Lawmakers killed a bill in a House committee that would have allowed members of county and city legislative bodies to attend meetings by phone or video. The bill was a revival of one that failed in 2021. Lawmakers expressed concerns that members attending a meeting while experiencing a family or medical "emergency" might not be in the mental state to conduct business.
Members of county and city legislative bodies in Tennessee would be able to attend meetings electronically, such as by videoconference or phone, when dealing with a family or medical emergency under a bill filed by a pair of lawmakers from Knox County. Sen. Richard Briggs and Rep. Dave Wright sponsored similar legislation in 2021, which failed in a House committee.
This month, local governing bodies across the state resumed in-person meetings after 58 weeks under a governor's executive order allowing electronic meetings. The order, which had lifted requirements of state law so that governing bodies could meet electronically due to COVID-19, expired on April 28 without renewal by Gov. Bill Lee. In a spot check of governing bodies, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government found that some resumed physical meetings just as before the pandemic. Others resumed physical meetings but continued citizen-friendly measures that they were not doing before the pandemic — such as livestreaming more meetings and posting the video to YouTube. Some resumed meeting in their regular meeting rooms [...]
Tennessee Supreme Court Justices: Chief Justice Jeffrey S. Bivins, seated; standing from left, Justice Holly Kirby, Justice Cornelia A. Clark, Justice Sharon G. Lee, and Justice Roger A. Page. The Tennessee Supreme Court this week began a new program to videotape oral arguments of its cases and to post them on its website for the public to see. This follows the Court's initiative to make audio recordings of oral arguments available on the website beginning five years ago. “There has been too much mystique about the Supreme Court for too long,” Chief Justice Jeff Bivins said in a press release. “This Supreme Court is committed to openness and [...]
The Hamblen County Commission has decided to exclude the public comments from the videotape of its meetings, which is shown on a public education channel. Linda Noe, an attorney in Morristown, posted on her blog her own video of the meeting in which she questioned commissioners about the decision. In the video, County Mayor Bill Brittain responds to a question from a commissioner about telling the videographer to turn off the equipment when the public comments portion of the meeting started, saying it was "in the best interest of the meeting." Later, the commission chairman says that not taping the public comments was a "compromise" to ending the videotaping of [...]
