Get to know Tennessee law
The law allows state boards, agencies and commissions to meet by video conference or audio conference if they choose to do so. [T.C.A.§ 8-44-108.] This includes several state regulatory boards that license and monitor various professions, a large number of boards and commissions such as the Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Higher Education Commission and State Board and Education, and boards for agencies such as the Housing Development Agency.
In addition, members of local legislative bodies, which includes county commissions, city councils and boards of aldermen, may participate remotely in meetings through phone or video conference under certain circumstances as long as the governing body itself has a quorum physically present at the meeting location. The law limits the number of members participating remotely to no more than 20% of the total membership of the governing body, with a cap of three members. [T.C.A. §5-5-106 and T.C.A. 6-54-1.]
Members of school boards may also participate in meetings by telephone, videoconferencing or other web-based media under certain circumstances as long as a quorum of its members is physically present at the meeting location. [T.C.A. § 49-2-203.]
The laws around electronic meetings began to change after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 when Gov. Bill Lee temporarily allowed all governing bodies to meet electronically via video conference or phone to reduce physical gatherings and the spread of the virus. The governor’s executive order required that the public have remote access to the meetings through a live video stream or audio stream. The order expired on April 28, 2021, and efforts to create a new law in 2021 to allow local legislative bodies to continue to meet electronically failed in its first try. Eventually a version allowing members of a local legislative body to attend a meeting electronically passed in 2025. An existing law allowing electronic participation by members of state boards, agencies and commissions that had existed for years was updated and expanded in 2026.
State boards, agencies and commissions:
State boards have the most latitude to meet electronically as they do not have to have a quorum physically present in a meeting location. In other words, the board, agency or commission can hold its entire meeting by video or audio conference.
State boards, agencies and commissions must allow members of the public to view and listen to such an electronic meeting in real time, participate if participation is normally allowed and provide public comment. The public notice of such meetings must contain the information necessary to members to view or listen to the meeting by electronic means and cannot require members of the public to register their names with the governing body as a condition for receiving such information. (Members of the public may have to register, however, to give public comment.)
The state governing body must make a recording electronic meetings and post the recording or a link to the recording on the governing body’s website, keeping it there for at least one year and retaining the recording for at least three years.
Any vote must be taken by roll call, and each member of the governing body must be identifiable by name to the public throughout the meeting.
In addition, the law requires that these state governing bodies must meet at least once a calendar year with a quorum in person, and if two consecutive years elapse without such physical meeting, they must send a report to the Secretary of State and to the chairs of the government operations committees.
Local legislative bodies:
County commissions, city councils and boards of aldermen that want to allow members to participate by electronic means, including videoconference or other web-based media, must vote to “opt in” by a two-thirds vote to a state law outlining the conditions. A county legislative body may also “opt out” by a two-thirds vote.
The statutes allowing electronic participation by members of local legislative bodies is different in that only a few members can do it in any given meeting and they have to meet one of three requirements:
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- The commissioner is dealing with a family or medical emergency as determined by the county legislative body;
- The commissioner has been called into military service; or
- The commissioner is unable to attend in person due to inclement weather.
Each member is limited to participating remotely to twice a year.
Each member participating remotely must be visually identified by the chair. However, the law does not specify that the person must be able to be seen by the members of the public at the physical meeting.
All meetings with a member participating electronically must also be accessible to the public through real-time live audio or video access. And an audio or video recording of the meeting must be made available to the public no more than two days after the meeting.
School boards:
School boards have had a statute since 2012 allowing some of its members to attend meetings by electronic means if a quorum is physically present. [T.C.A. §49-2-203(c)]. The chair must be able to visually identify the member and the member participating remotely must meet one of five conditions:
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- The member is out of the county due to work; provided, that the member participates electronically for such reason no more than two (2) times per year;
- The member is sick or in a period of convalescence on the advice of a healthcare professional that the member not appear in person; provided, that the member participates electronically for such reason no more than three (3) times per year;
- The member is out due to inclement weather or natural disaster if the schools in the LEA are closed; provided, that the member participates electronically for such reason no more than three (3) times per year;
- The member has a family emergency that inhibits the member from attending the board meeting in person; provided, that the member participates electronically for such reason no more than two (2) times per year; or
- The member is out of the county due to military service.
A school board member who is or will be out of the county because of work and wants to participate electronically must give at least five days notice before the scheduled meeting. Each local board of education must have a policy for conducting meetings with electronic participation.
