Open Meetings Archives - Page 29 of 30 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

12 Feb, 2014

Portland learns secret ballot violates sunshine law

By Deborah Fisher|2021-02-02T12:17:58-06:00February 12, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: open meetings violation, secret ballot, Tennessee Open Meetings Act|0 Comments

The Portland City Council will be re-taking a vote to fill an empty council seat after a secret ballot vote by council members in January violated the state’s sunshine law, Portland’s mayor said. “We’ve got no choice but to re-do the vote. I think we all just weren’t thinking,” said Portland Mayor Kenneth Wilber. “It was done in the open. We didn’t think we need to read the ballots. It was an honest mistake, no one was trying to do anything wrong.” The council cast secret ballots in an unusual process that was apparently decided in “gentlemen agreements” before the meeting. During the Jan. 7 meeting, according to The Portland [...]

28 Jan, 2014

Spring Hill resident plea: Keep voters informed; we’re stakeholders not adversaries

By Deborah Fisher|2014-09-12T15:02:15-05:00January 28, 2014|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: agendas, spring hill, Tennessee Open Meetings Act|0 Comments

NOTE: This post was updated on Feb. 3, 2014 to reflect the Maury County Commission agendas are posted online on the Thursday before the Monday meeting. Not all of the committee meeting agendas are similarly required to be posted in advance of meetings. Following is an excerpt from a request by Spring Hill resident and community activist Mike Bennett, published in The Daily Herald in Columbia. He wants his local government to, among other things, let citizens see meeting agendas before public meetings. Here's the excerpt, well-put, by Mr. Bennett: "Like almost everyone, my New Year Resolutions have come and gone over the years. But New Year Resolutions need not apply [...]

28 Jan, 2014

Applying the sunshine law – what the Attorney General said

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T16:11:08-05:00January 28, 2014|Categories: Attorney General Opinions, Open Meetings|Tags: AG opinion, open meetings violations, Tennessee Open Meetings Act|1 Comment

The Dyersburg State Gazette published a story recently about our state's sunshine laws. The story was about two county commissioners who met with the principal and PTO representative at an elementary school to clarify information about its future. The paper was told about the meeting about 30 minutes before. The State Gazette's story probes whether the meeting violated the state's sunshine laws. In addition to quoting the law about meetings between two or more members of a public body, the newspaper also quoted a 2012 Attorney General opinion that shed light on the sometimes thorny issue of what triggers the Open Meetings Act. From the State Gazette: "Although exceptions are [...]

27 Jan, 2014

News Sentinel: UT athletics board should reopen its meetings to public

By Deborah Fisher|2014-04-09T16:56:53-05:00January 27, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Knoxville News Sentinel, Tennessee Open Meetings Act, UT|0 Comments

The Knoxville News Sentinel published this editorial on Friday, Jan. 24, 2014, following a Jan. 19 story about the closed UT Athletics Board meetings by News Sentinel reporter Megan Boehnke. The editorial is reprinted here with permission: The University of Tennessee's Athletics Department is not so far removed from an NCAA investigation and a million-dollar budget deficit that it can thumb its nose at the public about what it is up to. Yet that appears to be the position of the UT Athletics Board, which has chosen to deny the public access to its meetings, has stopped keeping minutes and has not provided written reports or recommendations to the athletics director. Last [...]

20 Jan, 2014

Weekend roundup: Using the sunshine laws

By Deborah Fisher|2014-04-09T16:59:26-05:00January 20, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: sunshine laws, Tennessee Open Meetings Act, University of Tennessee|0 Comments

There were two great examples this weekend of Tennessee reporters being watchdogs in their communities, digging deeper on whether sunshine laws were being followed. Amelia Morrison Hipps with The Wilson Post contacted the board chair and the attorney for the Wilson County Board of Education when she heard the board had planned a private meeting on Saturday to discuss a recent incident involving its director of schools, according to the article in The Wilson Post. She protested that no notice was given of the meeting. The board changed its meeting to Sunday and sent notices to media. Hipps went on to write an article about open meetings law, particularly what [...]