Lawmakers handed open government some wins and losses during the session that ended Thursday. Among the wins was a bill by state Rep. Susan Lynn to add muscle to the Sunshine Law by allowing recovery of attorney fees and reasonable costs when a citizen prevails in an open meetings lawsuit.
A bill that has passed both the state House ad Senate will require state boards and commissions to make an agenda available to the public 48 hours before the meeting. The agenda must reasonably describe all agenda items.
The state tourism department is pushing a bill to give its commissioner authority to pick and choose which records are open to the public We think taxpayers deserve to know how their money is spent. Allowing secret deals opens the door to cronyism and corruption. NewsChannel 5 covered this controversial bill.
Gov. Bill Lee’s administration is seeking a sweeping exemption to the public records law that would close any public records of the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development if the commissioner determines that the information is too "sensitive" to release. The exemption would most likely hide information about outcomes related to its marketing efforts.
Autopsies of murdered children would become confidential under a bill that passed a House subcommittee on Tuesday. TCOG testified against the bill, noting examples of when journalists, often working with extended family members, used autopsies to shine light on coverups and mistakes, including a child shot in head by Memphis police in a botched housing raid and child killed by his mother's boyfriend in Columbia.