In Tennessee, the open meetings law applies to “[t]he members of any public body which consists of two (2) or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration…” T.C.A. § 8-44-102 (b)(1)(A)
The Tennessee Supreme Court looked at the legislative history of the statute in the 1976 case of Dorrier v. Dark and gave a more comprehensive definition:
“(T)he Legislature intended to include any board, commission, committee, agency, authority, or any other body, by whatever name, whose origin and authority may be traced to state, city, or county legislative action and whose members have authority to make decisions or recommendations on policy and administration affecting the conduct of the business of the people in the governmental sector.”
This means that committees formed by a county commission, for example, are also subject to the rules of the open meetings law regardless of whether the committee is made up of citizens or public officials.
While the reach of the Open Meetings Act is wide when it comes to government, the Court of Appeals ruled in 2001 in Mayhew v. Wilder that it does not apply to the state legislature. Before this, many presumed the state legislature fell under the sunshine law. But the court noted that the legislature does not trace its origins to any legislative action and cited two provisions of the state constitution to conclude the law does not apply to the House and Senate.
- Article II, Section 22, of the Tennessee Constitution says the doors of the General Assembly shall be open except when the “business shall be such as ought to be kept secret.”
- Article II, Section 12, lets each chamber “determine the rules of its proceedings.” And, the court said, one two-year session of the General Assembly cannot bind the next.
Though criticized in editorials for “exempting themselves” from the sunshine law, both houses of the General Assembly have had rules that say the doors can be closed only for state and national security matters and certain impeachment proceedings. Read more about who is subject to the open meetings law.
The Open Meetings Act states that a meeting occurs when a “governing body of a public body for which a quorum is required” convenes “to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision on any matter” [T.C.A. § 8-44-102(b)(2)].
Some gatherings of members of a governing body would not be considered a meeting under the law.
For example, the open meetings statute says that a “meeting does not include any on-site inspection of any project or program” [T.C.A. 8-44-102(b)(2)].
It also says that a “chance meeting of two or more members of a public body” is not considered a meeting as defined by the law. But in very strong language that echoes the principles underlying the law, the statute makes clear that:
…no such chance meetings, informal assemblages, or electronic communication shall be used to decide or deliberate public business in circumvention of the spirit or requirements of this part. [T.C.A. § 8-44-102(c)]
This section of the law has been among the most contentious, but Tennessee courts have been helpful in laying out the boundaries.
The distinguishing factor under the open meetings law is that either a decision was made by the governing body or public business was deliberated by its members. The courts have said that to deliberate means “to examine and consult in order to form an opinion” and “to weigh arguments for and against a proposed course of action.”
Courts also have found that the use of email can constitute a meeting when used by members of governing bodies to decide or deliberate public business. (Johnston v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn. Ct. App. 2009).
In general, members of a governing body who try to circumvent the spirit or requirements of the open meetings law to decide or deliberate public business outside the public eye are likely to find themselves in conflict with state law.
The definition of a public record is broad in Tennessee. Public records are all records created or received by local or state government pursuant to law or as part of transacting official business.
In our workshops, we often ask beginning journalists, “When do you think a government record becomes a public record?”
The answer is worth remembering: As soon as it’s created or received.
Here is the key definition in the statute:
“Public record or records” or “state record or records”
(i) Means all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, microfilms, electronic data processing files and output, films, sound recordings, or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any governmental entity; and
(ii) Does not include the device or equipment, including, but not limited to, a cell phone, computer, or other electronic or mechanical device or equipment, that may have been used to create or store a public record or state record;… [T.C.A. § 107-503 (a)(1)(A)]
The form of the record does not matter.
However, not all records that meet the definition of public records are open for inspection. The law says that “[a]ll state, county and municipal records shall, at all times during business hours… be open for personal inspection by any citizen of this state, and those in charge of the records shall not refuse such right of inspection to any citizen, unless otherwise provided by state law.”
The caveat “unless otherwise provided by state law” is the trickiest part because the term “state law” has come to mean more than statutory exemptions created by the Legislature.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals in Swift v. Campbell (2004) that “law” can include “the Constitution of Tennessee, the common law, the rules of the court and administrative rules and regulations because each of these has the force and effect of law in Tennessee.”
The Office of Open Records Counsel on Jan. 30, 2018, released a report identifying 538 statutory exceptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act. Since then, the number of statutory exceptions alone has grown to nearly 600.
Tennessee law states that a records custodian is required to promptly make available public records that are not specifically exempt from disclosure.
This covers a lot of common public records that are readily available or can be retrieved quickly. For example, a government report included in a county commission’s agenda packet is obviously readily available — no searching required.
