Transparency dogged the TNInvestco program from the beginning, including with a lawsuit demanding to know how the recipients were chosen. Lawmakers also, when creating the program, enacted statutes to keep confidential the specific results of the state's investments.
A Nashville citizen has sued the state for refusing to release a government efficiency report prepared by an outside consultant in connection with the state's COVID-19 response. The state's Department of Human Resources claims the analysis by McKinsey and Co. is confidential because it is subject to the "deliberative process privilege" and contains information related to "operational vulnerabilities." The Tennessean has reported the McKinsey analysis, delivered in September 2020, cost the state $1.59 million in taxpayer dollars.
Taxpayers don't know what they are getting for their money despite some lawmakers pushing for more accountability and information. Why? A web of exceptions to Tennessee's Public Records laws and lack of meaningful reporting on outcomes prevent transparency in the state's economic development programs.
The University of Memphis has withdrawn a proposed rule that would have required public records requestors who took pictures of public records to hand over their phone so the university could check it for what they photographed and would have allowed the university to charge the person a "production cost" even though the university itself did not produce the copies.
The Memphis city shelter has decided to no longer disclose medical treatment records of the animals in its care upon a public records request, claiming animals have a right to privacy over their medical records.
