News - Page 77 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

25 Feb, 2016

Bill clarifies Comptroller exemption for confidential audit work

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-25T12:15:07-06:00February 25, 2016|Categories: exemptions, Legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel|Tags: exemptions, Office of Open Records Counsel|0 Comments

An existing exemption that makes confidential audit work in the Comptroller's Office is being expanded to also include records from surveys, but won't include surveys done by the Office of Open Records Counsel. An amendment was added to the bill, H.B. 1682, in a House subcommittee Wednesday to make clear that the survey exemption does not apply to surveys conducted by the Office of Open Records Counsel, which is part of the Comptroller's Office. The House State Government Subcommittee passed the bill unanimously. The exemption currently in the statute, 10-7-504 (a)(22)(D) includes: (A) The audit working papers of the comptroller of the treasury and state, county and local government internal audit staffs conducting audits as [...]

25 Feb, 2016

News Sentinel: State museum meeting should be open to the public

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-25T09:12:16-06:00February 25, 2016|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Knoxville News Sentinel, state museum board, Victor Ashe|0 Comments

The News Sentinel published an editorial today saying that the "Douglas Henry State Museum Commission is barreling toward a possible violation of the state's Open Meetings Act." It urges the commission, which was just allocated $120 million of taxpayer money toward construction of the new facility, to open to the public its planned March 28 meeting in which it is scheduled to discuss what is needed in replacing the museum's long-time executive director. One of the commission members, Victor Ashe, called for the state museum meeting to be open, but has met resistance from another member, Tom Smith, who heads a committee on succession planning. (Ashe is a member of TCOG's board [...]

24 Feb, 2016

Model public records policy to be developed under proposed bill

By Deborah Fisher|2016-03-10T08:46:27-06:00February 24, 2016|Categories: Legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, requests|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Office of Open Records Counsel, public records request, State Rep. Bill Dunn, State Sen. Richard Briggs|2 Comments

State Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, presented an addition to state law Wednesday that would require each government entity in Tennessee to adopt a written public records policy and designate a "public records coordinator" who would be the "go-to person" understanding the policy and how things are carried out. State Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville. Click on picture to see video. His bill, H.B. 2082, also requires the Office of Open Records Counsel to develop a model best practices and public records policy that local and state government entities can use. The bill passed out of the House State Government Subcommittee on Wednesday with an amendment proposed by Dunn that [...]

24 Feb, 2016

Appeals Court denies Sumner Schools request; deadline to fix public records policy is March 1

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-24T18:28:06-06:00February 24, 2016|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, requests|Tags: Beth Cox, Court of Appeals, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Kirk Clements, Sumner County Schools, The Tennessean|0 Comments

The Court of Appeals in Nashville today denied a request by Sumner County Schools to delay enforcement of a judge's order to bring their public records policy into compliance with the law. Todd Presnell, with Bradley Arrant Boult Cummings, representing the Sumner County School Board That means that the school district must update its policy, which Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay found to be in violation of the Tennessee Public Records Act, by March 1 or risk being held in contempt of court. The Sumner School District has spent more than $113,000 fighting a lawsuit after it refused to let a citizen see a copy of its [...]

24 Feb, 2016

Bill to remove public notices in newspapers fails in committee

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-26T09:16:40-06:00February 24, 2016|Categories: adequate public notice, Legislature|Tags: public notices, State Sen. Ken Yager, State Sen. Todd Gardenhire|1 Comment

Threatening to remove public notices of meetings and other legal notices from newspapers can be a tactic to intimidate a press that has become critical of government. But lawmakers failed to bite on a proposal in the state senate committee on Tuesday. A bill that would have allowed local and state government entities in Tennessee to stop publishing public notices of upcoming meetings and other items in local newspapers failed in committee when no lawmakers would make a motion to bring it for discussion. State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, proposed the bill, S.B. 1909. But when State Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, the chairman of the Senate State and Local Government Committee, [...]