fees for public records Archives - Page 5 of 9 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

16 Sep, 2015

Nashville: Media, public speak against proposed open records fee

By Deborah Fisher|2015-09-17T08:21:00-05:00September 16, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: fees for public records|0 Comments

The second of the three public hearings -- this one in Nashville -- on potential new fees to access public records drew another standing-room only crowd, with about 80 people crowded into the hearing room. Of the 22 who spoke, only two said that news fees should be allowed in the law. Those two were a representative for the Nashville Electric Service and the finance director for the City of Mt. Juliet. The rest who spoke included a cross-section of well-known and longtime journalists, as well as several citizens, the state president of the League of Women Voters-Tennessee, and one state lawmaker, state Rep. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon. More details in [...]

16 Sep, 2015

Knoxville: Proposed records fee met with public backlash

By Deborah Fisher|2015-09-17T08:15:27-05:00September 16, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: fees for public records|0 Comments

WATE-TV's coverage of the Knoxville public hearing on the proposal to charge fees to inspect public records. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that almost all of the 30-plus speakers at the public hearing on fee proposal held in Knoxville spoke against it. The room was packed with more than 80 people, some standing along the walls. Extra chairs were brought in. See news stories about the hearings: WATE (video): Should you have to pay for public records that your tax dollars have already paid for? Knoxville News Sentinel: Proposed records fee met with public backlash WBIR: Room packed with opinions on possible fees for public records An excerpt from the [...]

10 Sep, 2015

Knox County mayor opposes new public records fees

By Deborah Fisher|2015-09-10T19:06:45-05:00September 10, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: fees for public records, Knox County, Michael Grider, Office of Open Records Counsel, Tim Burchett|0 Comments

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett filed comments with the Office of Open Records Counsel today, expressing opposition to charging taxpayers to inspect public documents, saying it would be a step backward. Burchett wrote: As a former state senator, I had the opportunity to sponsor bills updating and strengthening portions of the current Open Records Act. As a legislator, my focus was – and remains today – on ensuring openness and transparency in government. Accountability begins with access, and true accountability means reducing, not increasing, obstacles to access public records. Charging taxpayers for exercising their right to merely inspect the very documents their taxes [...]

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 [...]

25 Aug, 2015

A peek at what’s ahead for the public records hearings

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-25T08:02:36-05:00August 25, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: fees for public records, Louden County, Mayor Rollen "Buddy" Bradshaw, Office of Open Records Counsel, public hearings|1 Comment

In three weeks, the Office of Open Records Counsel will hold the first of three public hearings on consecutive days in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson to get comments on whether the law should be changed so that citizens can be charged to inspect records. Louden County mayor Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw told the News-Herald in Lenoir City in a Sunday story that he plans to attend the Knoxville hearing on Sept. 16 and advocate for fees. He cited a records request from a citizen that cost "$8,000-$9,000 in attorney fees, additional labor costs and other expenses" -- expenses he thinks the citizen should have to pay. The citizen who made the public [...]