An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Open Government, Or Lack There Of!
I’m going to do a bit of copy and paste here.
What Passes for Open Government in Tennessee
The biggest enemy of the People’s right to know what Government is doing is not an apathetic citizenry. It is Government itself! That truth is one of the key reasons I stand for smaller Government with much less power and authority. The self preservation and non-citizen-representing character of Government is nowhere better illustrated than here in Tennessee.
Randy Neal reports “…the recently enacted TN Open Records Act … also established an Advisory Committee on Open Government …” He’s quoting a member of that committee, Dorothy Bowles, “… [a] U.T. Professor and member of the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists.”
Ms. