Tennessee Coalition for Open Government Archives - Page 9 of 21

16 Nov, 2018

Memphis considers using code names for companies getting economic development incentives

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T11:47:08-06:00November 16, 2018|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Al Bright, Commercial Appeal, economic development, EDGE, Memphis, Richard Smith, State Rep. Sam Whitson|0 Comments

The Economic and Development Growth Engine Board for Memphis (EDGE) is seeking at Attorney General's opinion on whether it can use code names to keep secret from the public the identity of companies before it votes to award the companies government cash grants and other economic development incentives. Al Bright chairman of the Memphis Economic Development and Growth Engine, said if using code names for companies when voting on cash grants and incentives instead of publicly disclosing identities would encourage more businesses to come to Memphis, "by all means, we need to do it." The attorney for the board told the Commercial Appeal (Companies seeking tax breaks from [...]

14 Nov, 2018

Questions about photography ban, ID requirement prompts committee to stop agency’s public records rules

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T12:17:04-06:00November 14, 2018|Categories: requests, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: identification, photos of public records, public records policies, State Rep. Bo Mitchell, State Rep. G.A. Hardaway, State Rep. Jeremy Faison, State Sen. Janice Bowling, State Sen. Mark Pody, State Sen. Mike Bell, State Sen. Rusty Crowe|1 Comment

The Joint Government Operations Committee voted today to ask the Department of Financial Institutions to hold a public hearing on its rules related to public records requests after questions about the agency's proposed ban on photography of records and the requirement of a Tennessee driver's license or photo ID to inspect or get copies of records. Some committee members said that hearing public records rules of state agencies during the rule-making process this year has prompted them to believe changes to the public records act are due. The Department of Financial Institutions is one of many state agencies going through the rule-making process related to public records access. All state [...]

30 Sep, 2018

TCOG lists 13 exemptions, exemption categories that need revision or elimination

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-09T08:19:46-06:00September 30, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Public Records, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: economic development records, investigation exemption, investment records, lottery records, Open Records Ad Hoc Committee, prisons, private entities, public hospital boards, tax credits, TBI, University of Tennessee, vendor names|1 Comment

Tennessee Coalition for Open Government recently provided the Open Records Ad Hoc Committee 13 exemptions or categories of exemptions that are interfering with the public's right to know what government is doing. Deborah Fisher, executive director of TCOG "As you will see, many of the exemptions listed have problems related to overbreadth or vagueness that we suspect may exceed the public purpose of the exemption. We know that some of the considerations we are bringing forward were not part of the debate when the exemptions were passed by the legislature," TCOG's letter said. "While this list may not cover every exemption that impairs transparency in government, we wanted [...]

11 Sep, 2018

Should reporters censor information from government proceedings? Of course not

By Deborah Fisher|2018-09-12T12:21:42-05:00September 11, 2018|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: court records, fair report privilege, Glenn Funk, libel law, Phil Williams, Tennessee Supreme Court|0 Comments

Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk (right) is suing NewsChannel 5 reporter Phil Williams (left), saying Williams' reporting damaged his reputation. The case is headed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in a test over the state's fair report privilege. The Tennessee Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on Oct. 4 in an important case involving state libel laws and a free press. The appeal before the state’s highest court is a test of the state's fair report privilege. On a practical level, this privilege, which is recognized in every state’s laws, protects journalists from libel claims when they are reporting on official proceedings — such as court cases [...]

17 Aug, 2018

We need a new way of adopting exemptions to the Public Records Act

By Deborah Fisher|2018-08-18T09:16:09-05:00August 17, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: caption bills, exemptions, Open Records Ad Hoc Committee|1 Comment

Earlier this week, I was grateful for the opportunity to make a presentation to a new legislative Joint Open Records Ad Hoc Committee that is examining the growing number of exemptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act. The committee is grappling with a potential review of exemptions, which the Office of Open Records Counsel says have grown to 563 after 25 news ones were added in the most recent session. Tennessee Coalition for Open Government made seven recommendations to the committee, but one of the more important ones is that our state needs a new way of adopting exemptions. Some exemptions don’t get enough scrutiny It's just too easy to [...]