A proposed bill would improve citizen access to meeting agendas and board packets before public meeting by requiring they be publicly accessible, such as on a government website, for 48 hours before the meeting. The bill would also require that agendas "clearly describe the matters to be discussed" in an effort to avoid vague references to potential action.
A redistricting committee made up of Chattanooga city councilmembers violated the open meetings act when it convened privately to make decisions and deliberate on the city's new voting district maps, a lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit by the Chattanooga Times Free Press also alleges that councilmembers violated the open meetings act when the city's executive staff, at the request of the redistricting committee, met individually with council members to decide on the contours of each of their new districts.
A Tennessee Court of Appeals rolled back the meaning of the open meetings law in a surprising ruling when it said that a governing body does not have to give public notice of an important upcoming vote as part of its agenda, even when the vote is on an issue of widespread community interest.
A school board's agreement to not say anything disparaging about a director of schools it fired violates the First Amendment free speech rights of school board members, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled in a case upholding a lower court's decision.
A federal judge declined on Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order requested by a media organization that wanted to cover the Tennessee Judicial Conference annual meeting after getting assurances from a deputy attorney general that the meeting to take place on Wednesday was only an educational "CLE for judges."
