Advisory Committee on Open Government Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

25 Mar, 2016

New Tennessee law could make requesting public records less confusing

By Deborah Fisher|2016-12-08T07:50:46-06:00March 25, 2016|Categories: Legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, requests|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, public records request, State Rep. Bill Dunn, State Sen. Richard Briggs|0 Comments

From Associated Press: The state Legislature has passed a bill that will require nearly every government office across Tennessee to tell citizens how they can get public records. State Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, led the bill's passage. The measure first directs the open records counsel in the state comptroller's office to come up with a model public records policy that local government agencies could adopt. The legislation would then require government offices to have a written public records policy by July 1, 2017. The policy can't be less open than state law allows, and it should explain to citizens how to make a request to either inspect or [...]

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 [...]

31 Aug, 2015

TCOG answers state’s 5 questions on charging fees for public records

By Deborah Fisher|2016-03-10T08:51:27-06:00August 31, 2015|Categories: fees, Office of Open Records Counsel, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, fees for public records, Office of Open Records Counsel, redactions, Schedule of Reasonable Charges|0 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel is posing five questions about charging fees for public records at upcoming hearings Sept. 15-17 in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson. Open Records Counsel Ann Butterworth is gathering comments in advance of making a recommendation in January on whether the law should be changed to allow governments to charge citizens to look at public records. Following are TCOG's responses to the five questions. 1. Should the TPRA (Tennessee Public Records Act) permit record custodians to charge for inspection of public records? No. New fees would choke off citizen access to a wide swath of public records. Plain and simple, we believe that allowing government to [...]

12 Aug, 2015

Hearings on public records fees scheduled for September

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-18T10:10:18-05:00August 12, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Ann Butterworth, fees for public records, Office of Open Records Counsel, TCOG news, Tennessee Press Association|4 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel has set public hearings for Sept. 15-17 in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson to gather input on whether citizens should have to pay local and state government to inspect public records. The hearings on public records fees are being conducted after the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government and the Tennessee Press Association opposed bills in the last legislative session that would allow for the first time local governments and state agencies to charge labor fees to provide public records for citizen inspection. Currently, Tennessee law allows citizens free access to inspect public records, but allows charges if the citizen wants copies. TCOG, TPA and other [...]

8 Jul, 2015

My favorite part of the ACOG meeting about charging new fees for public records (VIDEO)

By Deborah Fisher|2015-07-09T01:26:30-05:00July 8, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Ann Butterworth|0 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel has posted video of the meeting she held with the Advisory Committee on Open Government Committee meeting from June 29. The topics covered were upcoming public hearings and questionnaires to gather information so, as Open Records Counsel Ann Butterworth told the group, she can make her recommendation to the Legislature, presumably on whether or not to propose new fees on citizens to inspect public records, and if so, how. (See previous blog post: Public hearings, survey to gather citizen, government input on public records fee proposal.) Since the video is long (1 hour and 43 minutes), I've highlighted a part of the video below that takes [...]