News - Page 54 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

5 Oct, 2017

Ohio senator files anti-SLAPP bill similar to legislation that was pulled last year in Tennessee

By Deborah Fisher|2017-10-05T11:12:52-05:00October 5, 2017|Categories: Legislature|Tags: Ohio bill, public participation, SLAPP suits|0 Comments

A coalition of citizen, media and advocacy groups in Ohio are putting their support behind a so-called anti-SLAPP bill introduced in their state yesterday. The bill is similar to one introduced in Tennessee, but taken off notice during the 2017 legislative session without discussion in committee or subcommittee. The Ohio bill is modeled after Texas law, as was Tennessee's. Many people are not familiar with a SLAPP lawsuit. SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against public participation" and is a moniker coined in the 1980s. Here's an entry describing SLAPP suits from The First Amendment Encyclopedia at MTSU and an excerpt: A SLAPP suit, or strategic lawsuit against public participation, is a [...]

4 Oct, 2017

TCOG urges Office of Open Records Counsel to update guidance on taking photos of public records

By Deborah Fisher|2017-10-04T07:18:04-05:00October 4, 2017|Categories: Office of Open Records Counsel, Public Records, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Adam Yeomans, Advisory Committee on Open Government, Lee Pope, Office of Open Records Counsel, photos of public records|0 Comments

Tennessee Coalition for Open Government has urged the Office of Open Records Counsel to update its Model Public Records Policy and take quick action to stem a growing problem of government entities who are preventing citizens from taking photos of government records. See a copy of the TCOG's letter here: Taking photos of public records - Letter to Office of Open Records Counsel, 10-3-17. The letter was sent to Open Records Counsel Lee Pope from Adam Yeomans, who is vice president of TCOG's board of directors and its representative on the Advisory Committee on Open Government. The advisory committee is a 14-member group appointed by the Comptroller that provides advice to [...]

29 Sep, 2017

Appeals court rules economic development organization subject to public records, open meetings law

By Deborah Fisher|2020-02-23T10:09:55-06:00September 29, 2017|Categories: economic development, functional equivalent, open meetings lawsuits, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Dandridge, economic development records, functional equivalent, Jefferson County, Judge Charles Susano Jr., Judge D. Michael Swiney, Judge Steven Stafford, public records lawsuit|0 Comments

In a win for a group of citizens in East Tennessee, the Court of Appeals in Knoxville ruled this week that a nonprofit economic development organization in Jefferson County is subject to the state's public records and open meetings laws. The court held in Oliver Wood et al. v. Jefferson County Economic Development Oversight Committee, Inc., that the nonprofit organization, which has received between 60 percent to 68 percent of its budget from local governments each year, is the functional equivalent of a government entity and subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act. The court also ruled that because EDOC has a significant role in making decisions and recommendations to local government [...]

20 Sep, 2017

State agencies urged by committee chair to allow photos of public records

By Deborah Fisher|2017-09-21T08:24:06-05:00September 20, 2017|Categories: Legislature, Public Records|Tags: legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, photos of public records, State Rep. Jeremy Faison, State Sen. Mike Bell|2 Comments

(Updated 9-21-17 with quotes from the meeting, and more background on the development of the Model Public Records policy that allows government entities to ban photography.) Three state agencies were instructed to re-examine their public records policies that prohibit citizens from taking photos of public records during a meeting of the Joint Government Operations Committee meeting today. State Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville State Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, the Senate chairman of the committee, asked the Comptroller's Office, the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to review their policies to allow citizens to use technology, like their cell phone, to take photos of public records. [...]

17 Sep, 2017

Two counties fail to give adequate public notice of meetings; changes needed

By Deborah Fisher|2017-09-17T18:20:32-05:00September 17, 2017|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: Greene County, Linda Noe, Loudon County, public notice, Richard Truitt, US Nitrogen|0 Comments

In recent weeks, governing bodies in two counties in East Tennessee failed to adequately notify the public of meetings in which they were taking up issues of high public interest. The lack of adequate public notice of meetings is a violation of the Open Meetings Act. The failure of local government entities to follow the law suggests either an irresponsible lack of understanding of the law or a willful flouting of it in an effort to exclude the public from knowing about government business. Both are egregious. The first example was in Loudon County when members of the Loudon County Board of Education were called to a special meeting on [...]