Tennessee’s fifth-largest city wants all municipalities to be able to follow the same rules at the Tennessee Legislature and not the sunshine laws municipalities currently have to follow.
Clarksville passed its 2023-24 legislative agenda with an amendment to ask the Tennessee Legislature to make those changes for all local governments.
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As Tennesseans prepare to head to the polls on August 4, where they will vote on whether to retain the state’s five Supreme Court justices, The Tennessee Star has completed a profile on each justice currently sitting on the bench.
Last week, The Star profiled Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivins.
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Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Nashville attorney Jim Roberts to the newsmakers line.
At the top of the second hour, Roberts weighed in on his recent victory as the Metro government was found to be in violation of Tennessee’s Open Meeting Act statute. He contrasted his victory with the major league soccer franchise’s quest to take over Nashville Fairgrounds and described how with no contracts signed, taxpayers could get stuck with a large bill for the stadium should the MLS decided to leave.
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One hallmark for the pandemic scare in Tennessee has been the heavy governmental use of electronic meetings, facilitated by Gov. Bill Lee signing executive orders allowing them.
The meetings often were on Zoom or a similar format, and as the state began reopening, sometimes meetings would have participants both in person and participating electronically.
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A Lebanon woman says Lebanon’s City Council violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act several times. This same woman, Lorrie Hicks, reportedly said the Lebanon City Council has barred her from entering a city council meeting. According to the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government’s website, Hicks wants city officials to get training on the law and reconsider their actions on a recent rezoning decision. “Lorrie Hicks, through her attorney Paul McAdoo, has sent a letter to the Mayor Bernie Ash of the Lebanon City Council, explaining the alleged violations. She told TCOG she has not yet heard back from the city, although the mayor was quoted in the local newspaper as saying he had turned over her letter to the city attorney,” according to the TCOG’s website. Reportedly, this is the result of emails Ward 3 Councilor Camille Burdine sent pertaining to rezoning requests in a residential neighborhood. “Hicks says the emails constituted deliberation with other council members about an issue to be voted upon, which would be prohibited under the open meetings law. Emails between members of governing body cannot be used to deliberate outside open meeting,” according to the TCOG. “The open meetings statute prohibits using electronic communication to ‘decide or deliberate…
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