News - Page 23 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

19 Oct, 2020

WUOT reporter obtains White House COVID-19 report

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-19T15:14:21-05:00October 19, 2020|Categories: Journalism, state records|Tags: COVID-19, WUOT|1 Comment

WUOT 91.9 FM reporter Claire Heddles demonstrated last week that making a public records request to the right person is sometimes all it takes. The White House Coronavirus Task Force is distributing to governors a weekly report on the COVID-19 epidemic. The task force does not make the reports available to the public, but they have been released in some states by local and state officials. In Tennessee, however, Gov. Bill Lee downplayed the importance of releasing those reports in a press conference last week with Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey. And the Center for Public Integrity, which has been compiling the task force reports from various states, lists Tennessee among [...]

19 Oct, 2020

ACOG subcommittee to meet on Friday to review college president search confidentiality

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-19T13:29:07-05:00October 19, 2020|Categories: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Legislature, state records|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, college president selection, University of Tennessee|1 Comment

A subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Open Government will meet on Friday to review a 2018 change in the law that expanded confidentiality for college president candidates at state colleges. The subcommittee will meet at 3 p.m. Friday via a Webex conference call. The public may attend with this link. The subcommittee has been asked to discuss the effectiveness of the 2018 amendment to the higher education executive search statute (Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-7-154) in preparation of a report from ACOG to the governor and speakers of the House and Senate. 2018 law expanded confidentiality of finalist candidates In 2018, the Legislature expanded the confidentiality of college president [...]

16 Oct, 2020

Family members, others shut out of court proceedings in Davidson County

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-16T16:39:13-05:00October 16, 2020|Categories: Open Courts, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: courtroom access, COVID-19|0 Comments

I arrived at the Justice A.A. Birch Building at about 8:15 a.m. this morning to see for myself what others have told me: Family members of people with court dates in General Sessions court are not allowed to accompany their loved ones into the building. It took only a few minutes to witness someone being told by a security guard to wait outside where others like them already waited in the cool morning air. There I found a grandmother who had intended to be a character witness for her grandson, a wife whose husband was there about a restraining order and a girlfriend of a man with a probation violating [...]

2 Oct, 2020

Justice groups, TCOG ask Davidson County judges to allow public access to courts

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-02T12:22:59-05:00October 2, 2020|Categories: Open Courts, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Choosing Justice Initiative, courtroom access, COVID-19, Free Hearts, Judge Joe Binkley, Judge Mark Fishburn, Judge Sam Coleman, Nashville Community Bail Fund, Tennessee Supreme Court|0 Comments

Family members and friends of people with court proceedings have not been allowed to attend court proceedings at the A.A. Birch Building in Nashville, which houses criminal courts and general sessions courts. Citing examples of family members who have been turned away at the door, several criminal justice groups and Tennessee Coalition for Open Government asked Davidson County criminal court and general sessions judges Thursday to modify court plans to allow public access either in person or through video-conferencing. "We are writing today as representatives of a diverse group of public interest organizations, many of which work with court-involved individuals and their families, to respectfully ask that you modify the [...]

28 Sep, 2020

AG’s office did not serve the public interest in seeking loophole to Open Meetings Act

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-09T15:16:28-05:00September 28, 2020|Categories: Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle, email vote, Registry of Election Finance, Tennessee Attorney General, Tennessee Open Meetings Act|0 Comments

A Davidson County chancellor took much-needed action last week. She gave public accountability a boost and set the Attorney General’s Office straight on the Open Meetings Act. Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled on Friday that the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance violated the Open Meetings Act by holding an email vote — outside a public meeting and without public notice — to approve a settlement with a lawmaker, substantially reducing his outstanding fines. The finance board did this with advice of the Attorney General’s Office. So what happened here? Earlier this year, the Attorney General’s Office advised the Registry’s executive director how to get a vote — without a public [...]