legislature Archives - Page 7 of 12 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

28 Apr, 2015

Lawmakers tweak public records law, but avoid new fees for now

By Deborah Fisher|2015-09-25T17:03:32-05:00April 28, 2015|Categories: fees, Legislature|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, City of Franklin, Erlanger Health Systems, executive session, fees for public records, legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, performance evaluations, public hospital boards, State Rep. Mike Carter, State Rep. Steve McDaniel, State Sen. Jim Tracy, TCOG news, Tennessee School, TSSAA, utilities|1 Comment

Sponsors delayed action on legislation that could have made accessing public records more expensive for citizens and news media, but lawmakers in the 109th General Assembly moved ahead on other changes to the state's public records law. A new exemption was added to make performance evaluations of more state employees confidential. Another was added to make sure student academic and health information remained private. And yet another reinforced already existing exemptions to protect credit card numbers and email addresses of citizens held by government. The most far-reaching public records bill was one that never made it to committee for discussion — a proposal to impose new fees on citizens who asked to inspect public [...]

24 Apr, 2015

Knoxville Mercury: Tennessee’s Open-Government Laws Are Outdated and in Danger of Being Undermined

By Deborah Fisher|2015-04-24T10:19:50-05:00April 24, 2015|Categories: fees, Legislature|Tags: fees for public records, Knoxville Mercury, legislature|0 Comments

Good piece of reporting by S. Heather Duncan of the Knoxville Mercury on recent goings-on with the Tennessee Public Records Act. Duncan compiles some examples... In the first four months of this year, Knoxville has seen open meetings violations by its 911 board, including the police chief and sheriff; the state Legislature has acknowledged that most of its committees have been regularly holding secret “pre-meetings”; and legislators floated about 25 bills that either attempted or succeeded in reducing public access to records and meetings. Over the last year, several local governments across the state lost high-profile court cases because they “willfully” withheld documents from the public, and still others got [...]

25 Mar, 2015

Bill to allow new public records fees pulled from House consideration

By Deborah Fisher|2015-04-28T11:33:33-05:00March 25, 2015|Categories: Legislature|Tags: ACOG, Ann Butterworth, fees for public records, legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, State Rep. Steve McDaniel|0 Comments

State Rep. Steve McDaniel this morning took off notice a bill that would allow new charges to be assessed citizens who want to inspect public records. House Bill 315 and its companion in the Senate is a top legislative priority for the Tennessee School Boards Association. Before pulling the bill, McDaniel kept the idea of new public records fees alive by saying the Office of Open Records Counsel has agreed to conduct public hearings in conjunction with the Advisory Committee on Open Government this summer on the proposal, and make a recommendation on the bill by January 2016. Ann Butterworth is the Open Records Counsel who would be in charge of [...]

9 Mar, 2015

From AP: Open Records Counsel says transparency panel exempt from sunshine law

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-30T02:31:16-05:00March 9, 2015|Categories: Office of Open Records Counsel|Tags: ACOG, Ann Butterworth, legislature, OORC|0 Comments

By Erik Schelzig, Associated Press A panel of experts assembled to offer advice on transparency issues is not subject to the state’s open meetings law. At least that’s the opinion of Ann Butterworth, who heads the Comptroller’s Office of Open Records Counsel. She made the finding in response to an email activist Ken Jakes’ request for more information about a recent teleconference held by the 14-member Advisory Committee on Open Government. “Is that not ironic that the very office that holds the responsibility of seeing that the citizens have access is involved in blocking access?” Jakes said. Jakes wanted to know more about the school board association’s representative on the [...]

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 [...]