Metro Nashville

27 Jun, 2020

Judge: Nashville board violated Open Meetings Act by failing to provide adequate notice of soccer stadium vote

By |2020-06-29T10:55:50-05:00June 27, 2020|Categories: adequate public notice, Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Artist rendering of planned soccer stadium in Nashville. A Nashville judge said the Nashville sports authority board violated the Open Meetings Act when it did not provide adequate notice of the meeting in which it approved a $192 million construction management project for the stadium. A Davidson County chancellor ruled that Nashville government violated the Open Meetings Act in 2018 by failing to provide adequate notice of a Metro Sports Authority board meeting in which a $192 million construction contract was signed for a soccer stadium. Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle in her June 25 order ruled the action taken in approving the contract with Mortenson/Messer Construction Company is void and [...]

11 Jul, 2018

How much is AllianceBernstein getting in incentives? Sorry, that’s redacted

By |2018-07-13T17:03:33-05:00July 11, 2018|Categories: economic development, exemptions|Tags: , , |1 Comment

The Nashville Business Journal reported today that government attorneys believe it's OK to redact information in a document put before a vote of Metro Nashville's industrial development board. That members of a governing body were kept in the dark and apparently had no concern about it demonstrates just how far we've come in our local and state government culture. It's sloppy government and the citizens of Tennessee deserve better. It concerns AllianceBernstein, which is moving its global headquarters from New York to Nashville. From the Business Journal, as reported by Adam Sichko: What the state has disclosed is a $17.5 million jobs grant tied to the money manager's decision to [...]

16 Oct, 2017

Delaying access to public records violates law, appeals court rules

By |2020-04-09T09:09:02-05:00October 16, 2017|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , , , , |1 Comment

Government entities cannot ignore the requirement in the Tennessee Public Records Act to provide access to records promptly and still be in compliance with the law, according to an appellate court ruling last week in Jetmore v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. Court of Appeals Judge Andy Bennett In the opinion delivered by Judge Andy D. Bennett, the court upheld a trial court's finding against the Metro Nashville Police Department, which had limited the number of traffic accident reports it would provide a requester to three a day. The appellate court also upheld the award of attorney's fees to the requester who brought the lawsuit, saying [...]

4 Oct, 2016

Metro Nashville must pay nearly $57K in attorneys fees in public records case

By |2020-04-09T09:09:40-05:00October 4, 2016|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, requests|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Senior Judge Robert E. Lee Davies ordered Metro Nashville to pay nearly $57K in attorneys fees to a public records requester, saying that the city "misinterpreted and ignored the 'promptness' requirement" in the Tennessee Public Records Act. Davies found the city was willful in not complying with the law, a requirement for awarding attorneys fees in a public records lawsuit. Senior Judge Robert E. Lee Davies orders Metro Nashville to pay attorneys fees in public records case that challenged the city's delay in releasing records. Plaintiff Bradley Jetmore filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming Metro Nashville's police department records division had begun delaying release of traffic reports after about [...]

26 Aug, 2016

Judge says Nashville violated law by not providing public records promptly

By |2016-10-04T07:45:21-05:00August 26, 2016|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, requests|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

In what may be the first legal challenge to government delays on public records requests in Tennessee under a 2008 law, a judge has ruled that Metro Nashville violated the “prompt” provision in the statute by holding up traffic accident reports. Senior Judge Robert E. Lee Davies ordered the city to provide access to the reports within 72 hours of their creation. He also found that Metro Nashville Police Department’s request form did not comply with the Public Records Act because it stated that the city had “seven business days to process” a records request, which is contrary to law. Many requesters, including journalists across the state, often complain that [...]

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