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

29 Jul, 2015

Public records practices of Sumner County Schools under scrutiny at trial

By Deborah Fisher|2015-07-30T05:27:34-05:00July 29, 2015|Categories: requests|Tags: Jeremy Johnson, Jim Fuqua, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Kirk Clements, public records request, Sumner County, Sumner County School Board, Todd Presnell|1 Comment

Ken Jakes, an open government advocate and a candidate for an at-large council position on Nashville’s Metro Council, is expected to testify Thursday morning in a public records lawsuit he brought against Sumner County Schools. Jakes sued after making a request in March 2014 to inspect the school district’s public records policy. District officials say his request, though they received it, was not valid because he sent it by email. Jakes also followed up with a phone call and left a voice mail. At issue is whether Sumner County Schools officials can refuse to respond to a public records request if it is received by email. The district’s policy at [...]

7 Mar, 2015

Increasing fees for public records is not the answer for government transparency

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:53:33-05:00March 7, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Chattanooga, fees for public records, Judge Dee David Gay, legislature, OORC, Rutherford County, Sumner County, Sumner County School Board, Tennessee School Boards Association|0 Comments

The fastest way to shut down access to government records is to charge fees people can’t afford to pay. Another way is to simply ignore or delay responding to citizens or media who make requests under the Tennessee Public Records Act. Yet another, which takes more effort, is to actively confuse or frustrate a citizen or journalist with byzantine policies and practices to make them go away. All can be powerfully effective. And, unfortunately, all take place in Tennessee. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government received nearly 200 calls to its hotline last year from journalists and citizens who faced obstacles in getting public documents from their local government or [...]

28 Jan, 2015

Judge’s order in case about Sumner County Board of Education’s restrictive request policy

By Deborah Fisher|2015-01-28T12:26:49-06:00January 28, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, requests|Tags: Jeremy Johnson, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, public records request, Sumner County School Board|0 Comments

Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay signed an order last week denying a summary judgment to the Sumner County Board of Education in a public records case about its restrictive request policy. The order reflects the findings in a hearing on Jan. 9, when the school board argued that it had the right to essentially ban citizens from calling or emailing to make a request to view public records, and instead to require all such requests to be mailed by U.S. Postal Service, or made in person. The lawsuit was filed by Ken Jakes, who had emailed the school board's community relations supervisor, Jeremy Johnson, asking to see the district's public [...]

11 Jan, 2015

Judge allows public records lawsuit against Sumner County schools to proceed

By Deborah Fisher|2015-01-12T14:51:08-06:00January 11, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, requests|Tags: Del Phillips, Jeremy Johnson, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Kirk Clements, litigation, public records request, requests by email, Sumner County, Sumner County School Board, Todd Presnell|0 Comments

Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay listens to arguments by attorney Kirk Clements, who says his client was wrongly denied access to public records. GALLATIN -- The Sumner County School Board lost the first round in a court fight Friday to be able to reject public records requests from citizens who make those requests by email or phone. The school district’s policy requires citizens to make public records requests by U.S. mail or by appearing in person, according to Jeremy Johnson, the school district’s board and community relations supervisor. Because of this, Johnson told citizen Ken Jakes that his request by email to view a public record was [...]