Public Records Archives - Page 33 of 78 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

20 Sep, 2017

State agencies urged by committee chair to allow photos of public records

By Deborah Fisher|2017-09-21T08:24:06-05:00September 20, 2017|Categories: Legislature, Public Records|Tags: legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, photos of public records, State Rep. Jeremy Faison, State Sen. Mike Bell|2 Comments

(Updated 9-21-17 with quotes from the meeting, and more background on the development of the Model Public Records policy that allows government entities to ban photography.) Three state agencies were instructed to re-examine their public records policies that prohibit citizens from taking photos of public records during a meeting of the Joint Government Operations Committee meeting today. State Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville State Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, the Senate chairman of the committee, asked the Comptroller's Office, the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to review their policies to allow citizens to use technology, like their cell phone, to take photos of public records. [...]

17 Sep, 2017

Newspaper probe of economic development reveals big gaps in transparency, accountability

By Deborah Fisher|2017-09-17T18:12:37-05:00September 17, 2017|Categories: economic development|Tags: economic development, Mike Reicher, The Tennessean|0 Comments

The state's four largest newspapers published an examination of local and state economic development programs and came up with this answer: Are Tennessee job subsidies a success? Secrecy makes it nearly impossible to know. Across the country, citizens and some lawmakers have been asking for more accountability and transparency from economic development programs that would show which job subsidies are effective and which are not. This is a pretty cool database that allows you to check on the FastTrack grant program in your county. You can see how many jobs companies in your county promised, and how many they say they have produced. FastTrack grants are one of the [...]

30 Aug, 2017

Memphis, Nashville school boards resist giving student names to charter schools

By Deborah Fisher|2017-08-30T17:52:17-05:00August 30, 2017|Categories: schools|Tags: Candice McQueen, charter schools, Metro Nashville school board, Shelby County School Board, student information|0 Comments

Chalkbeat reports today that the school boards of Memphis and Nashville are resisting an order from state Education Commissioner Candice McQueen to give charter school operators a list of student names, ages and addresses. The school boards think that the charter schools will use the lists to recruit students, which they think is not consistent with a new law governing charter schools. But the new law appears to require the school districts to turn over the lists at no cost to the charter schools. From Chalkbeat's story "Tennessee’s two largest districts defy state order to share student info with charters": Candice McQueen, Tennessee Education Commissioner At issue is [...]

3 Aug, 2017

Sumner County School Board blames the Office of Open Records Counsel for bad advice

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T15:13:59-06:00August 3, 2017|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: attorneys' fees, Elisha Hodge, Jim Fuqua, Ken Jakes, Office of Open Records Counsel, Sumner County School Board|0 Comments

The Sumner County Board of Education blames the Office of Open Records Counsel for bad advice that led it on a journey of spending almost $250,000 of taxpayer money to defend, then appeal, a public records lawsuit that it lost. From The Tennessean: "We are disappointed that the court decided that the board’s former policy did not comply with a 2008 version of Tennessee’s public records statute, especially because the Office of Open Records Counsel, which has the legal duty to interpret the act, informed the board that its policy was lawful and that its response to Mr. Jakes’ request was appropriate under the law," a statement reads. "The board [...]

3 Aug, 2017

Would Gatlinburg fire records be released if not for citizen, media pressure?

By Deborah Fisher|2017-08-07T12:38:44-05:00August 3, 2017|Categories: Public Records|Tags: Gatlinburg fire|0 Comments

After eight months of delay, officials with the city of Gatlinburg and Sevier County say they will release public records related to the November 2016 fire that killed 14 people. (Read story in Knoxville News Sentinel) It's worth contemplating whether they would be doing this if not for the continued pressure of citizens and the state's news media. Many of the Gatlinburg fire records requested are basic: Incident reports, E-911 call recordings and emergency radio traffic. Citizens still question why an evacuation wasn't ordered, or at least wasn't ordered until the fire was already burning down structures. And so far, the answers from officials just haven't seemed enough. Citizens deserve [...]