Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

08/07/2026

TN decided to stop posting inspection reports/fines against nursing homes on its website making it harder for citizens in this state to compare nursing homes or see if ones you are considering have had any problems uncovered by state regulators. The opposite of transparency. Really strong story, especially the interview with the daughter of a man who died in a nursing home after falling and not getting CPR.

The Tennessee Healthcare Facilities Commission removed all nursing home investigative and inspection reports from its website, making it difficult for the public to fully evaluate nursing homes.

07/23/2026

The City of Manchester has filed for an injunction against resident Sarah Bradley over her records requests, saying her requests were made with “an intent to disrupt government operations.” The filing is believed to be the first in Tennessee against a public records requester using a law passed in 2021. Many of Bradley’s requests listed in the petition are related to the city’s sewer system. Some are mundane, such as requests for minutes of public meetings. The city said one request took three hours of labor, and another took 15 hours to fulfill.

The city cites as evidence the use of broad categories to request records rather than discrete identifiable records, “the inclusion of requests seeking explanations, or information rather than existing records, and the repeated demand that City employees search across multiple departments, and require City employees to publish the requested records on the city website, making substantially more work for City employees and department heads.”

More details here in my blogpost, including a link to the petition.

https://tcog.info/manchester-files-for-injunction-against-public-records-requester-sarah-bradley/

07/17/2026

A woman who has been seeking records mainly related to problems with the city's sewer system is being taken to court by the city of Manchester who wants an injunction against her to stop requesting records.

The City of Manchester is seeking the courts to provide relief from what the city is calling excessive misuse of public records requests by an individual who, according to the city, has made 409 requests in three years. Link to the story in the comments

07/10/2026

I’m calling out Williamson County, arguably the richest, most well-resourced in the state and a center for state political leadership, for what looks like the open disregard of plain language in Tennessee Code that required it to make public certain information related to its strategic plan to sell the county hospital at least seven days before it voted on that plan.

But to be fair, I’ll put it to you, too, the reader, to take a look at the language of the statutes involved and tell me, what do you think? Feel free to put your comments at the bottom.

  I'm calling out Williamson County, arguably the richest, most well-resourced in the state and a center for state political leadership, for what looks like the open disregard of plain language in Tennessee Code that required it to make public certain information related to its strategic plan to se...

05/18/2026

My column on Frank Gibson.

    Frank Gibson in the center chair with the TCOG board at its 20th Anniversary celebration in November 2023. Frank Gibson, TCOG's first executive director who had the idea to create an open government coalition in Tennessee, passed away Sunday morning in Florida. Frank served as TCOG's

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…