Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, describes new “improvements” to the state’s Open Records Act in today’s Tennessean. Although the law demands citizen access to all state, county, and municipal records during all business hours, Johnson describes the reality of trying to view information.

[W]hen Tennesseans request such information, they receive responses including: “I am a little stressed right now, so I appreciate it if you don’t add to that”; “Please explain to me why you need bills on any credit or debit cards used by the city”; and “You will need to send a formal letter with references that we can verify.”
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Recently, TCPR took the state Department of Finance and Administration to court to force the department to hand over documents that, despite being requested nine months earlier, had still not been made available. The state Department of Economic and Community Development took five months to reply to a TCPR open-records request … just to let us know they were denying it.

In the Tennessee legislature’s haphazard attempt to update the Open Records law, they specified a 7-day window for government to address information requests. However, they also piled on exemptions to the law, including exemptions for the legislature.

The question remains: What do TN legislators have to hide from their constituents?

Category: Transparency Legislation