Comments on: We Do Not Need A Solar Eclipse In Our Government

By: newscoma

newscoma — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 22:06:17 +0000

We are working on it, Don.
Just keep spreading the word with your friends.

WE ARE FIGHTING!

By: Don Jones

Don Jones — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 21:52:44 +0000

“The Great Light = Open Meetings ! I find it incredible that we are even discussing the possibility of doing away with the Sunshine Law.

By: TennViews Weekly Round-Up « Newscoma

TennViews Weekly Round-Up « Newscoma — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:08:43 +0000

[...] • NewsComa: No solar eclipse in government [...]

By: newscoma

newscoma — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:38:27 +0000

Lisa, thanks for the comment. You got caught up in Askimet and I fished it out.
You are right on about this. One thing I’m asking is would easements also be kept secret, especially for people who don’t want to give up their land. There are a million things that could happen if they weaken the law, and not every one is taking that into consideration.

By: Lisa Starbuck

Lisa Starbuck — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:22:25 +0000

Above is a recent blog post about the proposed changes to the sunshine law. A group of concerned Knox County citizens met with Tim Burchett and Bill Dunn about this – Burchett and Dunn agreed to sponsor an alternative bill implementing some clarification language to the law – not changes to make it weaker. See http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/nov/13/burchett-bill-would-add-teeth-sunshine/
I am going to follow up with them to check on the status, but the idea was basically to implement some modest clarifications to the law suggested by Frank Gibson of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government (www.tcog.info). Another good link for your list might be the State Sunshine and Open Records blog at http://openrecords.wordpress.com/

Another post on how the sunshine law is impacting local government (besides all the commentary on the Knox County Commission appointments and the resulting sunshine lawsuit filed by the News-Sentinel) is located at http://www.knoxviews.com/node/6445. It’s a thread about the sunshine lawsuit filed by the residents of Thorngrove against Knox County Commission, Knox MPC and The Development Corp alleging sunshine law violations in their deliberations to put an industrial park on 380 acres at Midway Road against the wishes of the community. If the recommendations by the committee become law, deliberations such as these where they are purchasing property, would become legally secret and not subject to the law.

By: blindersoff

blindersoff — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:27:30 +0000

First of all I like you new look

I am one of those average Joe citizens who have to get someone in the media to get the public information I want. I hope you all stay on top of this.

There was a time average citizens did not have to fill out a form to speak at a public hearing, but that change at this month’s meeting in my city. The excuse was flimsy as to why average Joe citizen had to write their personal information on a form to speak at a public hearing. IMO, it is our elected officials’ way of intimidating average Joe citizen to speak against an issue on the agenda.

If you or anyone of your readers have the answer please share…

1. Is it legal to request written personal information before speaking at a public hearing?

By: Volunteer Voters » Dancing With The Devil In The Harsh Sunshine

Volunteer Voters » Dancing With The Devil In The Harsh Sunshine — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:30:16 +0000

[...] has penned yet another expansive screed on the importance of open government and in it tells an interesting story: Leave a [...]

By: newscoma

newscoma — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:53:46 +0000

Thanks Russ. You have done a great job of promoting this.

By: Russ

Russ — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:53:16 +0000

‘Coma, thank you for this. You said it very well, and I intend to pass this around. I’ll post about it later today.

By: newscoma

newscoma — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:41:33 +0000

Thanks, I’m going to work on a page over the weekend to track all the posts about the law then show it to my politicians on what real people are saying! I think they sometimes forget about “real live” people.

By: John Carney

John Carney — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:07:27 +0000

Our T-G blogs don’t do trackback, but I’ve just linked to you from my blog at the Times-Gazette web site.

By: Nashville is Talking » Shedding Some Light

Nashville is Talking » Shedding Some Light — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:58:56 +0000

[...] Newscoma masters the answers when it comes to the state’s sunshine laws. It’s funny to me that I hear elected officials say all the time that they want citizens to be involved and then do everything in their power to set up roadblocks where it’s jumping through hoops to be a part of it the process of policy making. [...]