Public Records Archives - Page 49 of 74 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

18 Nov, 2015

What we learned from a citizen’s fight for public records in Sumner County

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T15:14:39-06:00November 18, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: attorneys' fees, Elisha Hodge, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, Sumner County School Board|0 Comments

Judge Dee David Gay reads his ruling that the Sumner County Board of Education violated the Tennessee Public Records Act because it went too far in restricting how citizens could make requests. The school district would only allow citizens to view public records if they made their request in writing through the U.S. Postal Service or in person. At a cost of about three or four college educations at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Sumner County’s school officials and school board just got educated about the state’s public records law. Sumner County parents and taxpayers paid the tuition. On Nov. 13, Sumner County Judge Dee Gay ruled that the [...]

13 Nov, 2015

Judge rules Sumner County Schools violated public records law, orders it to stop

By Deborah Fisher|2015-11-16T07:35:58-06:00November 13, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Jeremy Johnson, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Kirk Clements, litigation, public records request, Sumner County, Sumner County School Board, Todd Presnell|0 Comments

GALLATIN -- Nearly 20 months after citizen Ken Jakes requested to see the Sumner County Schools public records policy, Sumner County Judge Dee Gay ruled today that the school district violated Tennessee Public Records law by withholding it. He ordered the district to stop its practices and adopt a new policy for dealing with public records requests. Seated left to right: Citizen Ken Jakes, Sumner Schools attorney Jim Fuqua, school communications official Jeremy Johnson and attorney Todd Presnell listen to the judge's ruling that the school district violated the Tennessee Public Records Act. The school's attorney asked for a 30-day stay on the judge's order, which Gay granted, [...]

10 Nov, 2015

Why did Tennessee rank 37th in public access to information?

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T15:11:26-06:00November 10, 2015|Categories: Open Meetings, Public Records|Tags: attorneys' fees, Center for Public Integrity, legislature|0 Comments

Tennessee ranked 37th among states in public access to information in the Center for Public Integrity’s 2015 State Integrity report released on Monday. I was among those who contributed information for the report for Tennessee, so was particularly curious about how other states measured against the public access criteria used in this study to calculate the scores. Access to government information was one of the 13 categories measured by the report, which assessed systems in place to deter corruption in state government. Some of the other categories were political financing, electoral oversight, ethics enforcement agencies, judicial accountability, lobbying disclosure and state budget processes. Tennessee ranked 15th overall when considering all categories. [...]

3 Nov, 2015

How cop cameras are addressed by ACLU, Florida law and others

By Deborah Fisher|2015-11-03T08:03:48-06:00November 3, 2015|Categories: crime records|Tags: ACLU, City of Franklin, Franklin police, police body cameras|0 Comments

An article today in The Tennessean outlines some of the conversation taking place about the use of body cameras by local law enforcement, with the city of Franklin's police chief saying she is waiting for state law to address usage before she rolls them out. “I believe that body cameras will become a basic piece of law enforcement work,” Franklin Police Chief Deborah Faulkner said. “But the first agencies that implement body cameras will create case law and I want to avoid that.” The newspaper reported that Faulkner urged lawmakers to look at an approach similar to Florida's, which adopted a statute last year exempting footage from the state's public records [...]

2 Nov, 2015

Haslam administration slow to share economic incentives for development deal

By Deborah Fisher|2015-11-02T10:25:55-06:00November 2, 2015|Categories: economic development|Tags: Advanced Munitions, Bill Haslam, economic development, Randy Boyd|0 Comments

Why is the Haslam administration so hush-hush on how much in economic incentive dollars it is giving to companies? In a case that Knoxville News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy uses as an example in his Sunday column, Advanced Munitions International has already received the deed to 269 acres in Blount County for an ammo factory and headquarters. Governor Bill Haslam and his ECD commissioner, Randy Boyd, attended an event to announce that 605 new jobs would be created. But the Haslam administration wouldn't reveal what it's giving Advanced Munitions for those 605 jobs. The economic incentives or grants is likely in the millions. But paperwork not yet signed, check back later. When the [...]