
Ok, Dennis and Tommy...Just so you guys know where I stand...If either one of you votes to weaken the sunshine laws regarding local government, you will have lost my support.
Lawmakers formed a committee to study changes to the state's open government laws.
Last month a subcommittee from that group voted 7-2 to make it legal for two or more members of a panel to deliberate in private as long as a quorum of the body is not present.
Supporters of the proposed change say it's not meant to circumvent public meetings laws, but instead to let a few members of a public body discuss important issues without having to call a public meeting. Detractors worry the change would allow private dealmaking.
We still haven't seen any public statement from our local Commissioners and Councilmen...Well?
|
Other RoaneViews blogs
- Tennessee Medieval Faire Kicks Off With Free Movie! (mushy)
- Passion of Christ will be shown at the Princess Theatre (mushy)
- Tennessee Pirate Fest is on the Horizon! (mushy)
- Yo, Ho, Me Hearties! It’s the 2nd Annual Tennessee Pirate Fest! (mushy)
- 2nd Annual Pirate Fest Auditions Begin (mushy)
- 2017 Princess Idols Announced (mushy)
- Do Not Privatize Fall Creek Falls (robmtchl)
- Tennessee Medieval Faire - 3 BIG days - Memorial Day weekend! (mushy)
- Darren York - New Princess manager (mushy)
- "An Evening of Remembrance" - Black History Month Event (mushy)
Eco Warriors and Politics
- Squabbles over ‘poison pill’ and herbal remedy resolved to approve Haslam’s opioid bills (Tom Humphrey)
- House and Senate send governor ‘significantly watered down’ juvenile justice reform (updated) (Tom Humphrey)
- Legislature approves alcohol sales at MTSU, TSU campus sports events (Tom Humphrey)
- Haslam to host Blackburn fundraiser; sees difficult year for GOP in governor races (Tom Humphrey)
- Legislature approves seven Haslam UT board appointments, including two last-minute nominees (Tom Humphrey)
- Bredesen leads Blackburn 46-43 in new poll (Tom Humphrey)
- ABC sting busts 17 for selling booze online via social media (Tom Humphrey)
- Harwell seeks comptroller review of TNReady contract vendor Questar (Tom Humphrey)
- VP Pence again declares support for Blackburn (Tom Humphrey)
- Whiskey barrel tax exemption bill goes to the governor (Tom Humphrey)
Science and Stuff
- Many low-lying atoll islands could be uninhabitable by mid-21st century (Science News Daily)
- Projectile cannon experiments show how asteroids can deliver water (Science News Daily)
- Ultrahigh-pressure laser experiments shed light on super-Earth cores (Science News Daily)
- New link between sleep arousals and body temperature may also be connected to SIDS (Science News Daily)
- World's smallest optical implantable biodevice (Science News Daily)
- Weather associated with sentiments expressed on social media (Science News Daily)
- Massive study across western equatorial Africa finds more gorillas and chimpanzees than expected (Science News Daily)
- New approach to treating patients with stage IV Wilms tumor (Science News Daily)
- Brain structure linked to symptoms of restless legs syndrome (Science News Daily)
- Balancing nuclear and renewable energy (Science News Daily)
Discussing
- Two Things I learned Today (3 replies)
- Top Headlines from Knox News Sentinel (1 reply)
- Meme of the Day: Sorry Donald, This Ain't No Democrat Plot! Ha! (1 reply)
- Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Gets Notable Donor (1 reply)
- Neo-Nazis are OK with TNGOP (5 replies)
- TN GOP Refuses to Condemn White Nationalists and Neo-Nazis (1 reply)
- UPDATE...Why is it legal for schools to physically assault children in Tennessee? (2 replies)
- Broadband Bill Fails to Get Out of Committee...Again (1 reply)
- Hey Flo...Did God Send Those Pornstars to Trump? (6 replies)
- Hey Flo...Five Guilty Pleas so far and More Coming in the Russia "Fake News Hoax" (2 replies)
- The End of the Trump Presidency? (1 reply)
- Want to Help Improve Stream Water Quality? Here's what you can do... (1 reply)
Lost Medicaid Funding
Sponsors
Brother Websites
Local Interest:
Folks that Help:
Progressiveness:
- All Hat No Cattle
- American Progress
- Campaign for America's Future
- Daily KOS
- digby
- Paul Krugman
- Talking Points Memo
- Whitehouse.gov
Local News Media:
Local Government:
- City of Harriman
- City of Harriman Code
- City of Kingston
- City of Kingston Code
- City of Oliver Springs
- City of Oliver Springs Code
- City of Rockwood
- City of Rockwood Code
- Congressman Charles 'Chuck' J. Fleischmann
- Rep. Kent Calfee
- Rep. Ron Travis
- Roane County
- Roane Schools
- St. Sen. Ken Yager
Candidates:
The Roane County News is on My side
Secrecy in Government
A lot of folks will join you, I'm sure
Whitescreek,
While I strongly suspect that making group decisions wholly in public is not the way humans are used to doing things, I agree that it is time we gave it a try.
I hope our lawmakers feel the same way.
-- OneTahiti
Call your lawmakers and tell them you want sunshine.
I plan to call Dennis today and ask him where he stands on this. Just in case anybody else is interested, here is Dennis' phone number:
(865) 882-5930
Here's the complete contact info:
Capitol Location
34 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243
Phone: (615) 741-7658
Fax: (615) 253-0163
Home Office
2851 Roane State Highway
Harriman, TN 37748
Phone: (865) 882-5930
Ain't Broke -- Don't "Fix" It
No one has persuasively made the case that our sunshine laws are broken. There were some Knox County commissioners that came up with "creative" interpretations of the law when they were caught red-handed breaking it. A lot of Knox County political will went into arguing that the Act was unclear or somehow difficult to comply with. There is no reason the rest of the state needs to be damaged by Knox County politicians' unwillingness to simply be honest about their reasoning behind their decisions.
By the way, there is a very simple solution to the "problem" of commissioners being unable to talk to each other outside of meetings. They can send each other emails. Email is how business is done in the private sector, and there is no reason why the public sector cannot operate in the same way.
The need for public review would be met because, under the Public Records Act, those emails are public records. If anything in our open government laws needs "clarification", it is that any citizen may obtain copies of commissioner emails electronically, without the need to appear at a government office and request to inspect the records.
Mark -
I don't doubt ya, bro. But how do ya do dat?
"If anything in our open government laws needs "clarification", it is that any citizen may obtain copies of commissioner emails electronically, without the need to appear at a government office and request to inspect the records."
You and I can't access their Exchange servers, etc... How is this done electronically without going somewhere to request it?
RB
Most of our Commissioners
Most of our Commissioners won't give out their email addresses. Even those that have them.
Ideally
Ideally, you could simply send an email to the County Commission office requesting all emails from Commissioner X's office to Commissioner Y's office. The Commission office would then forward the requested emails to you.
Do real-life commissioners consider their email public records? I don't know. But T.C.A. 10-7-503 provides that the general rule (which of course is subject to a boatload of exceptions) is that "all state, county and municipal records... shall at all times, during business hours, be open for personal inspection by any citizen of Tennessee, and those in charge of such records shall not refuse such right of inspection to any citizen."
Knoxville state representative Bill Dunn has a proposal for a publicly-accessible chat-room for commissioner communication that would probably serve the same purpose as providing access to commissioner email.