NASHVILLE – Local government workers who destroy public records that have been formally requested by news organizations or others could be slapped with a $500 fine per occurrence under a bill arising from a local controversy involving Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin Taylor’s office.
The Tennessee Senate State and Local Government Committee approved the bill, SB2313, sponsored by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, on a 7-0 vote.
Hamilton County recently came under scrutiny for destruction of records and allegedly stonewalling records requests. The county sheriff’s office also has been under fire for a “catastrophic data loss” that caused thousands of videos from dashboard cameras to disappear, something that could jeopardize criminal and civil cases.
“We have a situation in Hamilton County where an organization requested records,” Gardenhire told senators, alluding to the Times Free Press’ ongoing battle to obtain public records from the county.
The senator noted the county first put “a pretty good-sized price” on the newspaper’s effort to obtain information. He said the records custodian “went to the commission that oversees this at the local county, and without the commission knowing the background of the records request voted to approve the recommendation by the person, who should have known better, to destroy the records and to destroy all the correspondence.”