Open Meetings Archives - Page 17 of 28 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

22 Feb, 2016

Hamblen County decides to exclude public comments from videotape

By Deborah Fisher|2023-02-20T10:21:09-06:00February 22, 2016|Categories: Open Meetings, public comment|Tags: Bill Britain, Hamblen County, Linda Noe, meeting videotape, Morristown, public comment|0 Comments

The Hamblen County Commission has decided to exclude the public comments from the videotape of its meetings, which is shown on a public education channel. Linda Noe, an attorney in Morristown, posted on her blog her own video of the meeting in which she questioned commissioners about the decision. In the video, County Mayor Bill Brittain responds to a question from a commissioner about telling the videographer to turn off the equipment when the public comments portion of the meeting started, saying it was "in the best interest of the meeting." Later, the commission chairman says that not taping the public comments was a "compromise" to ending the videotaping of [...]

22 Feb, 2016

Ashe, officials clash over closing state museum board meeting, News Sentinel reports

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-22T08:26:33-06:00February 22, 2016|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Open Meetings Act, state museum board, Tom Smith, Victor Ashe|0 Comments

Tom Humphrey with the Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Victor Ashe, a former lawmaker and former Knoxville mayor, has clashed with the state museum board on which he sits over a plan to close a meeting to discuss selection of a new museum director. An excerpt from the story: The board governing the Tennessee State Museum, officially known as the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission, has scheduled an eight-hour "workshop" for March 28 to discuss the selection of a new museum executive director to succeed Lois Riggins-Ezzell at some point. In an exchange of email with Tom Smith of Nashville, who chairs a museum board committee on "succession planning" that [...]

17 Feb, 2016

Metro Nashville has no plans to shorten notice of zoning hearings

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-17T10:24:31-06:00February 17, 2016|Categories: adequate public notice, Open Meetings|Tags: Davidson County, Metro Nashville Law Director Jon Cooper, Nashville, public hearings, public notice|0 Comments

Metro's law director Jon Cooper said this morning that Davidson County has no plans to shorten the amount of public notice it gives to citizens of public hearings on proposed zoning changes. Metro's own zoning regulations call for 21 days advance notice of zoning hearings, which Cooper says the city has been following for more than 20 years. These local regulations exceed the 15 days required by state law on all other counties in the state. This week, a House committee voted to change a statute established years ago that carved Davidson County out from all other counties, requiring it to give a 30-day notice. The rest of the 94 [...]

11 Feb, 2016

Bill shortens public notice for zoning changes in Nashville

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-11T08:22:48-06:00February 11, 2016|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: Davidson County, Nashville, public hearings, public notice, State Rep. Darren Jernigan, State Sen. Ferrell Haile|0 Comments

A bill that would shorten the amount of time of public notice for public hearings on zoning changes in Metropolitan Nashville passed unanimously in a key Senate committee and a House subcommittee this week. The bill, S.B. 1809 / H.B. 1848, would change the law that requires Davidson County to provide 30 days public notice prior to a public hearing on an amendment to a county zoning ordinance. It reduces that time to 15 days. Davidson County is the only county in the state required by law to give a 30-day notice, a point made by Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “I would classify this as a cleanup [...]

10 Nov, 2015

Why did Tennessee rank 37th in public access to information?

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T15:11:26-06:00November 10, 2015|Categories: Open Meetings, Public Records|Tags: attorneys' fees, Center for Public Integrity, legislature|0 Comments

Tennessee ranked 37th among states in public access to information in the Center for Public Integrity’s 2015 State Integrity report released on Monday. I was among those who contributed information for the report for Tennessee, so was particularly curious about how other states measured against the public access criteria used in this study to calculate the scores. Access to government information was one of the 13 categories measured by the report, which assessed systems in place to deter corruption in state government. Some of the other categories were political financing, electoral oversight, ethics enforcement agencies, judicial accountability, lobbying disclosure and state budget processes. Tennessee ranked 15th overall when considering all categories. [...]