Chancellor Frank Brown Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

17 Jul, 2014

Read judge’s order in Open Meetings case against Chattanooga Industrial Development Board

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:50:08-05:00July 17, 2014|Categories: economic development, Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits|Tags: Chancellor Frank Brown, Chattanooga, economic development records, Helen Burns Sharp, John Konvalinka, open meetings violation|1 Comment

Helen Burns Sharp, whose career included working as a community planner for state and municipal government, spent $50,000 of her retirement savings to bring a lawsuit against the Chattanooga Industrial Development Board in 2013. She alleged that the board approved tax-increment financing for a Black Creek Mountain golf course community. In the deal, the developers got $9 million from industrial board-issued bonds to build road and sewer up a mountain to the community. And property taxes from all the expensive homes built there would be used to pay them off. She didn't think that was right -- that TIF funds are not supposed to be used for such projects -- and [...]

17 Jul, 2014

Chattanooga judge voids $9 million deal on Open Meetings violation

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-18T07:40:48-05:00July 17, 2014|Categories: economic development, Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits|Tags: Chancellor Frank Brown, Chattanooga, economic development records, Helen Burns Sharp, John Konvalinka, litigation, open meetings violation, Times Free Press|0 Comments

A citizen spent $50,000 of her own money to bring a lawsuit against Chattanooga's industrial development board, and won. Hamilton County Chancellor Frank Brown says the board violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act when it approved a $9 million deal for developers of a golf course community. The judge's ruling voids the deal. This is the second lawsuit that we've shared on TCOG's blog in recent days on citizen lawsuits involving economic development, alleging violations of the Sunshine Law and operating in secrecy. Citizens in Greene County allege Open Meetings violations in bringing to town a company that wants to make liquid ammonium nitrate used in industrial explosives. Read the Times Free [...]

4 Jun, 2014

Update: Chattanooga judges release job applications after AG’s advice

By Deborah Fisher|2017-01-06T15:26:27-06:00June 4, 2014|Categories: Attorney General Opinions, state records|Tags: AG opinion, Chancellor Frank Brown, Chancellor Jeffrey Atherton, Chattanooga, open records, Times Free Press|0 Comments

Hamilton County Chancellor Jeffery Atherton Hamilton County Chancellor Frank Brown In a story being followed by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, two judges who had denied the newspaper access to job applications for the county's Clerk and Master position reversed course and released the documents. The judges had originally told the Times Free Press that even if the applications were public records, they thought the privacy of the applicants "outweigh the public's right to know." They then sealed the records by issuing a court order in a highly unusual move considering there was no current litigation before them in which they had jurisdiction to issue an [...]

23 May, 2014

Hamilton County judges say privacy of job applicants outweighs Public Records Act

By Deborah Fisher|2014-05-23T15:10:53-05:00May 23, 2014|Categories: state records|Tags: Chancellor Frank Brown, Chancellor Jeffrey Atherton, Chattanooga, open records, Times Free Press|0 Comments

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports today about an unusual move by two Hamilton County judges to seal information about applicants to that county's Clerk and Master position, issuing an order without any pending litigation before their courts. The newspaper had requested a list of applicants to the $103,795 job, which is appointed by the judges as one of their administrative duties. At first, one of the judges, Chancellor W. Frank Brown, responded to the request saying the court does not believe the public has a right to names, and media should offer the same confidentiality to candidates for the clerk and master post that it gives to victims of [...]

20 Feb, 2014

Rebecca Little discusses what led to her public records lawsuit

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T15:12:28-06:00February 20, 2014|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: attorneys' fees, Chancellor Frank Brown, Chattanooga, litigation|0 Comments

Victors in a public records lawsuit: The Little family owns Tennessee RiverPlace, a bed and breakfast in Lookout Valley in Chattanooga. Rebecca Little won a public records lawsuit with the city, but the family continues to fight over services Chattanooga promised during annexation in the 1970s but hasn't delivered. I talked with Rebecca Little this morning about her victory at the appeals court last week in her public records lawsuit. The appeals court on Friday overturned Hamilton County Chancellor W. Frank Brown in Little's public records case against the city of Chattanooga – ruling that the city must reimburse Little $71,343 in attorney fees and other costs to [...]

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