Tennessee Coalition for Open Government Archives - Page 21 of 22

8 Jan, 2015

TCOG elects Chattanooga citizen Helen Burns Sharp to its Board of Directors

By Deborah Fisher|2015-01-08T09:11:54-06:00January 8, 2015|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Helen Burns Sharp, TCOG board, TCOG news|0 Comments

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government recently elected to its Board of Directors Helen Burns Sharp, a public interest advocate in Chattanooga who has advanced awareness of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act and the rights of citizens to transparency in government. TCOG's Board of Directors recently elected Helen Burns Sharp to a seat on its board. Sharp is a community development consultant and a retired urban planning director who has been involved in two public interest lawsuits against the Chattanooga Industrial Development Board over violations of the state’s sunshine laws. She holds a master’s degree in government from the University of Texas, and a political science degree from [...]

3 Dec, 2014

TCOG, SPJ-East TN: Arguments in Open Meetings case make a mockery of state’s Sunshine Law

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:52:34-05:00December 3, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: audibility of public meeting, litigation, Open Meetings Act, SPJ-East Tennessee Professional Chapter, TCOG news|0 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 3, 2014 CONTACTS: Deborah Fisher, executive director, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, [email protected], (615) 602-4080; Michael T. Martinez, president of the East Tennessee Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, [email protected], (865) 314-5256 NASHVILLE -- The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government and the East Tennessee Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists have issued a joint statement of concern about efforts to interpret the Tennessee Open Meetings Act that could fundamentally reduce citizen access to public meetings. (See PDF of Press Release here). The Industrial Development Board of Greeneville and Greene County and the private company US Nitrogen contend in a lawsuit that the Tennessee Open [...]

12 Nov, 2014

TCOG training gets some media coverage!

By Deborah Fisher|2014-11-12T17:52:33-06:00November 12, 2014|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Johnson City Press, TCOG training|0 Comments

ETSU student thanks TCOG after presentation. What terrific students. Lots of good questions and thoughts about what open government means. I don't often write on this blog about Tennessee Coalition for Open Government's activities, but since we got some unexpected coverage in Johnson City this week from the Johnson City Press, I thought I would share. So far in 2014, TCOG has done 13 educational presentations for journalists, citizens and college students about open records and open meetings laws in Tennessee, and how to use them. We've reached about 360 people directly through these presentations. (I have to say, TCOG training is one of the favorite parts of [...]

15 May, 2014

Happy 11th birthday, TCOG!

By Deborah Fisher|2014-05-15T08:24:56-05:00May 15, 2014|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: TCOG news|0 Comments

On May 15, 2003, the idea of a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of citizens, professionals, media and academic groups was officially born when its charter was filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State. Tennessee Coalition for Open Government's initial board of directors included Ron Fryar as president, then with The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro and a continuing board member; Doug Pierce, a media attorney with King & Ballow who has remained on the board and is now TCOG's president; Kent Flanagan, then the bureau chief of The Associated Press who also served as TCOG's executive director for two years; Steve Lake, publisher of the Citizen-Press in Pulaski; Dorothy Bowles, journalism [...]

10 Apr, 2014

Read court filings for and against open records in Vanderbilt rape case
Gallery
Read court filings for and against open records in Vanderbilt rape case

crime records, public records lawsuits Tennessee, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

Read court filings for and against open records in Vanderbilt rape case

By Deborah Fisher|2014-06-03T07:35:41-05:00April 10, 2014|Categories: crime records, public records lawsuits Tennessee, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: crime records, litigation, The Tennessean, Vanderbilt rape case|0 Comments

Updated June 3 with additional briefs filed with Court of Appeals. The Tennessean and 10 other media organizations and related groups filed an open records lawsuit against Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County, challenging its assertion that police records in the Vanderbilt rape case are exempted from the Tennessee Public Records Act. At issue is just how far the Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 16(a)(2) goes in restricting access by the public to police records during an investigation or prosecution. The coalition -- which includes Tennessee Coalition for Open Government -- contends 16(a)(2) is not a blanket exemption, and to make it so violates Tennessee statute and constitutional rights [...]