Gov. Bill Lee Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

4 Sep, 2020

New order requires real-time access to public meetings held electronically

By Deborah Fisher|2020-09-04T15:57:17-05:00September 4, 2020|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: agendas, COVID-19, electronic meetings, Gov. Bill Lee, open meetings, per diem eligibility|1 Comment

Beginning on Oct. 1, all governing bodies in Tennessee must provide real-time audio or video access of their meetings held electronically. Under Gov. Bill Lee’s earlier executive order, governing bodies who met electronically instead of in-person because of COVID-19 safety concerns had to make “reasonable efforts to provide live access." But if a governing body could not provide live access after making such efforts, it could make a recording of the meeting and provide it to the public afterward. The new order, issued on Aug. 28, requires both live access and a "clear audio or video recording of the meeting." The recording must be made available to the public "as [...]

29 Jun, 2020

Gov. Lee extends order allowing remote governing body meetings through Aug. 29 — what’s a citizen to do?

By Deborah Fisher|2020-07-03T10:01:02-05:00June 29, 2020|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: COVID-19, electronic meetings, Gov. Bill Lee|0 Comments

Gov. Bill Lee has decided to extend his order suspending parts of the Open Meetings Act to allow governing bodies to continue to meet electronically through Aug. 29. In order No. 51, Lee said extending the order is warranted because COVID-19 "remains a threat and it's imperative to ensure gatherings are conducted in a safe way ... without creating large gatherings in a confined space and endangering persons, particularly those at increased risk of suffering severe illness from COVID-19 while determinations of how best to return to safe, in-person governmental meetings remain ongoing." So what's a citizen to do? We've learned a lot over the past three months as governing [...]

6 May, 2020

Gov. Lee extends order allowing governing bodies to meet electronically through June 30

By Deborah Fisher|2020-05-09T13:09:12-05:00May 6, 2020|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: COVID-19, electronic meetings, executive order, Gov. Bill Lee, open meetings|0 Comments

Gov. Bill Lee extended provisions in Executive Order No. 16 allowing members of governing bodies to meet electronically through June 30. The order previously was scheduled to expire on May 18. The new order makes no changes in the earlier provisions other than extending the date. Under Executive Order No. 16, a governing body subject to the Open Meetings Act in Tennessee may "meet and conduct its essential business by electronic means, rather than being required to gather a quorum of members physically present at the same location, if the governing body determines that meeting electronically is necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of Tennesseans in light of [...]

6 Sep, 2019

Gov. Lee’s decision not to release agency recommendations raises questions about deliberative process exemption

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-06T17:41:25-05:00September 6, 2019|Categories: deliberative process privilege, Public Records, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: deliberative process privilege, Gov. Bill Lee|0 Comments

A Tennessean reporter shows one of the state agency's recommendations he obtained on improving rural services despite refusal by the governor's office to release 22 state agency recommendations, citing the deliberative process privilege. The reporter, Joel Ebert, does not say how he obtained the report. In 2005, then-Gov. Phil Bredesen was planning a major scaleback to TennCare to, as he put it, "save" the program whose costs were rising exponentially. A sit-in was staged at the Tennessee State Capitol over several days to protest, to no avail. Karl Davidson, who was among the protesters, later alleged in a lawsuit that he and others at the sit-in were willfully and maliciously [...]

Previous 12