Legislature Archives - Page 22 of 37 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

4 Mar, 2018

McElroy: Making government-ordered autopsies secret hurts the public’s right to know

By Deborah Fisher|2018-03-04T12:31:04-06:00March 4, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: autopsy reports|1 Comment

(This is a column by Knoxville News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy that appeared in the news organization's Sunday edition.) Sen. Joey Hensley, a Republican from Hohenwald and a medical examiner, has introduced a bill to make autopsy reports secret. Rep. Eddie Smith of Knoxville is carrying the bill in the House. Jack McElroy The legislation may sound like a mom-and-apple-pie proposition to the average citizen. After all, what reporter could be so ghoulish as to want to examine records about how people died? Besides, shouldn’t the dead, and their families, be allowed to rest in peace rather than having gruesome details of death dragged before the public? But [...]

4 Mar, 2018

Tennessee lawmakers seek to close autopsy reports, findings

By Deborah Fisher|2018-03-04T12:44:24-06:00March 4, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: autopsy reports, Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, Julia Goodin, Knox County, State Rep. Eddie Smith, State Sen. Joey Hensley, toxicology reports|3 Comments

The House Health Subcommittee approved a bill Wednesday that would make autopsy investigation reports and findings conducted by the state and county medical examiners confidential. John Lott with the Knox County Regional Forensics Center, Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, the county medical examiner for Knox and Anderson counties, and State Chief Medical Examiner Julia Goodin, tell lawmakers while they want to make confidential state and county autopsy reports. Speaking to the subcommittee, Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, the county medical examiner for Knox and Anderson counties, said that having the findings of forensic autopsies available to the public is difficult for family members and sometimes means that familial conditions, such as dementia, [...]

16 Feb, 2018

Knoxville lawmaker’s bill to reduce transparency of college president, school superintendents selection is up for consideration Tuesday

By Deborah Fisher|2018-02-16T11:48:59-06:00February 16, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: college president selection, exemptions, State Rep. Harry Brooks, superintendent selection|1 Comment

The first of two bills filed by a Knoxville lawmaker that would allow more secrecy in the selection of school superintendents and college presidents is scheduled to be heard by the the House Education and Administration Planning Subcommittee on Tuesday. State Representative Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, proposes to eliminate provisions in the law that require an open process and replace them with language that would give school boards and governing boards of state colleges and universities the option of keeping confidential applicant names until a single finalist has been selected. Currently, governing bodies of the state's colleges, including University of Tennessee, must allow the public to [...]

30 Jan, 2018

Does Tennessee have too many exemptions to its public records law?

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T19:03:02-05:00January 30, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: crime records, deliberative process privilege, exemptions, law enforcement privilege|1 Comment

This week, the Tennessee Comptroller’s office released a list of 538 exemptions to the public records law passed by lawmakers. Most of those — almost 450 — were added in the past 30 years, according to the best information the office could find. But really, isn’t that one of the problems? Comptroller Chief of Staff Jason Mumpower, who oversees the Office of Open Records Counsel, told lawmakers in his presentation that the exemptions “are a hodgepodge all over the Tennessee Code Annotated.” It’s hard to tell exactly when some were created. He even acknowledged that they may have missed some, and if someone finds something not on the list, to [...]

30 Jan, 2018

538 public records exemptions in Tennessee law

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T19:02:12-05:00January 30, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: Beth Harwell, exemptions, Jason Mumpower, State Sen. Ken Yager, State Sen. Mike Bell, State Sen. Randy McNally|0 Comments

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A report has found that there are now 538 exemptions to Tennessee's public records law, about six times as many as there were three decades ago. According to the state comptroller's office, the Tennessee Public Records Act only had two statutory exceptions when it was enacted in 1957. By 1988, a legislative committee reported there were 89 exceptions. In its report released Tuesday, the comptroller's Office of Open Records Counsel found that number has grown to include hundreds of exceptions in Tennessee Code. "I will tell you, they are hodgepodge all over the Tennessee Code Annotated," Jason Mumpower, comptroller's office chief of [...]