Loudon County Mayor Buddy Bradshaw's decision to support
proposed legislation that would charge residents to view
public records seems at odds with his campaign promise
to increase government transparency.
Bradshaw will testify next month at hearings sponsored
by the Office of Open Records related to HB-315/SB-315
sponsored by Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, and Rep.
Steve McDaniel, R-Parkers Crossroads.
The legislation is opposed by the Tennessee Coalition
for Open Government. "It appears the county wants to
change the public records act so it can be used as a
club against citizens who ask questions they don't want
to answer," said Deborah Fisher, executive director of
TCOG.
"An alternative would be to adhere to the spirit of the
law and recognize that citizens have a right to know
what their government is doing," she said.
Bradshaw believes he has worked hard to fulfill his
campaign pledge to increase transparency in government.
Before taking office in September 2014, he promised to
provide as much information as he could on problems at
the long-neglected Poplar Springs landfill.
"During my first months in office I provided more
information on the landfill than the previous
administration provided in years," he said, adding's
that over the past year he's approved dozens of public
records requests from the media and citizens.
"We've never turned down a single request," he said.
Bradshaw said his decision to testify in support of the
legislation was prompted by a records request the county
received earlier this year. Richard Truitt, a county
resident who speaks frequently at county government
meetings, was concerned about changes to the public
comment period during meetings. He wanted to know who in
county government initiated the changes. He asked to
inspect all emails between the mayor's office and
members of county commission involving county business
over a 30-day period.
According to Bradshaw, Truitt's request cost the county
more than $6,635 in legal fees plus the time of county
workers. "We had to shut down the IT department for a
day," Bradshaw said.
Truitt's attorney, Linda Noe, disagrees. "It was Mayor
Bradshaw's decision to turn a public document request
over to an attorney who charges the county $250 per hour
for his time that caused the absolutely ridiculous and
unnecessary expense to the county," Noe said.
County attorney Robert Bowman was involved in the legal
review of Truitt's request. He said the request was
illegal because it was not specific enough.
According to state law on open records, any request for
inspection or copying of public records shall be
sufficiently detailed to enable the Records Custodian to
identify the specific records to be located or copied.
"Obviously Mr. Truitt's request to see "all written
correspondence ... related to County business of any
kind" does not fulfill this unambiguous provision of
state law," Bowman said.
If Truitt had simply clarified his request or provided
search terms to the County, it would have saved
thousands of dollars in legal fees and county labor
costs, he said.
"Although our fees were over $9,000, we billed the
County considerably less than that because it was not
fair to the citizens of Loudon County to charge them for
all of our work related to this unreasonable and
unlawful Open Records Act Request," Bowman said.
Bradshaw said he believes in open government but also
has a responsibility to the county's residents to see
that taxpayer money isn't wasted on fulfilling frivolous
open records requests.
TCOG's Fisher bristles at the notion that government
officials can refer to citizen records requests as
frivolous. "I personally wouldn't want a government
official saying this request is frivolous so I won't
fulfill it. That's crazy power and essentially chokes
off the ability of citizens to have true accountability
of their own government," she said.
Charging fees to inspect public records will block
people from accessing records and would create a new
exemption to the open records act. Those who can't
afford the cost will be denied access to the records.
"It would be a huge backward step for Tennessee," she
said.
If government were interested in lowering the costs of
responding to public records requests, they would be
looking at their processes, including the option of
mediation, she said.
Fisher agrees that Truitt's request was broad.
One way for government to deal with a broad request is
to fulfill it in segments, she said, which has several
advantages including creating good will with the
requester. It allows the government to regulate the
amount of time it spends on the record request so one
large request doesn't "shut down" an office. It also
offers the possibility that the requester will get what
he wants in one of the earlier segments and not need the
rest, she said.