open records Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

11 Mar, 2014

Bill to close lottery records fails in committee

By Deborah Fisher|2014-04-09T16:34:26-05:00March 11, 2014|Categories: Legislature|Tags: legislature, lottery records, open records, Open Records Act exemptions|0 Comments

Proposed legislation to make the name of lottery winners confidential and not subject to the state's Open Records Act failed on a 2-4 vote in the Senate State and Local Government committee this morning. State Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, said she brought S.B. 2060 to protect lottery winners who might be harassed or scammed by others trying to get some of their windfall. She said she sought the bill after an issue was raised by a constituent. She said the bill would have allowed lottery winners to "opt in" on whether their name could be disclosed by the lottery. Wanda Wilson, the general counsel of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp., testified [...]

27 Feb, 2014

Bill defines DCS disclosure of child death records

By Deborah Fisher|2021-02-02T12:12:05-06:00February 27, 2014|Categories: state records|Tags: child death records, DCS, legislature, open records|1 Comment

Chas Sisk with The Tennessean reports today of a bill that would lay out required disclosures of child death records by DCS. Such records were at the heart of a lawsuit last year led by The Tennessean. Here is an excerpt from Sisk's story. House lawmakers gave initial approval Wednesday to a bill that sets new disclosure rules for the Department of Children’s Services. The House Civil Justice Subcommittee unanimously approved House Bill 1505 on a voice vote Wednesday afternoon after members raised no objections to the measure. The bill lays out the disclosures DCS must make when a child dies or comes close to death, and it says a full report [...]

30 Jan, 2014

Hendersonville: Reducing the cost of transparency

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T16:12:40-05:00January 30, 2014|Categories: fees|Tags: fees for public records, Hendersonville, open records, records management and retention|1 Comment

Reporter Sherry Mitchell writes in The Hendersonville Standard this week that city officials are blaming a delay in its annual audit because staff has been backed up fulfilling public records requests, largely from citizens involved with EverythingHendersonville.com. This is the same situation that resulted in an October 2013 opinion from the Office of Open Records Counsel saying that the city had improperly adopted a fee schedule for public records, and to charge fees, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen needed to pass an ordinance. (The mayor had done this on his own, without going before the the governing entity who would need to vote on such an ordinance in a public [...]

22 Jan, 2014

‘Overzealous taping’ blamed for over-redacting

By Deborah Fisher|2014-04-09T16:58:18-05:00January 22, 2014|Categories: Redactions|Tags: Hendersonville, open records, redactions|0 Comments

The city of Hendersonville has gotten quite a bit of practice in recent months in dealing with open records requests. By all accounts, it has been fulfilling voluminous public records requests from media and citizens who are scrutinizing city management. In this story published by the Hendersonville Star News this week, reporter Tena Lee quotes city staff explaining why some documents the newspaper requested were improperly redacted, removing the names of job references. Here's an excerpt from her story: Two separate applications of former employee Trace Buerkett, who resigned Oct. 25, show the names of his personal references were redacted. Personnel Director Kaye Palmer said the references likely were city employees, [...]

14 Jan, 2014

Personal email accounts can hide government business
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Personal email accounts can hide government business

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Personal email accounts can hide government business

By Deborah Fisher|2014-04-09T17:00:41-05:00January 14, 2014|Categories: email|Tags: Chris Christie, emails, open records|1 Comment

Breaking Bad character Walter White uses a second cell phone to hide his meth business. The Associated Press published an insightful story by Jack Gillum on Saturday that shines light on the practice of government officials using personal email accounts to sidestep public records laws. In this case, a top aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie used her Yahoo email account to send messages about closing bridge lanes to an official with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The closure resulted in huge traffic backups and is being viewed as politically motivated payback to [...]