public notice

19 Dec, 2022

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

By |2023-01-02T17:00:37-06:00December 19, 2022|Categories: open meetings lawsuits|Tags: , , , , , , |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 |2021-06-22T16:32:04-05:00May 18, 2021|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: , , , , , , |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 |2017-09-17T18:20:32-05:00September 17, 2017|Categories: adequate public notice|Tags: , , , , , |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 |2017-02-27T16:26:38-06:00February 27, 2017|Categories: Legislature|Tags: , , |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. [...]

26 Apr, 2016

15 decisions on public records by the Tennessee Legislature in 2016

By |2018-11-09T08:23:32-06:00April 26, 2016|Categories: court records, crime records, exemptions, fees, Legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, requests|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |1 Comment

This year, Tennessee lawmakers punted on public records bills that could have created new access rights to see police body camera video and files of finished investigations into officer-involved shootings. But they did pass several new laws — some that exempted more government information from public view, and others that hold promise for improving government transparency. Following is a roundup of action by the Tennessee Legislature related to public records and access. 1- Police body cameras: After a late-in-session effort to pass a body camera bill and disagreement among stakeholders, the House State Government Committee instructed the Advisory Committee on Open Government to study the issue and provide them with [...]

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