legislature Archives - Page 6 of 12 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

2 Feb, 2016

As Tennessee General Assembly gets down to work, watch for bills that affect transparency

By Deborah Fisher|2016-03-10T08:55:37-06:00February 2, 2016|Categories: Legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel|Tags: legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel|0 Comments

Nearly 40 new bills could be considered by the Tennessee General Assembly in coming weeks that would make changes to citizen access to government records or meetings - some good, some not so good. As lawmakers head deep into the session and consider some of the proposals, they would do well to remember a message sent last summer through a series of public hearings and surveys: Citizens do not want more obstacles to finding out what their government is doing. This view is documented in a new report by Open Records Counsel Ann Butterworth that was developed in response to a legislative proposal last year to charge citizens new fees to inspect [...]

25 Jan, 2016

Open government advocate named to committee to look at Legislature’s sexual harassment policy

By Deborah Fisher|2016-01-26T04:25:18-06:00January 25, 2016|Categories: Legislature|Tags: Beth Harwell, legislature, Ryan Haynes, sexual harassment, State Rep. Jeremy Durham|0 Comments

A legislative sexual harassment policy that has come under criticism, partly because it allows for complete secrecy, will be reviewed by an independent committee in the wake of accusations about state Rep. Jerry Durham that has led Republican leaders to call for his resignation. Frank Gibson, founding director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government and TPA's public policy director House Speaker Beth Harwell said there have been legitimate criticisms about the 19-year-old policy and appointed the following people to review it: Allison Duke, Associate Dean, College of Business at Lipscomb; Frank Gibson, Public Policy Director for the Tennessee Press Association; Dianne Neal, Attorney; Connie Ridley, Director of Legislative Administration; and [...]

30 Dec, 2015

Inquiries went unanswered at Office of Open Records Counsel, audit shows

By Deborah Fisher|2015-12-30T11:57:45-06:00December 30, 2015|Categories: Office of Open Records Counsel|Tags: Ann Butterworth, legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel|0 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel, which lost its full-time director in 2014, had a mounting backlog of 603 inquiries dating back 18 months in September, according to an audit by the state comptroller released yesterday. "Based on procedures performed, due to lack of resources, the Office of Open Records Counsel is currently experiencing a significant backlog in reviewing and responding to open records inquiries," according to the audit, which was performed July through September. Ann Butterworth The number of inquiries not reviewed totaled 380. The number where research was in progress totaled 223. Most inquiries received by the office come from ordinary citizens, followed by government officials and [...]

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 [...]

10 Nov, 2015

Why did Tennessee rank 37th in public access to information?

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-16T15:11:26-06:00November 10, 2015|Categories: Open Meetings, Public Records|Tags: attorneys' fees, Center for Public Integrity, legislature|0 Comments

Tennessee ranked 37th among states in public access to information in the Center for Public Integrity’s 2015 State Integrity report released on Monday. I was among those who contributed information for the report for Tennessee, so was particularly curious about how other states measured against the public access criteria used in this study to calculate the scores. Access to government information was one of the 13 categories measured by the report, which assessed systems in place to deter corruption in state government. Some of the other categories were political financing, electoral oversight, ethics enforcement agencies, judicial accountability, lobbying disclosure and state budget processes. Tennessee ranked 15th overall when considering all categories. [...]