legislature Archives - Page 7 of 13 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

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. [...]

12 Oct, 2015

TN Senate Judiciary hearing to include body camera legislation

By Deborah Fisher|2015-10-13T07:09:17-05:00October 12, 2015|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: legislature, police body cameras, State Representative Brenda Gilmore, State Senator Sara Kyle|0 Comments

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing at 10 a.m Monday, Oct. 19, to discuss several criminal justice issues, including the use of body-worn cameras by law enforcement. Many law enforcement agencies across the country are moving toward the use of body cameras as a way to improve policing and accountability after a series of high-profile incidents in which police were perceived to have used excessive force in dealing with suspects. Also, the federal government has begun to fund body-worn cameras at the local level through federal grants. But the use of body cams has raised several questions concerning disclosure of video under public records laws, citizen privacy, the cost of storage and redaction, [...]

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 [...]