in not following the state's Open Records Act.   A Tennessee appeals court last week sent a strong message in a public records lawsuit against the city of Chattanooga, ordering the trial court to award the full $71,343 in attorney fees and expenses incurred by the citizen who brought the case. It was the second [...]

Go to Top