News - Page 80 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

16 Feb, 2016

Vendor confidentiality bill moves out of key House committee

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-17T08:42:46-06:00February 16, 2016|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: cybersecurity, legislature, State Rep. Bill Sanderson, State Rep. Cameron Sexton, vendor confidentiality|0 Comments

A Haslam administration bill that would make confidential the names of vendors who provide goods and services "used to protect government property, government employee information, or citizen information" passed out of the House State Government Committee. The bill was amended so that it applied to all state government, and allowed local government to opt into the exemption if a local governing body "voted affirmatively to make such information confidential." The amendment also allowed for a governmental entity to provide the identity of the vendor to the comptroller of the treasury and to lawmakers on the fiscal review committee, but said those people should not share the vendor identities with others. The [...]

16 Feb, 2016

More funding approved for Office of Open Records Counsel

By Deborah Fisher|2016-03-10T08:48:15-06:00February 16, 2016|Categories: Legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel|Tags: Comptroller Justin Wilson, Office of Open Records Counsel|0 Comments

The Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee voted today to approve $264,000 requested by Comptroller Justin Wilson to add two positions to the Office of Open Records Counsel. Wilson told the committee that the numbers of inquiries to the office have grown "exponentially" since it was created in 2008. With one person in the office now, it can not meet the demand, he said. Comptroller Justin Wilson "The numbers really don't show the growth here because the issues have become extremely more complex, more difficult, more controversial and have a higher profile (that's) really developed in the last eight years," Wilson said. "We simply don't have the capacity [...]

16 Feb, 2016

Shorter public notice of zoning hearings draws questions

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-17T16:31:51-06:00February 16, 2016|Categories: Legislature|Tags: Davidson County, Nashville, public hearings, public notice, state Rep. Andy Holt, State Rep. Darren Jernigan, state Rep. Marc Gravitt, zoning hearings|1 Comment

Update 2-17-16. I talked with Jon Cooper, Metro's law director this morning, and he said that Metro Nashville had no plans for changing the way it gives notice for public hearings on zoning changes. Davidson County, for more than 20 years, has followed its own zoning requirements to give at least 21 days advance notice of public hearings, Cooper said. It wasn't until last year during some research that it was realized that state law carved out Davidson County for a 30-day notice in a newspaper of general circulation, he said. The effort to change the statute was to allow for Davidson County's own regulations, which require more notice than required by [...]

12 Feb, 2016

Public records, open data bills on Legislative calendars next week

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-25T08:27:33-06:00February 12, 2016|Categories: Legislature|0 Comments

Following is a list of public records, public notice and open data bills on calendars for the week of Feb. 16-19 in the Tennessee Legislature that are among those TCOG is tracking: S.B. 1911 (Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga) As introduced, requires the public notice of a vacancy in the office of a member of a county legislative body to be printed in a newspaper of general circulation at least 15 days prior, instead of seven days prior, to the meeting at which the office is to be filled. Placed on Senate State and Local Government Committee calendar for Tuesday, 2/16. H.B. 1543 (Rep. Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville) As introduced, makes confidential the identities of [...]

12 Feb, 2016

News Sentinel files lawsuit over sealed court documents in UT rape case

By Deborah Fisher|2016-06-02T11:20:40-05:00February 12, 2016|Categories: Open Courts, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: court records, Knoxville News Sentinel, sealed court records, search warrants, University of Tennessee rape case|0 Comments

The Knoxville News Sentinel filed a lawsuit today, after requesting for more than a year to inspect court records and exhibits in the aggravated rape cases against former Tennessee football players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams. The newspaper claims that Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee sealed records "without any petition or order to do so." The newspaper was also told that Magistrate Ray H. Jenkins had sealed search warrant records, including a police investigator's affidavit. Following is an excerpt from the News-Sentinel's story, which you can read in full here: News Sentinel files lawsuit to unseal UT rape documents: The lawsuit argues that evidence can be sealed to protect the constitutional [...]