The Commercial Appeal Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

Commercial Appeal: Memphis officials censor city credit card records

The Commercial Appeal reported today that the city of Memphis denied full access to statements from government-issued credit cards, saying the personal purchases made by government officials on the cards are not disclosable under the Tennessee Public Records Act. Under the credit card program, now discontinued, each government official was responsible for paying his own card, and had to submit separately for reimbursement when the purchases were for government. While the city says the employees paid the bill for their personal purchases, the Commercial Appeal so far has been unable to determine just how much in personal purchasing went on. TCOG is quoted in the story, and the Commercial Appeal gave [...]

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 [...]