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Tennessee Coalition for Open Government has written a letter to the governor urging action to provide local governing bodies some relief to meet electronically on essential business while maintaining certain safeguards for transparency and public participation during the coronavirus emergency. You can read the letter and our suggested specific safeguards here. They are also copied below: 3-20-2020 To: The Honorable Governor Bill Lee of the State of Tennessee, As state and local governments across the United States take measures to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic, executive orders are being issued and legislative action taken to allow governing bodies to make decisions without complying with parts of the Open Meetings laws. [...]

Under a very tight deadline, the House and Senate were unable to reconcile differences in their bills that would create a path for governing bodies to meet electronically, and limit the physical presence of the public during the coronavirus epidemic. They recessed Thursday night without passing a bill. Both the House and Senate bills would have allowed members of a governing body to conference into a meeting instead of attend physically. And both provided for some type of electronic access to the meeting by the public if the public was excluded. Sen. Paul Bailey, R-Sparta, sponsored a version of the bill that offers more safeguards to the public, including limiting [...]

Senate and House committees passed bills today that would amend the Open Meetings Act to allow members of governing bodies to participate in meetings electronically and bar the public from attending during the coronavirus outbreak. Sen. Paul Bailey, R-Sparta, sponsored a version of the bill that offers more safeguards to the public, including limiting business in meetings closed physically to the public to essential business and business that the governing body determines can't reasonably be delayed. Tennessee Coalition for Open Government supports the Senate version of the bill. The Senate and House bills have some differences. Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, and other citizen and media groups, had advocated for [...]

The General Assembly did the right thing yesterday in announcing it would not proceed with its regular calendars, and instead focus on just essential business before recessing for at least 8 weeks. House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally indicated lawmakers could finish their essential business by the end of the week and go home. One of those bills under consideration this week would give local governing bodies the ability for their members to meet electronically -- such as dialing in on a conference line, or joining via a videoconference. The legislation would also allow local governing bodies to comply with the Open Meetings Act by providing electronic [...]