News - Page 20 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

21 Mar, 2021

Bill that closes information on arrest records moves to House committee with amendment

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-21T19:51:15-05:00March 21, 2021|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: arrest records, Glen Casada|0 Comments

Legislation that would make confidential an arrestee's home address on an arrest record was approved by the House Public Service Subcommittee last week. HB 901, sponsored by state Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, was amended to make clear that the street address of a reported crime would not be confidential, even if it was the arrestee's home address. (TCOG asked for that change.) The original bill also made confidential any video of the person arrested, but an amendment removed this provision. (Here is a copy of the amendment). The amendment also makes confidential the phone number of a person arrested, and the social security number. The social security number already is [...]

21 Mar, 2021

Proposed law would allow hundreds of local utility boards to avoid meeting in person

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-21T11:45:07-05:00March 21, 2021|Categories: Legislature, Open Meetings|Tags: electronic meetings, State Rep. Clark Boyd, utilities|0 Comments

A proposed change to the Open Meetings Act, scheduled to be heard this week in a House subcommittee, would allow hundreds of local utility boards that manage water, sewage, solid waste, natural gas and electric systems to avoid meeting in person in front of the public. HB 509 allows the utility boards that otherwise are governed by the Open Meetings Act to allow any of their members to call into a meeting or participate by "other means of communication" if a quorum is present at the location of the meeting, creating a hybrid meeting of some board members there in person and some attending by phone or other means. [...]

17 Mar, 2021

The Tennessean outlines why state won’t release $1.59 million McKinsey report

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-17T14:24:34-05:00March 17, 2021|Categories: deliberative process privilege|Tags: Gov. Bill Lee, McKinsey and Co., The Tennessean|0 Comments

A $1.59 million report by McKinsey & Co. on restructuring the state's workforce is confidential and won't be released to the public, a state agency has told The Tennessean. The Department of Human Resources told The Tennesseean in a story published March 9 that the taxpayer-funded report was confidential, citing the department's "deliberative process privilege." DHS has acknowledged to The Tennessean that it is planning employee buyouts. The state received the McKinsey report in September. This is not the first time the Gov. Bill Lee administration has asserted the deliberative process exemption to shield written reports. In 2019, the administration claimed they did not have to release written reports from [...]

11 Mar, 2021

Bill to make make addresses of people arrested confidential is delayed 1 week

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-11T16:39:32-06:00March 11, 2021|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: arrest records, Glen Casada|0 Comments

A bill that would make confidential the addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers of people who are arrested was delayed one week after lawmakers questioned the sponsor, state Rep. Glen Casada, about the proposal. Casada, R-Franklin, said that Williamson County officials asked him to bring the bill because people arrested were getting "bombarded" by those who were seeking to contact them after their arrest. "My county government tells me that a lot of individuals are being contacted and they don't want to be contacted," Casada said. Casada introduced an amendment on the bill that says if the home address of the person arrested is also the place of the [...]

11 Mar, 2021

Bill to allow county commissioners to vote by phone and not in person moves forward

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-11T16:38:59-06:00March 11, 2021|Categories: Legislature, Open Meetings|Tags: electronic meetings, Rep. Dave Wright, State Sen. Richard Briggs, voting by phone|0 Comments

A bill that would permit county commissioners to participate remotely in a meeting and vote on matters by phone or other electronic means passed the House Local Government Committee on Tuesday despite several lawmakers on the committee raising concern and saying they would vote against it. It was unclear in the voice vote exactly how lawmakers on the 21-member committee voted — to some people present, the "no's" sounded louder than the "ayes." But after pausing in silence for more than 10 seconds after the vote, Committee Chairman John Crawford who represents Bristol and Kingsport announced, "Bill moves on!" The bill will next be heard in the House Finance, Ways [...]