Legislature Archives - Page 28 of 35 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

29 Mar, 2016

House committee kills body cam bill, sends it to study by ACOG

By Deborah Fisher|2016-03-30T07:34:36-05:00March 29, 2016|Categories: crime records, Legislature|0 Comments

The House State Government Committee today killed a bill that would have closed access to body cam footage, including footage related to questions of police use of force and misconduct. It instead asked for the Advisory Committee on Open Government to study the issues and report back in January. (See Tennessean story: Attempt to seal police body cam footage fails) The Advisory Committee on Open Government is a broad-based group of 14 members representing various civic organizations, media, law enforcement and city and county governments. (See who is on the Advisory Committee on Open Government.) The original language in H.B. 876 had nothing to do with body cameras. But state Rep. [...]

25 Mar, 2016

New Tennessee law could make requesting public records less confusing

By Deborah Fisher|2016-12-08T07:50:46-06:00March 25, 2016|Categories: Legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, requests|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, public records request, State Rep. Bill Dunn, State Sen. Richard Briggs|0 Comments

From Associated Press: The state Legislature has passed a bill that will require nearly every government office across Tennessee to tell citizens how they can get public records. State Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, led the bill's passage. The measure first directs the open records counsel in the state comptroller's office to come up with a model public records policy that local government agencies could adopt. The legislation would then require government offices to have a written public records policy by July 1, 2017. The policy can't be less open than state law allows, and it should explain to citizens how to make a request to either inspect or [...]

15 Mar, 2016

Spot check on legislative pre-meetings reveals significant debate

By Deborah Fisher|2016-03-15T06:53:12-05:00March 15, 2016|Categories: Legislature|Tags: House committee pre-meetings, legislature|0 Comments

News reporters Joel Ebert with The Tennessean and Rick Locker with The Commercial Appeal attended four legislative pre-meetings of House committees Monday as part of Sunshine Week to spot check what happens there. Pre-meetings came under criticism last year after news reporters were initially shut out. Lawmakers defend them as a way to work out logistics before the real committee meeting that takes place, where votes are taken and the proceeding is video-recorded and streamed live on the Internet on the General Assembly's website. Ebert and Locker reported that not all House and Senate committees have such pre-meetings, but the ones checked on Monday drew some large crowds of lobbyists and [...]

13 Mar, 2016

If you ever wondered about the importance of access to public records, watch the movie Spotlight

By Deborah Fisher|2016-03-14T08:04:46-05:00March 13, 2016|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: crime records, legislature, police body cameras, Spotlight|0 Comments

Scene from the movie Spotlight, which portrays the investigative reporting team of The Boston Globe who used public documents to help uncover a story of abuse of children by priests. There’s a great scene about public records in the movie Spotlight, which is based on the true story of The Boston Globe’s investigative reporting of child sex abuse by Catholic priests. Reporter Michael Rezendes rushes to the court clerk’s office to get an exhibit that had been filed as part of a court motion. It contained letters and evidence that showed that the Archdiocese of Boston had known about the molestation of children for years, but failed [...]

25 Feb, 2016

Bill clarifies Comptroller exemption for confidential audit work

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-25T12:15:07-06:00February 25, 2016|Categories: exemptions, Legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel|Tags: exemptions, Office of Open Records Counsel|0 Comments

An existing exemption that makes confidential audit work in the Comptroller's Office is being expanded to also include records from surveys, but won't include surveys done by the Office of Open Records Counsel. An amendment was added to the bill, H.B. 1682, in a House subcommittee Wednesday to make clear that the survey exemption does not apply to surveys conducted by the Office of Open Records Counsel, which is part of the Comptroller's Office. The House State Government Subcommittee passed the bill unanimously. The exemption currently in the statute, 10-7-504 (a)(22)(D) includes: (A) The audit working papers of the comptroller of the treasury and state, county and local government internal audit staffs conducting audits as [...]