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."
Gardenhire said his bill "prohibits that from happening, puts fines on somebody who does it knowingly. Puts everyone on record, no pun intended, to acknowledge that the records were destroyed, weren't part of any record request in the past and there's none pending."
Asked about the fine amount by State and Local Government Chairman Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville, Gardenhire said "we came up with $500" per incident. "I wanted $1,000. We brought it down to $500. And it's assessed against people who had knowledge or didn't comply with the law."
The bill applies to local governments across the state.
"It seems like it's a pretty profound bill, a profound issue," Dickerson said. "I'm surprised that it's not already illegal. It seems like it should be."
"Thank you," replied Gardenhire. "It should be. It might have been just an oversight, but we want to make sure it's not an oversight in the future."
Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, is carrying the House bill.
County Mayor Jim Coppinger had not read the bill in question as of Tuesday afternoon, but told the Times Free Press that "if the state passes a rule, we will obviously follow it," but that he can't control what happens in other county offices.
Taylor, the attorney in question, did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Staff writer Rosana Hughes contributed to this story.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.