Victor Ashe Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

15 Aug, 2017

TCOG raises serious concerns about museum commission’s restrictive speech policy

By Deborah Fisher|2017-08-16T16:12:07-05:00August 15, 2017|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Henry Walker, state museum board, State Rep. Jeremy Faison, State Sen. Mike Bell, Tennessee State Museum, Victor Ashe|1 Comment

The Joint Government Operations Committee held a public hearing today on the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission's new restrictive speech policy for its commissioners. Below are comments I delivered as TCOG's executive director outlining why the policy is at odds with open government, the Tennessee Constitution and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. My comments were part of the public comments part of the hearing, which followed about an hour of questions from members of the joint committee, led by its two chairmen state Sen. Mike Bell and state Rep. Jeremy Faison. Almost all of the lawmakers expressed deep concern about the commission's new policy and how it came about. [...]

11 Jul, 2017

State museum commission restricts speech, communication with the press

By Deborah Fisher|2017-07-11T16:16:35-05:00July 11, 2017|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: First Amendment, speech restrictions, state museum board, Tennessee State Museum, Tom Smith, Victor Ashe|1 Comment

The Douglas Henry State Museum Commission adopted a new code of conduct on Monday that requires all commission members except for the chair and vice-chair to provide advance notification to the entire commission of any comments that they make to the public before making them. The policy would cover any communication with the press, or any public comments or written comments. The commission also decided it would apply to social media. "Should a Commissioner, excluding the Chair and Vice-Chair, publish any written statement, including blogs, or give any public statement regarding the Commission, Museum, Executive Director, or Museum personnel the Commissioner shall provide the Commission with an advance copy of [...]

25 Feb, 2016

News Sentinel: State museum meeting should be open to the public

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-25T09:12:16-06:00February 25, 2016|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Knoxville News Sentinel, state museum board, Victor Ashe|0 Comments

The News Sentinel published an editorial today saying that the "Douglas Henry State Museum Commission is barreling toward a possible violation of the state's Open Meetings Act." It urges the commission, which was just allocated $120 million of taxpayer money toward construction of the new facility, to open to the public its planned March 28 meeting in which it is scheduled to discuss what is needed in replacing the museum's long-time executive director. One of the commission members, Victor Ashe, called for the state museum meeting to be open, but has met resistance from another member, Tom Smith, who heads a committee on succession planning. (Ashe is a member of TCOG's board [...]

22 Feb, 2016

Ashe, officials clash over closing state museum board meeting, News Sentinel reports

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-22T08:26:33-06:00February 22, 2016|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: Open Meetings Act, state museum board, Tom Smith, Victor Ashe|0 Comments

Tom Humphrey with the Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Victor Ashe, a former lawmaker and former Knoxville mayor, has clashed with the state museum board on which he sits over a plan to close a meeting to discuss selection of a new museum director. An excerpt from the story: The board governing the Tennessee State Museum, officially known as the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission, has scheduled an eight-hour "workshop" for March 28 to discuss the selection of a new museum executive director to succeed Lois Riggins-Ezzell at some point. In an exchange of email with Tom Smith of Nashville, who chairs a museum board committee on "succession planning" that [...]

19 Jan, 2016

TCOG adds 5 new members to its Board of Directors

By Deborah Fisher|2016-01-19T10:46:47-06:00January 19, 2016|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Braden Boucek, Hedy Weinberg, John Williams, Larry Alvin Wood, TCOG board, TCOG news, Victor Ashe|0 Comments

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, a nonprofit organization that promotes government transparency, has named five new members to its Board of Directors. They are: Victor Ashe, former Knoxville mayor, state representative, state senator and U.S. Ambassador to Poland Braden Boucek, litigation director and representative for The Beacon Center of Tennessee Hedy Weinberg, executive director of ACLU-TN John Williams, attorney with Tune, Entrekin & White, P.C. Larry Wood, general manager of WNWS-FM, NewsTalk 101.5 FM in Jackson TCOG is a non-partisan organization founded in 2003 whose mission rests on the belief that citizen access to government information, through public records and public meetings, is crucial in allowing informed [...]