email Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

3 Feb, 2020

Hamilton County’s destruction of public records should set off fire alarms

By Deborah Fisher|2020-06-05T14:19:19-05:00February 3, 2020|Categories: Public Records, records management|Tags: county public records commission, Dana Beltramo, email, Hamilton County, Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin Taylor, Hamilton County Commmissioner Randy Fairbanks, public records requests, records retention policy, Times Free Press|1 Comment

Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin Taylor refused to allow inspection of its responses to public records requests without the Times Free Press paying more than $700. His office later got permission to destroy the records being requested by the newspaper, even as the newspaper continued to press to see them. Hamilton County government has found a new way to prevent access to public records: get rid of them. It’s not really new. It’s the oldest trick in the book. In late July last year, a reporter with the Chattanooga Times Free Press became concerned that the county government was not following state law in its responses to public records requests. So [...]

26 Oct, 2015

Knoxville News Sentinel: State holds back emails on outsourcing project

By Deborah Fisher|2017-03-27T16:21:26-05:00October 26, 2015|Categories: deliberative process privilege|Tags: Bill Haslam, deliberative process privilege, email, Greg Adams, Judge Richard Dinkins, outsourcing|0 Comments

Governor Bill Haslam's office released 72 pages of emails of his chief operating officer in charge of the state's building-management outsourcing project, but held back some, saying they fell under a "deliberative process" exemption to the Tennessee Public Records Act. The Knoxville News Sentinel and The Commercial Appeal requested correspondence dating back to September 2014 of Greg Adams relating to the controversial outsourcing plan. Haslam's office has been considering the plan since November, but news of it did not become public until Aug. 17 when a "request for information" from potential vendors was posted on the state procurement office website. The released correspondence offered new insight into the governor's office response to the [...]

16 Oct, 2015

AP: Haslam defends recommendation for advisers to avoid email

By Deborah Fisher|2021-12-28T11:18:20-06:00October 16, 2015|Categories: deliberative process privilege, email|Tags: Bill Haslam, deliberative process privilege, email, outsourcing|0 Comments

Another story on government email from Erik Schelzig with the Associated Press: NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam is defending a practice among his outsourcing advisers to avoid email correspondence to prevent information getting out to the public. The Republican governor told reporters after an economic development conference this week that it's a standard practice of "sharing some wisdom" with new employees who have come to government from the private sector that all of their correspondence is subject to Tennessee's open records laws. "Any government that comes into office, the very first day they say, careful what you put in that email, because unless you want to see it [...]

15 Oct, 2015

AP: Tennessee officials told to avoid emailing about outsourcing

By Deborah Fisher|2017-03-27T16:18:43-05:00October 15, 2015|Categories: email|Tags: email, outsourcing, privatization, Terry Cowles|0 Comments

From the Associated Press, by way of the Chattanooga Times Free Press - a story about government email: NASHVILLE, Tenn. --- Officials mulling over the privatization of operations at state buildings, college campuses, prisons and armories are being discouraged from putting their thoughts into emails. Terry Cowles, who is in charge of Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's office of Strategies for Efficiency in Real Estate Management, or SEREM, told reporters Tuesday that the group "put that control in place" to prevent the release of what he called premature or incorrect information. "We want to provide you all and the public with as much information as we can, but we have to [...]