Open Meetings Archives - Page 23 of 28 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

18 Aug, 2014

Tennessee Open Meetings Act more than a checklist

By Deborah Fisher|2014-09-10T09:06:40-05:00August 18, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Eddie Overholt, Elisha Hodge, Greene County, OORC, Tennessee Open Meetings Act|1 Comment

It’s not every day that a citizen gets cuffed, arrested and ejected from a public meeting in Tennessee. But that’s what happened, famously, to Eddie Overholt in Greene County last month where he faces charges of disrupting a public meeting and resisting arrest. I say famously because Overholt’s arrest, and the events leading up to it, were captured on video that has gone viral through Facebook and has appeared on national and international news sites, including Russia Today. Deborah FisherTCOG Executive Director His crime? He asked members of the Industrial Development Board of Greeneville and Greene County to speak louder so citizens could hear. The furor has lessons [...]

6 Aug, 2014

Eddie Overholt, Industrial Development Boards and their problem with Sunshine laws

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:50:08-05:00August 6, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Eddie Overholt, Elisha Hodge, Greene County, industrial development board, OORC, open meetings violation|2 Comments

Last month, a Hamilton County judge ruled that Chattanooga's industrial development board violated the Open Meetings Act in a decision to give tax money to a developer to build a golf course community on a mountain. This month, Office of Open Records Counsel Elisha Hodge warned the chairman of the Greene County Industrial Development Board, Alan Broyles, that an inaudible meeting violates the state's Open Meetings Act. Hodge said she listened and watched a video of Greene County Industrial Development Board's July 18 meeting where citizen Eddie Overholt was famously cuffed and arrested for asking the board to speak up. Hodge said she could not hear portions of the meeting even though [...]

5 Aug, 2014

Open Records Counsel tells Greene County mayor citizens must be able hear at meetings

By Deborah Fisher|2014-09-10T09:06:10-05:00August 5, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Alan Broyles, economic development, Elisha Hodge, Greene County, industrial development board, OORC, Tennessee Open Meetings Act|0 Comments

The state's Open Records Counsel warned Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles in a letter Monday that the law requires citizens to be able to hear deliberations and decisions at public meetings, and the Greene County Industrial Development Board which he chairs should consult with its attorney after 59 citizen complaints over a July 18 meeting. Elisha Hodge, state of Tennessee's Office of Open Records Counsel While her letter made clear that an inaudible public meeting would be in violation of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act, she chose not to address the arrest of citizen Eddie Overholt, who was kicked out of the July meeting, cuffed and charged with [...]

31 Jul, 2014

Cumberland County improves meeting notices

By Deborah Fisher|2014-07-31T07:47:04-05:00July 31, 2014|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: agenda packets, Crossville Chronicle, Cumberland County, public notice|0 Comments

One of the most common complaints I get from citizens in towns across Tennessee is that their public officials do not give them adequate notice of upcoming public meetings. It always surprises me to see this problem: County commissioners, utility boards or school boards who post a time and place for their meetings on a bulletin board in a government building, maybe on their website, maybe in their local newspaper, but probably without an agenda, and most often without the agenda packet that contains all the background. How can we expect citizens to be interested in our government if we treat them like they have no interest? It's at the [...]

19 Jul, 2014

Cuffing and arresting a citizen – not exactly spirit of Open Meetings Act

By Deborah Fisher|2014-08-06T07:44:16-05:00July 19, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Alan Broyles, Greene County, industrial development board, Tennessee Open Meetings Act|3 Comments

Greene County Industrial Development Board members were not using microphones, and sat at a table where some had backs to the public. Throwing out, cuffing and arresting someone who asked them to speak louder so people in the back could hear? Not exactly the spirit of the Open Meetings Act. Details are in The Greeneville Sun's story this morning. Photo by Kristen Buckles, The Greeneville SunEddie Bruce Overholt, of Cocke County, protests as he is removed from the July 18 meeting of the Greene County Industrial Development Board (IDB) by a Greeneville police officer after Overholt spoke out following a warning from Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles. Broyles, the chairman [...]