private entities Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

TCOG lists 13 exemptions, exemption categories that need revision or elimination

By Deborah Fisher|2018-11-09T08:19:46-06:00September 30, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Public Records, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: economic development records, investigation exemption, investment records, lottery records, Open Records Ad Hoc Committee, prisons, private entities, public hospital boards, tax credits, TBI, University of Tennessee, vendor names|1 Comment

Tennessee Coalition for Open Government recently provided the Open Records Ad Hoc Committee 13 exemptions or categories of exemptions that are interfering with the public's right to know what government is doing. Deborah Fisher, executive director of TCOG "As you will see, many of the exemptions listed have problems related to overbreadth or vagueness that we suspect may exceed the public purpose of the exemption. We know that some of the considerations we are bringing forward were not part of the debate when the exemptions were passed by the legislature," TCOG's letter said. "While this list may not cover every exemption that impairs transparency in government, we wanted [...]

No tax-supported entity should get secrecy in spending

A shadowy situation has emerged in Chattanooga with an organization that manages millions of taxpayer dollars with no transparency and such a surprising disregard for accountability that one wonders what it would take to wake up elected officials who are supposedly in charge. Welcome to the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose lawyer threatened to sue the county after a commissioner dared to shed a little sunlight on how it spends tax dollars. The Chattanooga CVB is on track to get $7.8 million in hotel/motel tax this year via a pass-through arrangement with the Hamilton County government. The Chattanooga CVB gets almost all of its funds from [...]