A new legislative committee – the Joint Open Records Ad Hoc Committee – held its first meeting last month in an ambitious effort to come to terms with the growing number of exemptions to the Public Records Act.
Under the law, government records are open to the public unless they are “exempted” by state law. Some common reasons for exemptions are to protect private information of citizens, such as driver’s license numbers, or sensitive information, such as data about juveniles in criminal court proceedings.
On the committee
Republican state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and Rep. Jason Zachary of Knoxville are chairmen of the Joint Open Records Ad Hoc Committee, which scheduled to meet Thursday in Nashville.
Deborah FisherBut exemptions also close information that some people think should be public, such as the amount in tax credits the state might agree to give to a company as part of an economic incentive deal.
The committee is grappling with a potential review of exemptions, which the Office of Open Records Counsel says have grown to 563 after more than 20 were added in the most recent legislative session.