Subcommittee Holds Meeting on Open Records

The state legislator is looking for ways to improve public access to government records.

A congressional subcommittee met (today/yesterday) to evaluate the laws controlling open records.

By state law every record produced by the government is public. That is, every record apart from over 230 exceptions listed separately in state law.

Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, says that unless a citizen has extensive knowledge of the law, those exceptions can be difficult to sort through.

“It’s impossible for a citizen to be able to determine independently whether a record they want to get or have requested—whether it’s a public record or not. It might be exempt in some obscure statute somewhere.”

100-thousand dollars have been set aside to hire an ombudsman, a position which would help citizens to determine whether the documents they are seeking are public or private.

In addition, the subcommittee, which is made up of state officials and legislators, discussed the possible need to standardize how much an agency can charge for requested documents.

Currently agencies in the state make copies for free, or charge up to 2-dollars per page.

The committee is studying public records while the general assembly is out of session and plans to meet again by the end of the month.