Open Meetings Archives - Page 14 of 29 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

27 Jun, 2019

Chancellor refuses to find Nashville school board’s closed-door meeting with attorney allowed under law

By Deborah Fisher|2019-06-27T13:19:30-05:00June 27, 2019|Categories: Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Anne Martin, Knowledge Academies, Metro Nashville school board, open meetings violation|0 Comments

Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin on Wednesday allowed a claim of an Open Meetings violation against the Metro Nashville School Board to go forward, including depositions of school board members and other attendees of the closed meeting. Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin: "... the public interest is best served by enforcing the Open Meetings Act, the purpose of which is to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the public. " Martin, in her order in Knowledge Academies v. Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Board of Education, granted a temporary injunction to the charter school operator who claimed that the school board's closed-door meeting [...]

24 Jun, 2019

Can a county commission require people recording meetings to stay in the back of the room?

By Deborah Fisher|2019-06-25T08:57:57-05:00June 24, 2019|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: cameras, Hamblen County, Linda Noe, Tennessee Open Meetings Act|0 Comments

A recent policy adopted by the Hamblen County Commission stretches and may exceed the boundaries of a governing body’s authority in Tennessee to limit the ability of citizens to make video recordings of their meetings. In May, the Hamblen County Commission voted to adopt a policy requiring that anyone using “cameras, video equipment, and other recording devices” be restricted to the rear of the meeting room. “This will ensure that any recording devices and their operators will not interfere with the conduct of the meeting or hamper the ability of the audience to observe and participate in the meeting,” the change read. The policy was aimed at Linda Noe, a [...]

13 Jun, 2019

Is it adequate notice if key details are omitted – like a vote on eliminating the police department?

By Deborah Fisher|2019-06-14T16:51:06-05:00June 13, 2019|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: adequate notice, Ridgetop|1 Comment

More than 22 year ago, a group of citizens in Englewood filed a lawsuit against their city, alleging that their Board of Commissioners did not provide adequate notice of a meeting in which it selected a route for a highway expansion project. The case reached the Court of Appeals, which established a three-pronged test still relied upon today when considering if a public notice of a special-called meeting is adequate under the requirements of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act. It’s a test that came to mind recently when some citizens in Ridgetop in Robertson County complained that their board of mayor and aldermen did not give adequate notice of a [...]

17 Apr, 2019

Bill to punish “harassing” public records requesters delayed until first calendars in 2020

By Deborah Fisher|2019-04-17T12:48:30-05:00April 17, 2019|Categories: adequate public notice, Legislature, requests|Tags: harassment, public records request, State Rep. William Lamberth, State Sen. Ferrell Haile|1 Comment

Proposed legislation that would allow a government entity in Tennessee to get an injunction to stop public records requesters whose requests constituted "harassment" has been delayed until next year. The bills, Senate Bill 590 and House Bill 626, sought to allow government entities to stop a public records requester from making further requests if a judge found the requests to be made "in a manner that would cause a reasonable person, including a records custodian or any staff of the public entity in control of the public records, to be seriously abused, intimidated, threatened, or harassed." The bills' sponsors, Rep. William Lamberth, R-Portland, and Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, offered different [...]

30 Jan, 2019

Let’s not throw citizens out for video streaming the Legislature

By Deborah Fisher|2019-01-30T10:57:36-06:00January 30, 2019|Categories: Legislature, Open Meetings|Tags: camera ban, legislature, open meetings, video streaming|1 Comment

Some House committee and subcommittee chairs announced Tuesday that they are not permitting video streaming in their committee meetings or they won't allow it without prior permission from the chair, according to a report today in The Tennessean. Some said the policy will only apply to lawmakers; others did not make that distinction and their statements appeared to suggest it could apply to anyone in the audience. Cade Cothren, chief of staff for House Speaker Glen Casada, clarified that members of the news media would not be banned from taking video of meetings and told me that only if someone was causing a disruption would they be removed. And, as [...]