John Anderson Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

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

By Deborah Fisher|2015-04-28T11:34:23-05:00August 4, 2014|Categories: fees|Tags: Chattanooga, Elisha Hodge, EPB, fees for public records, Grant Konvalinka & Harrison, John Anderson, OORC, Times Free Press|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 [...]

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

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 [...]