Greene County

18 Jul, 2014

Citizen kicked out of public meeting after asking board to speak louder

By |2014-08-06T07:44:58-05:00July 18, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: , , , |1 Comment

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=697098480327636&set=o.240125856178528&type=2&theater Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles ordered police to escort a man out of a public meeting of the Greene County Industrial Development Board after the man asked the board to "speak up" so members of the audience could hear. The man, reported to be Eddie Bruce Overholt on the Save the Nolichucky Facebook page, made his request right after Broyles, the chairman of the board, told the audience, "If we have any more outbursts from the audience, you will be removed from the building." Police escorted the man out and said he was being arrested for disrupting a public meeting. The meeting concerned the re-application to Tennessee Department of [...]

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14 Jul, 2014

Newspapers delve into alleged Sunshine Law violations in zoning vote

By |2014-07-14T16:10:21-05:00July 14, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

The Knoxville News Sentinel in its Sunday edition digs into a lawsuit alleging violations of the Open Meetings Act in Greene County when approval was given to rezone land for a company that planned to make components for industrial explosives. The Greeneville Sun has also covered the lawsuit involving US Nitrogen extensively as well as reported stories on the plant's construction, application for permits and environmental opposition. Its stories can be found at this link. The Knoxnews.com article is reprinted here, with permission. You can read TCOG's column about the state's open government laws regarding economic development here. By Hugh G. Willett Special to the News Sentinel  GREENEVILLE — The future [...]

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14 Jul, 2014

Lawsuit probes secrecy in economic development

By |2015-02-26T05:06:58-06:00July 14, 2014|Categories: economic development, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

By Deborah Fisher Executive Director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government When government officials get into the business of economic development, they usually face the choice between transparency and secrecy. Too often, they choose secrecy. And sometimes the law allows it. At the state level, specific exemptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act give the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development broad latitude to keep confidential who they are talking with and incentives they are offering. Only after a deal is done, and the state has signed on the dotted line about how much money it has agreed to give a company in exchange for jobs, can the public [...]

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14 Mar, 2014

Greene County school board chairman apologizes over TV camera ban

By |2015-08-18T07:55:08-05:00March 14, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings, school boards|Tags: , , , , |1 Comment

The Greene County school board chairman apologized last night to "the board and to the public" over the TV camera ban from its public meeting last month, according to WJHL News Channel 11 and The Greeneville Sun. The board also proposed language that would change its camera policy. The policy allows the school board to prohibit cameras, including TV cameras, and is recommended by the Tennessee School Boards Association. However, an Tennessee Attorney General's opinion about banning cameras from public meetings says they should only be prohibited if they create a safety problem or disturb the orderly conduct of the meeting. Neither of those reasons was given to the WJHL [...]

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6 Mar, 2014

Jason Davis: Free press, until we disagree

By |2014-04-09T17:09:56-05:00March 6, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Jason Davis, editor of The Mountain Press in Sevierville, writes about the Greene County school board's decision to ban TV cameras from its meetings and the danger to a free press if its decision is allowed to stand. Here is an excerpt, republished with permission: Call it naiveté, but I generally believe most people seek public office because they think they can make a positive difference for their community. In many cases those elected are true statesmen — that is, they do right for the people they represent, putting the public, their constituents, before self. But there are some that, once elected, become entrenched and affected by the process. Often [...]

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