fees Archives - Page 6 of 8 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

22 Jun, 2015

Open Records Counsel sets ACOG meeting, plans survey, hearings on public records

By Deborah Fisher|2015-06-29T07:47:06-05:00June 22, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: ACOG, Advisory Committee on Open Government, Ann Butterworth, fees for public records, Office of Open Records Counsel|0 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel has set a Monday, June 29, meeting of the Advisory Committee on Open Government to discuss a study on issues related to inspection of public records. The meeting will be at 10:30 a.m. in Room 29 of Legislative Plaza in Nashville, and will be live-video streamed and accessible from the Tennessee General Assembly's website. The agenda includes discussion of the scope of the study, a proposed questionnaire/survey and hearings on public records issues. It also includes discussion about a plan for review for the Schedule of Reasonable Charges, the Frequent and Multiple Request and Safe Harbor Policies, the Best Practices Guidelines and FAQs and [...]

28 Apr, 2015

Lawmakers tweak public records law, but avoid new fees for now

By Deborah Fisher|2015-09-25T17:03:32-05:00April 28, 2015|Categories: fees, Legislature|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, City of Franklin, Erlanger Health Systems, executive session, fees for public records, legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, performance evaluations, public hospital boards, State Rep. Mike Carter, State Rep. Steve McDaniel, State Sen. Jim Tracy, TCOG news, Tennessee School, TSSAA, utilities|1 Comment

Sponsors delayed action on legislation that could have made accessing public records more expensive for citizens and news media, but lawmakers in the 109th General Assembly moved ahead on other changes to the state's public records law. A new exemption was added to make performance evaluations of more state employees confidential. Another was added to make sure student academic and health information remained private. And yet another reinforced already existing exemptions to protect credit card numbers and email addresses of citizens held by government. The most far-reaching public records bill was one that never made it to committee for discussion — a proposal to impose new fees on citizens who asked to inspect public [...]

24 Apr, 2015

Knoxville Mercury: Tennessee’s Open-Government Laws Are Outdated and in Danger of Being Undermined

By Deborah Fisher|2015-04-24T10:19:50-05:00April 24, 2015|Categories: fees, Legislature|Tags: fees for public records, Knoxville Mercury, legislature|0 Comments

Good piece of reporting by S. Heather Duncan of the Knoxville Mercury on recent goings-on with the Tennessee Public Records Act. Duncan compiles some examples... In the first four months of this year, Knoxville has seen open meetings violations by its 911 board, including the police chief and sheriff; the state Legislature has acknowledged that most of its committees have been regularly holding secret “pre-meetings”; and legislators floated about 25 bills that either attempted or succeeded in reducing public access to records and meetings. Over the last year, several local governments across the state lost high-profile court cases because they “willfully” withheld documents from the public, and still others got [...]

7 Mar, 2015

Increasing fees for public records is not the answer for government transparency

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:53:33-05:00March 7, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Chattanooga, fees for public records, Judge Dee David Gay, legislature, OORC, Rutherford County, Sumner County, Sumner County School Board, Tennessee School Boards Association|0 Comments

The fastest way to shut down access to government records is to charge fees people can’t afford to pay. Another way is to simply ignore or delay responding to citizens or media who make requests under the Tennessee Public Records Act. Yet another, which takes more effort, is to actively confuse or frustrate a citizen or journalist with byzantine policies and practices to make them go away. All can be powerfully effective. And, unfortunately, all take place in Tennessee. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government received nearly 200 calls to its hotline last year from journalists and citizens who faced obstacles in getting public documents from their local government or [...]

23 Feb, 2015

2 of 3 school board chairmen in Blount County see no need to charge to view public records

By Deborah Fisher|2015-03-02T07:30:33-06:00February 23, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Blount County, fees for public records, Maryville, Tennessee School Boards Association, The Daily Times|0 Comments

The Daily Times in Maryville asked the three school board chairmen in Blount County what they thought about changing the law to allow local governments to charge citizens to view public records. Two said they saw no need for it in their school districts, while the third appeared to rely on an example that wouldn't even apply. The Blount County school board chairman who favored allowing new fees described a situation in which the school district's fiscal administrator spent several hours writing responses for a citizen about the school district's budgets. “Each item dealt with finances and interpretation of policy, and he wrote two- to three-paragraph responses to educate the reader [...]