However, the law says that if it’s not practicable to make public records promptly available, the custodian has as many as seven business days to either provide the records requested, deny the request in writing including the basis for the denial, or provide a written response stating the time reasonably necessary to produce the information.
Here’s the specific statute [T.C.A. § 10-7-503(a)(2)(B)]:
(B) The custodian of a public record or the custodian’s designee shall promptly make available for inspection any public record not specifically exempt from disclosure. In the event it is not practicable for the record to be promptly available for inspection, the custodian shall, within seven (7) business days:
(i) Make the information available to the requestor;
(ii) Deny the request in writing or by completing a records request response form developed by the office of open records counsel. The response shall include the basis for the denial; or
(iii) Furnish the requester in writing, or by completing a records request response form developed by the office of open records counsel, the time reasonably necessary to produce the record or information.
One of the most common complaints from requesters is how long it takes to receive the records requested. But remember that the custodian is required to state in writing in no more than seven business days after you make the request how much time it will take the compile the records. A custodian who did not let the requester know how much time it would take would be in violation of the law. Likewise, the law puts some qualifications around the amount of time, stating that the amount of time must be “reasonably necessary.”
In 2016, a new law went into effect requiring, among other things, that all government entities in Tennessee designate a public records request coordinator.
According to the statute, T.C.A. 10-7-503 (a)(1)(B), the coordinator is the “individual within a governmental entity whose role it is to ensure that public records requests are routed to the appropriate records custodian and that requests are fulfilled in accordance with § 10-7-503(a)(2)(B).”
But if a citizen makes a request directly to a public records custodian, can the custodian require the requester to first go through the public records request coordinator?
For citizens, this can be viewed as a delay, especially if the coordinator is not available that day or in a different physical location from where the citizen is making an in-person request directly to the custodian.
Lee Pope, who heads the Office of Open Records Counsel in the state Comptroller’s Office, says the law still requires the custodian to fulfill requests even when the government entity has a public records request coordinator. In an Oct. 28, 2021, email responding to a TCOG question about this issue, Pope said:
“We’re aware that many governmental entities direct citizens in their local public records policy to submit requests to the local public records request coordinator, as that person is typically best suited to more expeditiously process public record requests submitted to a governmental entity. That said, however, Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503(a)(2)(B) still provides that a records custodian shall promptly make public records available when practicable. Accordingly, we advise governmental entities that a records custodian is still obligated to promptly provide access to public records, but that it should also make the PRRC aware of the requests, as the PRRC is generally responsible for keeping up with requests submitted to local governmental entities.”
The statute being relied upon says this:
The custodian of a public record or the custodian’s designee shall promptly make available for inspection any public record not specifically exempt from disclosure. In the event it is not practicable for the record to be promptly available for inspection, the custodian shall, within seven (7) business days:
(i) Make the information available to the requestor;
(ii) Deny the request in writing or by completing a records request response form developed by the office of open records counsel. The response shall include the basis for the denial; or
(iii) Furnish the requester in writing, or by completing a records request response form developed by the office of open records counsel, the time reasonably necessary to produce the record or information.
State law allows government entities to require a government-issued photo identification with a public records request. And some government entities will refuse to provide public records if the identification does not verify that the requester is a Tennessee resident.
Here’s what the law says about identification [T.C.A. §10-7-503(a)(7)(A)(vi)]:
(vi) A governmental entity may require a person making a request to view or make a copy of a public record to present a government-issued photo identification, if the person possesses photo identification, that includes the person’s address. If a person does not possess photo identification, then the governmental entity may require other forms of identification evidencing the person’s residency in this state.
Note that the law doesn’t mandate identification — the statute says a governmental entity “may require” identification. Still, many do. The photo ID requirement stems from another provision that applies the rights of the Tennessee Public Records Act to “any citizen of the state.” Thus, though a government entity certainly can give out information and records to a non-resident, which they do all the time in the normal course of business, they don’t have to.
The most common type of identification provided is a Tennessee driver’s license because it has a photo and a person’s address. A passport can also work. It is issued by the federal government and has a photo. If you don’t have a photo ID, the government entity can require other types of identification that is evidence of your “residency” in the state. For examples, a utility bill could work. Or, an apartment lease agreement or dorm room assignment.
TCOG did a 2018 audit of identification requirements in Tennessee and found that an overwhelming majority of local and state governing bodies had voted to adopt policies with rigid identification requirements. Some have clung to the requirement even in absurd situations. For example, a Blount County commissioner who didn’t provide her driver’s license was denied access to the minutes of a public meeting of a state board that oversees jail standards even though she had asked for and received information from the board before.