News - Page 23 of 128 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

21 Mar, 2021

Legislation would allow property owners to contest appraisals electronically

By Deborah Fisher|2021-03-21T20:24:13-05:00March 21, 2021|Categories: Legislature, Open Meetings|Tags: appraisals, boards of equalization, electronic meetings, property owners, State Rep. Kevin Vaughn, State Sen Paul Rose|0 Comments

To protest the county's appraised value of your property, you have to show up in person before a county board of equalization and make your case to the board members in person. Many people do this when their home's value has been increased by the county's appraiser, resulting in a higher tax bill. They often complain that the value assessed is not the true value, and that it should be lower. The law allows, but does not require, boards of equalization to allow the taxpayer to make his or her complaint to the board by electronic means in the discretion of the board. HB230 and SB436 seek to change that [...]

21 Mar, 2021

Bill closes information about reported crimes involving minors on school property

By Deborah Fisher|2021-04-15T12:17:04-05:00March 21, 2021|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: crime records, juveniles, State Rep. Ryan Williams, student records|0 Comments

Proposed legislation that would make confidential law enforcement records of incidents on school property involving a minor passed the House State Government Committee on Tuesday. The bill is scheduled to be heard by the House Government Operations Committee on Monday afternoon. HB 368 arose from a situation in Putnam County after an incident involving two minors at a school, state Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, told the House State Government Committee on Wednesday. (See video of testimony and questions about the bill, including testimony from TCOG.) Though the incident did not result in any charges, a parent of one of the minors sought to get the law enforcement records related to [...]

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 [...]