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03/10/07
Sunshine Week 2007
Lawsuit
only recourse for those denied public records in Tenn.
By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- If a local or state official in Tennessee
refuses to release a public document, the only recourse is
to file an expensive civil lawsuit.
But there are some efforts to change that this year.
Gov. Phil Bredesen has said he will put money in the budget
to create an open records ombudsman, someone to help people
who are refused access to public records.
There was also a legislative effort to create fines for public
officials who willfully closed public meetings or withheld
public documents, but that idea is stuck in a study commission
that won't make recommendations until 2008.
"It's a $500 fine to throw a soft drink can out the window
if you get caught, but there's no fine for denying obvious
public records to a citizen, no fine for having secret meetings,"
said Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition
for Open Government.
"If there's no penalty, there's no determent value in
the law."
The Associated Press found similar conditions in all 50 states
in a survey conducted to coincide with Sunshine Week, a nationwide
effort to draw attention to the public's right to know.
Laws are sporadically enforced, penalties for failure to comply
are mild and violators almost always walk away with nothing
more than a reprimand, the AP found.
A 2004 audit in Tennessee by reporters, college students and
volunteers found that government agencies denied access to
public records about a third of the time. Gibson said often
government officials simply don't know the law.
The audit showed that about 40 percent of Tennessee sheriffs
said an arrest report is not a public record -- even though
the law specifies it should be open to the public.
The open government group counted 115 alleged open meeting
violations between January 2003 and October 2005, including
an average of one a week for the first 10 months of last year.
In the last General Assembly, lawmakers set up a panel to
study overhauling the state's open government laws and issue
a report. The study group was supposed to make a final report
last month, but voted late last year to delay its recommendations
until 2008.
The committee was created as a compromise after county and
city officials opposed the first significant proposal to change
the state's "Sunshine in Government" laws since
they were created in 1974 in the aftermath of the Watergate
scandal.
State Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, the committee's chairman,
said a bill is moving through the legislature that would extend
the committee's deadline and he hopes to avoid any more delays.
"The complexity of issues and lateness in getting started
were reasons for requested additional time for the report,"
McNally said.
The Knoxville News Sentinel recently sued the Knox County
Commission and 20 current and former commissioners, claiming
the commission violated the state Open Meetings Act.
The newspaper said the commissioners appointed 12 new officeholders
after holding private discussions before a meeting and during
recesses. The law forbids two or more elected officials on
the same body from secretly meeting or deliberating about
public issues.
Gibson said the Tennessee County Commissioners Association
would like to remove the word "deliberating" from
the law, a move he opposes.
"It's one of the strongest parts of the Tennessee law,"
he said. "It protects against deal-making by small groups
of elected officials, where decisions get made before they
go into a meeting."
Doug Goddard, executive director of the county commissioners
association, said the governor should wait on the study committee
before creating an open records ombudsman.
"We haven't studied the issue," Goddard said. "I
don't think we need to jump ahead of the committee."
Bredesen has said the ombudsman would be part of state Comptroller
John Morgan's office, which is responsible for auditing local
governments.
"I think that's certainly a step in the right direction,"
McNally said. "That individual could not only answer
questions, but also collect data on where the problems exist."
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On the Net:
Tennessee Coalition for Open Government: http://www.tcog.info/
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