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

Getting savvy about public records saves everyone a bundle

By Deborah Fisher|2015-04-28T11:34:59-05:00January 7, 2014|Categories: fees|Tags: fees for public records, open records, redactions|0 Comments

By Deborah W. Fisher, Executive Director, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government It was a year ago in February when the Department of Children’s Services announced it would charge a coalition of news organizations $55,484 to make copies of child fatality records. The sticker shock was a low moment for open government advocates. DCS included 1,800 hours of staff time in its estimate. But instead of discouraging citizen engagement in their government, the court fight over DCS records and excessive costs should be a signal for citizens and journalists to be proactive and work through their tangles with public officials on local levels when it comes to access to public records. In [...]

Public records fees at issue in Hendersonville

The mayor of Hendersonville imposed a public records fee policy without following the city charter, which requires an ordinance adopted by the Hendersonville board in a public meeting. Longtime open records advocate Frank Gibson writes about how a Tennessee mayor imposed a fee policy for public records, overlooking his city's charter which requires such a policy to be adopted as an ordinance with a full board vote in an open meeting. By Frank Gibson Public Policy Director, Tennessee Press Association It has always troubled me that ignorance of the law can be used as a legal defense for not complying with the Tennessee Public Records Act. That absurdity [...]