litigation Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

12 Aug, 2014

Appeals Court hears arguments on reach of execution drug secrecy

By Deborah Fisher|2014-08-12T09:58:01-05:00August 12, 2014|Categories: execution drugs|Tags: Andy Bennett, Appeals Court, Claudia Bonnyman, execution drugs, Kyle Hixon, litigation|0 Comments

The Tennessean covered the arguments before the Court of Appeals Monday concerning an exemption to the Tennessee Public Records Act passed in 2013 that makes the source of execution drugs confidential. Lawyers for death row inmates sought to have the source revealed to them so they could examine whether the source was safe and legal, and whether it would violate inmate rights to be free of cruel and unusual punishment. Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ordered the information released to the lawyers under seal. The state is appealing Bonnyman's ruling. An excerpt from reporter Brian Haas' story: The appeals panel Monday seemed skeptical of Hixson's arguments, pressing him on whether the 2013 law applied [...]

17 Jul, 2014

Chattanooga judge voids $9 million deal on Open Meetings violation

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-18T07:40:48-05:00July 17, 2014|Categories: economic development, Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits|Tags: Chancellor Frank Brown, Chattanooga, economic development records, Helen Burns Sharp, John Konvalinka, litigation, open meetings violation, Times Free Press|0 Comments

A citizen spent $50,000 of her own money to bring a lawsuit against Chattanooga's industrial development board, and won. Hamilton County Chancellor Frank Brown says the board violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act when it approved a $9 million deal for developers of a golf course community. The judge's ruling voids the deal. This is the second lawsuit that we've shared on TCOG's blog in recent days on citizen lawsuits involving economic development, alleging violations of the Sunshine Law and operating in secrecy. Citizens in Greene County allege Open Meetings violations in bringing to town a company that wants to make liquid ammonium nitrate used in industrial explosives. Read the Times Free [...]

14 Jul, 2014

Newspapers delve into alleged Sunshine Law violations in zoning vote

By Deborah Fisher|2014-07-14T16:10:21-05:00July 14, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: economic development records, Greene County, Herbert Moncier, Knoxville News Sentinel, litigation, open meetings violation|0 Comments

The Knoxville News Sentinel in its Sunday edition digs into a lawsuit alleging violations of the Open Meetings Act in Greene County when approval was given to rezone land for a company that planned to make components for industrial explosives. The Greeneville Sun has also covered the lawsuit involving US Nitrogen extensively as well as reported stories on the plant's construction, application for permits and environmental opposition. Its stories can be found at this link. The Knoxnews.com article is reprinted here, with permission. You can read TCOG's column about the state's open government laws regarding economic development here. By Hugh G. Willett Special to the News Sentinel GREENEVILLE — The future [...]

14 Jul, 2014

Lawsuit probes secrecy in economic development

By Deborah Fisher|2015-02-26T05:06:58-06:00July 14, 2014|Categories: economic development, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: economic development records, Greene County, Herbert Moncier, litigation, open meetings violation|0 Comments

By Deborah Fisher Executive Director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government When government officials get into the business of economic development, they usually face the choice between transparency and secrecy. Too often, they choose secrecy. And sometimes the law allows it. At the state level, specific exemptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act give the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development broad latitude to keep confidential who they are talking with and incentives they are offering. Only after a deal is done, and the state has signed on the dotted line about how much money it has agreed to give a company in exchange for jobs, can the public [...]

30 Jun, 2014

Government emails from private accounts – how to comply?

By Deborah Fisher|2014-06-30T15:01:01-05:00June 30, 2014|Categories: email|Tags: emails, litigation|0 Comments

In Tennessee, the Office of Open Records Counsel has made clear that emails sent by government officials discussing government business, whether sent from a government account or a private account, are subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act. A judge's ruling earlier this year in a lawsuit over Knox County government emails underscored the issue of open access, though it took the Knoxville News Sentinel one and half years to prevail. In talking with reporters in the past three or four months, I think the more thorny issue is how difficult it is for anyone to know private email accounts are being used for public business -- and, then, how [...]