TCOG news Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

21 Aug, 2015

What you can do when you think the Open Meetings Act was violated

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-21T18:26:26-05:00August 21, 2015|Categories: Open Meetings, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: open meetings violations, TCOG news|0 Comments

Because TCOG gets so many questions and complaints from citizens who wonder what they can do when their officials in a local government violate the state's Open Meetings Act, we've set up a new Open Meetings Complaint page on TCOG's website under the "Resources" tab to explain some options. We will continue to update this page as time goes on, and add to it as we hear from you. TCOG's aim is to try to provide helpful information on how best to create a culture in local government that complies with both the letter and the spirit of the Sunshine law. You can reach the page here: Open Meetings Complaint page. [...]

12 Aug, 2015

Hearings on public records fees scheduled for September

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-18T10:10:18-05:00August 12, 2015|Categories: fees|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Ann Butterworth, fees for public records, Office of Open Records Counsel, TCOG news, Tennessee Press Association|4 Comments

The Office of Open Records Counsel has set public hearings for Sept. 15-17 in Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson to gather input on whether citizens should have to pay local and state government to inspect public records. The hearings on public records fees are being conducted after the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government and the Tennessee Press Association opposed bills in the last legislative session that would allow for the first time local governments and state agencies to charge labor fees to provide public records for citizen inspection. Currently, Tennessee law allows citizens free access to inspect public records, but allows charges if the citizen wants copies. TCOG, TPA and other [...]

28 Apr, 2015

Lawmakers tweak public records law, but avoid new fees for now

By Deborah Fisher|2015-09-25T17:03:32-05:00April 28, 2015|Categories: fees, Legislature|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, City of Franklin, Erlanger Health Systems, executive session, fees for public records, legislature, Office of Open Records Counsel, performance evaluations, public hospital boards, State Rep. Mike Carter, State Rep. Steve McDaniel, State Sen. Jim Tracy, TCOG news, Tennessee School, TSSAA, utilities|1 Comment

Sponsors delayed action on legislation that could have made accessing public records more expensive for citizens and news media, but lawmakers in the 109th General Assembly moved ahead on other changes to the state's public records law. A new exemption was added to make performance evaluations of more state employees confidential. Another was added to make sure student academic and health information remained private. And yet another reinforced already existing exemptions to protect credit card numbers and email addresses of citizens held by government. The most far-reaching public records bill was one that never made it to committee for discussion — a proposal to impose new fees on citizens who asked to inspect public [...]

24 Apr, 2015

TCOG receives Intellectual Freedom Award from Tennessee librarians

By Deborah Fisher|2020-11-19T12:20:49-06:00April 24, 2015|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: TCOG news|1 Comment

Anthony Prince with the Tennessee Library Association presents TCOG Executive Director Deborah Fisher with TLA's Intellectual Freedom Award at TLA's 2015 conference in Memphis. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government has been awarded the Intellectual Freedom Award from the Tennessee Library Association. The award recognizes the contribution of an individual or group who has actively promoted intellectual freedom in Tennessee. Anthony Prince, a TLA board director and the cataloging manager for Brown-Daniel Library at Tennessee State University, presented the award Thursday at the TLA's annual conference in Memphis. "Intellectual freedom -- the right to seek, receive, hold, and disseminate information from all points of view without restriction -- [...]

23 Mar, 2015

NFOIC and SPJ combine war chests to fight for Freedom of Information

By Deborah Fisher|2015-03-23T13:23:48-05:00March 23, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: litigation, NFOIC, SPJ, TCOG news|0 Comments

Joint press release from SPJ-NFOIC. (TCOG is a member of NFOIC): INDIANAPOLIS/Jefferson City - The Society of Professional Journalists and the National Freedom of Information Coalition are joining forces - and legal war chests - to help citizens and journalists fight for public records. The two groups will band together to help litigants who sue for access to government information. The NFOIC can provide court fees and SPJ help for attorney fees. Both organizations also will use their combined national networks of journalists and citizens to apply public pressure to government agencies that flaunt the law. "This is such an exciting collaborative project, one that will lend significant weight to [...]