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TCOG plans comment for public records hearings: New fees would choke off citizen oversight

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-30T03:24:20-05:00August 28, 2015|Categories: fees, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Ann Butterworth, Office of Open Records Counsel, public hearings, TCOG news, Tennessee School Boards Association|0 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel is conducting public records hearings in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson in September to ask the question: Should the Tennessee Public Records Act permit the government to charge citizens to inspect public records? The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government believes that charging citizens to view public records would make it easier for some government officials to block citizen access to records. We believe that the result of a change in Tennessee law would be immediate: Some citizens would no longer be able to view public records because they could not afford to pay the fees. The change would roll back Tennessee’s legal tradition of favoring [...]

A peek at what’s ahead for the public records hearings

In three weeks, the Office of Open Records Counsel will hold the first of three public hearings on consecutive days in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson to get comments on whether the law should be changed so that citizens can be charged to inspect records. Louden County mayor Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw told the News-Herald in Lenoir City in a Sunday story that he plans to attend the Knoxville hearing on Sept. 16 and advocate for fees. He cited a records request from a citizen that cost "$8,000-$9,000 in attorney fees, additional labor costs and other expenses" -- expenses he thinks the citizen should have to pay. The citizen who made the public [...]