News - Page 78 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

24 Feb, 2016

Chattanooga lawmaker scolds Hamilton County commissioners for secret attempt to change law

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-24T18:48:33-06:00February 24, 2016|Categories: Legislature|Tags: Chattanooga, Hamilton County Commission, State Sen. Todd Gardenhire|0 Comments

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, pulled his bill, S.B. 1911, from consideration in a Senate committee Tuesday, saying the Hamilton County Commission had asked him and others in the Hamilton County delegation to sponsor it without discussing it in a public meeting. State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, speaking to a Senate committee. To see the VIDEO, click on the picture. The bill was filed as a caption bill, meaning the language was a placeholder for the real intent of the sponsor. Gardenhire told the Senate State and Local Government Committee Tuesday that the bill now had an amendment (which has not yet been made public on the General Assembly's [...]

23 Feb, 2016

Memphis mayor says body cam video cannot be released if part of investigation

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-24T10:26:26-06:00February 23, 2016|Categories: crime records|Tags: crime records, Mayor Jim Strickland, Memphis, police body cameras|0 Comments

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. Click on picture to see the full Fox13 report. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland told Memphis TV journalist Greg Coy that video footage from body cam video cannot be released if the event it records is under investigation. The quote came during a story by Coy on the whether citizens will have access to video footage created by body cameras. "By law, it can't be revealed just like a paper document that is evidence. All evidence, whether it is a gun, whether it is a paper or whether it is video, if it is under investigation it cannot be released,” Mayor Strickland said. From the story: The city [...]

23 Feb, 2016

Tennessee to consider open data standards under proposed legislation

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-23T18:24:05-06:00February 23, 2016|Categories: open data|Tags: Jeffrey Kriseman, open data, state government, State Rep. Jason Powell, State Sen. Jeff Yarbro|1 Comment

A bill that would create a task force to study the feasibility of state government to utilize an open data policy cleared the House State Government Committee on Tuesday. The task force created under the bill, H.B. 2215 / S.B. 2427, would: (1) Examine whether state agencies may collect or create information in a way that supports downstream information processing and dissemination activities, including using machine readable and open formats, data standards, and common core and extensible metadata for all new information creation and collection efforts; (2) Ensure information stewardship by the state agencies through the use of open licenses and review of information for privacy, confidentiality, security, or other [...]

22 Feb, 2016

Hamblen County decides to exclude public comments from videotape

By Deborah Fisher|2023-02-20T10:21:09-06:00February 22, 2016|Categories: Open Meetings, public comment|Tags: Bill Britain, Hamblen County, Linda Noe, meeting videotape, Morristown, public comment|0 Comments

The Hamblen County Commission has decided to exclude the public comments from the videotape of its meetings, which is shown on a public education channel. Linda Noe, an attorney in Morristown, posted on her blog her own video of the meeting in which she questioned commissioners about the decision. In the video, County Mayor Bill Brittain responds to a question from a commissioner about telling the videographer to turn off the equipment when the public comments portion of the meeting started, saying it was "in the best interest of the meeting." Later, the commission chairman says that not taping the public comments was a "compromise" to ending the videotaping of [...]

22 Feb, 2016

Ashe, officials clash over closing state museum board meeting, News Sentinel reports

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-22T08:26:33-06:00February 22, 2016|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Open Meetings Act, state museum board, Tom Smith, Victor Ashe|0 Comments

Tom Humphrey with the Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Victor Ashe, a former lawmaker and former Knoxville mayor, has clashed with the state museum board on which he sits over a plan to close a meeting to discuss selection of a new museum director. An excerpt from the story: The board governing the Tennessee State Museum, officially known as the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission, has scheduled an eight-hour "workshop" for March 28 to discuss the selection of a new museum executive director to succeed Lois Riggins-Ezzell at some point. In an exchange of email with Tom Smith of Nashville, who chairs a museum board committee on "succession planning" that [...]