The Blackburn Campaign Tries To Root Out A Snitch

By Kleinheider Posted on June 11, 2008 at 8:38 am

A Marsha Blackburn campaign volunteer, who requested “volumnious” public documents and emails regarding Congressman Blackburn’s primary opponent Shelby County Register Tom Leatherwood, wants to know how a newspaper got wind of his request.

It would seem the volunteer did not appreciate the violation of privacy. Open record requests, of course, are just as open as the record being sought:

In April, a volunteer for Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s campaign asked for thousands of pages of documents about Republican primary challenger and Shelby County Register Tom Leatherwood, including all county e-mails since 2001.

After The Commercial Appeal wrote about the request, the campaign volunteer, Tyler E. Jones, asked the county for the name and job title of the person who received the request and provided the information to The CA.

Jones said he was interested in finding out how the newspaper “learned about my open-records request.”

In a response dated May 28, Asst. County Atty. Craig E. Willis informed Jones that all record requests are also public records. He went on to say that Jones’ followup letter did not meet the criteria for a records request under Tennessee code.

SEE ALSO: Grantham Is Talking

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Tags: Marsha Blackburn, open records, The Commericial Appeal, Tom Leatherwood  

Some Expensive Emails

By Kleinheider Posted on May 27, 2008 at 7:35 am

Drew Johnson of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research is once again knee deep in a controversy over open records requests:

Revenue officials gave Mr. Johnson a choice. Department employees could go through the e-mails themselves for free, or the state’s Office for Information Resources could do it at a cost of $3,201 for each day of correspondence, they said.

“The issue here, of course is that if someone has an embarrassing term … on their computer, they’re not going to just turn it over. They would delete the e-mail,” said Mr. Johnson, who heads up the Nashville-based anti-tax group. “The only way to have an external person check e-mails to ensure that every e-mail is actually turned over is through an electronic master tape.”

Sophie Moery, a spokeswoman for the Revenue Department, said the Office for Information Resources sets the price. She said officials made sure to offer Mr. Johnson the option of getting information for free.

“We certainly would not want to leave him with the only option of an expensive search,” she said.

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Tags: Department of Revenue, Drew Johnson, email, GQ Drew, open records, Tennessee Center For Policy Research  

No Heads Up For Public Officials On Open Records Requests

By Kleinheider Posted on May 14, 2008 at 3:25 pm

From the AP:

A requirement to notify elected officials about records requests made about them is no longer part of a bill designed to improve access to public information.

Open government advocates had worried the notification rules would increase the cost of the records proposal and possibly kill the measure for the year.

A House subcommittee on Wednesday approved the change to the proposal sponsored by Rep. Steve McDaniel, a Parkers Crossroads Republican. It also approved a provision to allow records custodians to charge for searches that take longer than five hours.

But the proposal also directs the open records ombudsman to develop a reasonable fee schedule, which would become the statewide standard once it is approved.

MORE: John Rodgers

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Tags: beeswax not yours, inc., ombudsman, open records, public records request  

Open Meetings Give Rise To The Chuckleheads

By Kleinheider Posted on April 25, 2008 at 8:38 am

Ken Whitehouse argues that it wouldn’t drive a steak through the heart of our republican form of government for pols to close a meeting door every once and again.

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Tags: Brian Kelsey, Brue Androphy, chuckleheads, Doug Jackson, Frank Gibson, Ken Whitehouse, open meetings, open records, Stacey Campfield, Tennessee Ethics Commision