If the video footage from the Tyre Nichols beating in Memphis tells us anything, it’s that we need to keep protecting the tools that allow public accountability for corruption.
A citizen's lawsuit against the city of Athens and its city manager takes aim at multiple potential violations of the open meetings and public records laws, including overcharging for copies and failing to keep minutes of meetings involving a suspension of the city manager.
A bill that would remove the statutory guarantee that citizens cannot be charged fees to view public records revives an idea that was floated in 2015, but received so much public opposition that the sponsors withdrew the legislation.
We are monitoring several bills during the 2022 legislative session, including a bill that would create new fees to inspect public records.
The University of Memphis has withdrawn a proposed rule that would have required public records requestors who took pictures of public records to hand over their phone so the university could check it for what they photographed and would have allowed the university to charge the person a "production cost" even though the university itself did not produce the copies.
