News - Page 40 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

14 Feb, 2019

Gov. Bill Lee invites public comment on bills

By Deborah Fisher|2020-11-19T13:02:13-06:00February 14, 2019|Categories: Legislature|Tags: Bill Lee|2 Comments

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has established a page online for Tennesseans to give him feedback on bills approved by the General Assembly and presented to him to sign. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee "As part of my commitment to an open and transparent government, we have created this bill review page to invite public comments on bills passed by the General Assembly and presented to me for consideration. By bringing more Tennesseans into the process more directly, I believe we will increase accountability in how our laws are made. I invite you to come back to this page often, as we will be updating it regularly as bills pass [...]

10 Feb, 2019

Proposed bills seek to clarify, change law related to government settlement agreements

By Deborah Fisher|2019-02-10T13:59:55-06:00February 10, 2019|Categories: Legislature|Tags: settlement agreements, State Rep. Bill Beck, State Rep. Doc Kumar, State Rep. Jeremy Faison, State Sen. Dolores Gresham, State Sen. Todd Gardenhire|0 Comments

A collection of bills introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly are aimed at clarifying or changing parts of the law surrounding government settlement agreements. Government entities are prohibited from entering into confidential settlement agreements. The Court of Appeals has said that “a governmental entity cannot enter into confidentiality agreements with regard to public records. The idea of entering into confidentiality agreements with respect to public records is repugnant to and would thwart the purpose of the (Tennessee Public Records) Act." (Contemporary Media v. City of Memphis, 1999.) Lawmakers have filed at least three separate sets of bills: State Sen. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville. Sen. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville, and Rep. [...]

10 Feb, 2019

Nashville, Knoxville lawmakers seek to make names in traffic accident reports confidential

By Deborah Fisher|2020-04-09T09:10:14-05:00February 10, 2019|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: State Rep. Jason Powell, State Sen. Becky Massey, traffic accident reports|2 Comments

A Nashville representative and Knoxville senator have filed bills that would make parts of traffic accident reports confidential, including the names of people involved in the accident. State Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, represents part of Davidson County. Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, and Sen. Becky Massey, R-Knoxville, have filed HB 1107 and SB 1346. The bills which would make the names of people involved in traffic accidents confidential, along with their addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers, driver license numbers and insurance information. Some of this information in a law enforcement traffic accident report, such as a person's driver's license number and other personal information, is already confidential under [...]

10 Feb, 2019

Tennessee lawmaker seeks to make 911 calls confidential

By Deborah Fisher|2019-02-11T08:12:54-06:00February 10, 2019|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: 911 calls, State Rep. Rick Tillis, State Sen. Shane Reeves|0 Comments

A Tennessee lawmaker is seeking to make 911 calls confidential. Rep. Rick Tillis, R-Lewisburg, has filed HB 335 which would amend the Tennessee Public Records Act to say: State Rep. Rick Tillis, R-Lewisburg, represents Marshall and part of Franklin, Lincoln, and Marion Counties. He has filed a bill to make 911 confidential. (1) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, 911 calls, transmissions, and recordings of an emergency communications district and emergency communications board under title 7, chapter 86, are confidential and may be used only for public safety purposes and as necessary for law enforcement, fire, medical, rescue, dispatching, or other emergency services. (2) A 911 call, transmission, [...]

6 Feb, 2019

An early look at open government legislation we’re tracking for 2019

By Deborah Fisher|2019-02-18T19:40:25-06:00February 6, 2019|Categories: Legislature, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: body cameras, confidentiality agreements, Open Record Ad Hoc Committee, photos of public records, proprietary records, public records request, tax credits|0 Comments

Today is a bill filing deadline in Tennessee, so this list will be updated and most certainly will get bigger as we learn more. The larger issue for TCOG will be caption bills, which open up parts of the Tennessee Code that are not part of the Public Records Act in Title 10, Chapter 7, and are not yet clear that they aim to close records. We hope to find out about these bills early in the process so that we can examine the language more closely. If you know of something, please let us know! We are happy to examine and vet legislation, and share our insight on how [...]