News - Page 24 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

25 Sep, 2020

Judge: Registry of Election Finance board violated Open Meetings Act with secret vote by email

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-09T15:15:18-05:00September 25, 2020|Categories: Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle, cure meeting, email vote, Paul McAdoo, Registry of Election Finance, Tennessee Attorney General|0 Comments

Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled today that the Registry of Election Finance violated the Open Meetings Act when it voted by email outside of a public meeting to accept a settlement to reduce the fines of a state lawmaker. (See final order.) Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle The board's executive director, Bill Young, has said that he followed the process outlined by the Attorney General's Office in coordinating the email vote of the six-member election finance board. In addition to voting outside the public eye by email, there was no public notice of the meeting. The lawsuit was filed by several news media organizations and Tennessee Coalition for Open Government in [...]

25 Sep, 2020

Chancellor to hear arguments in open meetings case against election finance board at 10 a.m. today

By Deborah Fisher|2020-09-25T09:59:17-05:00September 25, 2020|Categories: Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle, cure meeting, email vote, Paul McAdoo, Registry of Election Finance, Tennessee Attorney General|0 Comments

Chancellor Ellen Lyle is scheduled to hear arguments today in an open meetings lawsuit filed by several news media organizations and Tennessee Coalition for Open Government against the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance. Attorney Paul McAdoo The plaintiffs argue in The Associated Press, et al., v. The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance that the election finance board violated the open meetings law when it voted on reducing $65,000 in civil penalties that it had levied against Rep. Joe Towns, D-Memphis. The penalties had accumulated over two years as Towns repeatedly failed to file campaign finance disclosures required by law. The board took the vote by email to settle the penalties [...]

7 Sep, 2020

Advisory committee to meet on legislation to limit ‘harassing’ requesters

By Deborah Fisher|2020-09-07T11:33:08-05:00September 7, 2020|Categories: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Legislature, requests|Tags: ACOG, harassment, legislation, public records requests, State Sen. Ferrell Haile|1 Comment

The Advisory Committee on Open Government will meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday to discuss legislation that would limit public records requests from people found to be harassing the government. The meeting will be livestreamed and can be viewed by the public through the following link: https://tngov.webex.com/tngov/onstage/g.php?MTID=ebf38667b9ad074a64ca63d6e491c9ab1. Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, asked the 14-member committee to review his proposed bill that would allow a government entity to seek an injunction against a person whose behavior met a harassment definition outlined in the bill. Haile has worked on the bill for two years. He introduced it in 2019 and presented an amended version in February to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee [...]

4 Sep, 2020

New order requires real-time access to public meetings held electronically

By Deborah Fisher|2020-09-04T15:57:17-05:00September 4, 2020|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: agendas, COVID-19, electronic meetings, Gov. Bill Lee, open meetings, per diem eligibility|1 Comment

Beginning on Oct. 1, all governing bodies in Tennessee must provide real-time audio or video access of their meetings held electronically. Under Gov. Bill Lee’s earlier executive order, governing bodies who met electronically instead of in-person because of COVID-19 safety concerns had to make “reasonable efforts to provide live access." But if a governing body could not provide live access after making such efforts, it could make a recording of the meeting and provide it to the public afterward. The new order, issued on Aug. 28, requires both live access and a "clear audio or video recording of the meeting." The recording must be made available to the public "as [...]

17 Jul, 2020

TN Supreme Court: We have not approved ‘outright ban’ on public access in state’s courts

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-02T12:17:56-05:00July 17, 2020|Categories: Open Courts|Tags: court access, COVID-19, Tennessee Supreme Court|1 Comment

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday denied a joint petition of 56 organizations, including Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, that asked it to take action to protect public access to courts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jeff Bivins is chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. "At no time has the Court countenanced or approved an outright ban on public access to the courts. In fact, the Court has strongly encouraged all courts and judges to remain diligent in attempting to address public and media access," the Supreme Court said in its order. The petition was prompted after the state's 31 judicial district began turning in plans for resuming more in-person [...]