March 1, 2005

Open Up!

The recent battle waged by The Tennessean and - incredibly - a state legislator seeking to force TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid-plus program, to open its records is only the highest-profile such battle taking place across Tennessee. Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt emails that more citizens and newspapers in Tennessee are being forced to sue for access to records which ought to be public but are being withheld due to "outrageously arrogant behavior by government officials."

For example, Joseph Saino, who runs the Memphis Watchdog web site, had to file suit in Memphis to get information about the compensation of a lawyer by the city. You can follow the case here

Besides The Tennessean, two other Tennessee newspapers have recently had to either threaten court action or actually go to court in order to get access to records that ought to have been provided with no hassle.

The Jackson Sun had to sue the local government for certain police records and financial records related to the local minor league baseball team, which the city is tied with financially. (The Jackson Sun link is highly perishable.)

And in Memphis, The Commercial Appeal finally was granted access to the financial records of Networx, a firm which is 80-percent owned by the taxpayers, only after making numerous requests and being stonewalled by management. The records showed the company is losing millions of dollars.

In the Jackson case, Madison County Chancellor James Butler said, "Public policy favors the right of citizens to inspect public records and thus, the public's right to access records of governmental agencies is very broad, creating a presumption of openness."

It's time public officials across Tennessee remembered that.