Steve Cavendish Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

After three years and a lawsuit, records from TSSAA finally made public

The Nashville Scene finally received records sought three years ago from the Tennessee Secondary School Athletics Association as part of an investigation into rule-breaking by an elite private school in Nashville. When the TSSAA refused to turn over details about rule violations regarding tuition assistance for athletes at Montgomery Bell Academy, the now-defunct City Paper in Nashville sued and won. City Paper was owned by Southcomm Inc.; Southcomm also owns the Nashville Scene. Steve Cavendish, now news editor for the Nashville Scene and former editor at the City Paper, wrote that the TSSAA finally turned over the records in November after the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to take the TSSAA's appeal [...]

Behind the TSSAA ruling: Preserving public oversight over government functions

By Deborah Fisher|2020-02-23T10:11:33-06:00May 7, 2014|Categories: functional equivalent, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Claudia Bonnyman, Court of Appeals, Frank G. Clement Jr., functional equivalent, John Williams, litigation, non-government agencies, Southcomm, Steve Cavendish, The Commercial Appeal, TSSAA|1 Comment

An Appeals Court finds that regulating high school sports is a government function, so the regulator should be subject to open records law. Should the agency that regulates high school athletic competitions in Tennessee – making rules, conducting investigations, deciding eligibility and collecting millions of dollars in gate receipts – be subject to the same public scrutiny as public high schools and school boards? The Court of Appeals in Nashville said yes in a significant April 30 decision that opens up records of an organization that touches nearly every community in the state. The City Paper in Nashville two years ago sought records from the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s [...]