Hendersonville Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

30 Jan, 2014

Hendersonville: Reducing the cost of transparency

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T16:12:40-05:00January 30, 2014|Categories: fees|Tags: fees for public records, Hendersonville, open records, records management and retention|1 Comment

Reporter Sherry Mitchell writes in The Hendersonville Standard this week that city officials are blaming a delay in its annual audit because staff has been backed up fulfilling public records requests, largely from citizens involved with EverythingHendersonville.com. This is the same situation that resulted in an October 2013 opinion from the Office of Open Records Counsel saying that the city had improperly adopted a fee schedule for public records, and to charge fees, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen needed to pass an ordinance. (The mayor had done this on his own, without going before the the governing entity who would need to vote on such an ordinance in a public [...]

‘Overzealous taping’ blamed for over-redacting

By Deborah Fisher|2014-04-09T16:58:18-05:00January 22, 2014|Categories: Redactions|Tags: Hendersonville, open records, redactions|0 Comments

The city of Hendersonville has gotten quite a bit of practice in recent months in dealing with open records requests. By all accounts, it has been fulfilling voluminous public records requests from media and citizens who are scrutinizing city management. In this story published by the Hendersonville Star News this week, reporter Tena Lee quotes city staff explaining why some documents the newspaper requested were improperly redacted, removing the names of job references. Here's an excerpt from her story: Two separate applications of former employee Trace Buerkett, who resigned Oct. 25, show the names of his personal references were redacted. Personnel Director Kaye Palmer said the references likely were city employees, [...]

Public records fees at issue in Hendersonville

By Deborah Fisher|2015-04-28T11:35:49-05:00November 18, 2013|Categories: fees|Tags: fees for public records, Hendersonville|1 Comment

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 [...]