Judge Dee David Gay Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

31 Jan, 2016

Judge blasts Sumner Schools for refusing to update its public records policy, denies stay

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-02T12:26:08-06:00January 31, 2016|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Sumner County Schools, Todd Presnell|0 Comments

Last week, Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay unleashed a verbal whipping to the Sumner County School Board when they argued to stay his order to update its public records policy to come into compliance with the law. The Sumner County School Board wants to wait instead to see what the Court of Appeals says, and argued that allowing requests by phone or through its website would cost "significant public funds." Currently, its policy allows the school board to deny any request from citizens to see public records if the citizen fails to make the request in person or send a letter through the U.S. Postal Service. The dispute started when citizen [...]

2 Dec, 2015

Sumner schools will appeal judge’s ruling in open records case

By Deborah Fisher|2015-12-02T15:07:49-06:00December 2, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Sumner County School Board|1 Comment

The Sumner County school board voted last night unanimously to appeal a ruling by a local judge in an open records case where they were found to violate the law in refusing to accept a citizen's public records request. Here is an excerpt from the story by The Gallatin News: Sumner schools will appeal judge's ruling in open records case The matter stems from a Nov. 13 ruling by Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee Gay, who ordered the board to no longer use its policy and come up with a new one for him to review by March 1, 2016. The question of the legality of the policy arose after [...]

18 Nov, 2015

What we learned from a citizen’s fight for public records in Sumner County

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T15:14:39-06:00November 18, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: attorneys' fees, Elisha Hodge, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, Sumner County School Board|0 Comments

Judge Dee David Gay reads his ruling that the Sumner County Board of Education violated the Tennessee Public Records Act because it went too far in restricting how citizens could make requests. The school district would only allow citizens to view public records if they made their request in writing through the U.S. Postal Service or in person. At a cost of about three or four college educations at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Sumner County’s school officials and school board just got educated about the state’s public records law. Sumner County parents and taxpayers paid the tuition. On Nov. 13, Sumner County Judge Dee Gay ruled that the [...]

13 Nov, 2015

Judge rules Sumner County Schools violated public records law, orders it to stop

By Deborah Fisher|2015-11-16T07:35:58-06:00November 13, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Jeremy Johnson, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Kirk Clements, litigation, public records request, Sumner County, Sumner County School Board, Todd Presnell|0 Comments

GALLATIN -- Nearly 20 months after citizen Ken Jakes requested to see the Sumner County Schools public records policy, Sumner County Judge Dee Gay ruled today that the school district violated Tennessee Public Records law by withholding it. He ordered the district to stop its practices and adopt a new policy for dealing with public records requests. Seated left to right: Citizen Ken Jakes, Sumner Schools attorney Jim Fuqua, school communications official Jeremy Johnson and attorney Todd Presnell listen to the judge's ruling that the school district violated the Tennessee Public Records Act. The school's attorney asked for a 30-day stay on the judge's order, which Gay granted, [...]

31 Jul, 2015

Judge says Sumner County Schools denied public records request, but not willful

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T15:14:58-06:00July 31, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, requests|Tags: attorneys' fees, Jeremy Johnson, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, litigation, public records request, Sumner County, Sumner County School Board, Todd Presnell|0 Comments

Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay said Thursday in preliminary findings that Sumner County Schools denied a public records request from open government advocate Ken Jakes, but that he heard no proof that showed the district was willful in its actions. Gay said he would make a final ruling in November on whether the school district violated the Tennessee Public Records Act when it denied Jakes' request on the basis that he did not follow the local district's requirement that he make the request in person or through the U.S. Postal Service. Jakes had emailed his request, following up with a voice mail, asking in March 2014 to inspect the [...]

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