public notice Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

10 Jul, 2025

Judge rules Chattanooga City Council violated open meetings law with so-called informational meetings
Gallery
Judge rules Chattanooga City Council violated open meetings law with so-called informational meetings

Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits

Judge rules Chattanooga City Council violated open meetings law with so-called informational meetings

By Deborah Fisher|2025-07-10T11:55:46-05:00July 10, 2025|Categories: Open Meetings, open meetings lawsuits|Tags: Chattanooga City Council, informational meetings, Paul McAdoo, private meetings, public notice, redistricting, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Times Free Press|0 Comments

A judge found that the Chattanooga City Council violated the Open Meetings Act in developing its new voting district maps in 2021 and 2022. The city's arguments that closed meetings were simply "informational" and contained no deliberations or decision-making was refuted by evidence that included council members own comments about the process. In addition, the judge found that serial meetings held by city staff with each council member to get approval of a proposed map before presenting it in public at a full council meeting violated the open meetings act.

19 Dec, 2022

Private meetings on Chattanooga redistricting violated open meetings law, lawsuit alleges
Gallery
Private meetings on Chattanooga redistricting violated open meetings law, lawsuit alleges

open meetings lawsuits

Private meetings on Chattanooga redistricting violated open meetings law, lawsuit alleges

By Deborah Fisher|2023-01-02T17:00:37-06:00December 19, 2022|Categories: open meetings lawsuits|Tags: Chattanooga, Chattanooga City Council, litigation, private meetings, public notice, redistricting, Times Free Press|2 Comments

A redistricting committee made up of Chattanooga city councilmembers violated the open meetings act when it convened privately to make decisions and deliberate on the city's new voting district maps, a lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit by the Chattanooga Times Free Press also alleges that councilmembers violated the open meetings act when the city's executive staff, at the request of the redistricting committee, met individually with council members to decide on the contours of each of their new districts.

18 May, 2021

Knox County Commission mulls changes to public notices

By Deborah Fisher|2021-06-22T16:32:04-05:00May 18, 2021|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: adequate public notice, Glenn Jacobs, Knox County Commission, Knox Focus, Knoxville News Sentinal, legal notices, public notice|0 Comments

The Knox County Commission is proposing an ordinance that would create a new central repository on its website for all public and legal notices required by law, with the idea that it might be able to eliminate the expense of buying ads in local newspapers to publicize items like upcoming meetings, tax-delinquent sales and government bid opportunities. [...]

17 Sep, 2017

Two counties fail to give adequate public notice of meetings; changes needed

By Deborah Fisher|2017-09-17T18:20:32-05:00September 17, 2017|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: Greene County, Linda Noe, Loudon County, public notice, Richard Truitt, US Nitrogen|0 Comments

In recent weeks, governing bodies in two counties in East Tennessee failed to adequately notify the public of meetings in which they were taking up issues of high public interest. The lack of adequate public notice of meetings is a violation of the Open Meetings Act. The failure of local government entities to follow the law suggests either an irresponsible lack of understanding of the law or a willful flouting of it in an effort to exclude the public from knowing about government business. Both are egregious. The first example was in Loudon County when members of the Loudon County Board of Education were called to a special meeting on [...]

27 Feb, 2017

Weekly notice of House pre-meetings will help the public

By Deborah Fisher|2017-02-27T16:26:38-06:00February 27, 2017|Categories: Legislature|Tags: Beth Harwell, House committee pre-meetings, public notice|0 Comments

The schedule for Tennessee House pre-meetings will now be announced weekly on the General Assembly's website, as well as posted on hallway bulletin boards at Legislative Plaza -- a significant move that will allow the public and journalists to know when and where the meetings occur if they want to attend. Posted notice of pre-meetings, Bill Review, at Legislative Plaza Pre-meetings, also called Committee Bill Review, are held in lawmaker conference rooms, which do not have equipment for live-streaming. Though more informal than regular committee and subcommittee meetings, which are live-streamed and recorded, lawmakers, lobbyists and other government officials can discuss significant information about proposed legislation in the pre-meetings. [...]