Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

03/27/2026

A good explanation of how a bill would make secret the process of selecting school superintendents, police chiefs and city managers:

Transparency advocates argue the process doesn't allow the public to evaluate candidates. Proponents say secrecy is needed to attract top candidates.

02/13/2026

News coverage on the really bad bill to get rid of free inspection of public records in Tennessee. Keep in mind, the person who doesn't want you to see what they're doing is the one in government who gets to decide how much it's going to cost to see the public records that document that.

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) — A bill in the Tennessee General Assembly sponsored by Representative Rebecca Alexander (R-Jonesborough) could change the way Tennesseans request public records. Th…

01/07/2026

A Senate committee is pushing an idea to put body cameras on security guards in the state's privately managed Trousdale Turner Correctional Center despite opposition from the Department of Correction's commissioner, Frank Strada. Strada estimates it would cost $2 million to pay for people to review the video requested under the public records law — a number that senators weren't buying.

Despite objections from the Department of Correction, a Senate subcommitee voted Tuesday to move forward on considering a potential pilot program to equip all prison security guards with body cameras in the state's privately managed prison in Trousdale County northeast of Nashville. The troubled pri...

12/17/2025

Among the many operational problems with Tennessee's Department of Children's Services is that it has not been fully reporting, as required by law, on deaths of children that are involved with DCS, according to December 2025 comptroller's audit. It is supposed to disclose deaths and near deaths and the results of its investigation into those deaths. But it still has not done so for cases opened in 2023 and 2024.

A new state comptroller’s audit has found that the Department of Children’s Services has not been fully reporting — and in some cases still hadn’t reported — information about the…

11/10/2025

The Advisory Committee on Open Government will hold its second meeting of the year this Thursday in Nashville. I'm glad to see this committee meeting again. It is still in its organization stage, but this week it will be considering its policy on public comment at its meetings. More here, plus links to the agenda:

The Advisory Committee on Open Government is expected to approve its public comment policy and bylaws on Thursday and suggest potential topics to discuss at future meetings. The meeting is the seco…

10/24/2025

Great event this week celebrating open government champions at TCOG's Salute to Open Government Champions. See more photos and read more about our event and honorees Ken Paulson, Dorothy Bowles, Marc Perrusquia and Phil Williams here: https://tcog.info/contact/2025-salute-to-open-government-champions/

07/23/2025

An open meetings lawsuit is underway in Memphis in which a former superintendent claims the board violated the open meetings act by meeting privately to discuss firing her. The school board lawyer maintains that board members can discuss a superintendent's performance in private without violating the law. I don't think that's what the courts have said. But she still has to prevent evidence.

The Court of Appeals has ruled that discussions by members of governing bodies in private can violate the open meetings law, but someone bringing an open meetings lawsuit must present enough eviden…

07/17/2025

It was great to visit three newsrooms in Knoxville yesterday to do training on Tennessee's Public Records laws. Lots of great questions. It was especially fun to sit in on the news coverage planning meeting at WVLT and the lunch session at Knox News where a staffer got up and gave quick takes about herself. Loved all the energy! And for those nerds, note the wonderful clip archives of the News Sentinel moved into its new space. A lot of history in those files :)

07/09/2025

Big win in an open meetings case for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. A judge found that a city council redistricting committee that met three times without public meetings before its recommendation was presented to the Chattanooga City Council violated open meetings law. In addition, meetings between staff and individual city council members to show them the proposal and incorporate their desired changes also violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act.

A judge ruled in favor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press in its lawsuit against the city of Chattanooga, council members and staff, establishing that open meetings laws were violated during non-public meetings on redrawing local voting districts.

07/02/2025

There has been some good journalism around the $1.5 billion in business tax refunds, but it goes only so far, stymied by the lack of transparency in Tennessee state government.

If the people are to have control over their government — and not the other way around — people need access to information and details about how government is working. Tennessee’s recent paym…

07/01/2025

The new Freedom Scholarship program that gives $7,300 to students for private school as part of a school choice initiative is not tracking how many of those scholarships go to kids already in private school as opposed to those in public school. Tennessee stands along among states with voucher programs in keeping this information hidden.

Tennessee is not tracking how many of its new education vouchers to attend private schools go to students already in private schools as opposed to those in public schools. It stands alone among sta…

06/26/2025

A case was filed yesterday against Williamson County's circuit court clerk and the county's archives director over denying court records to a well-known First Amendment lawyer, author and podcaster:

Eugene Volokh, a prominent First Amendment scholar, podcaster and author, has filed a lawsuit against Williamson County officials saying its policy of denying access to court records violates the F…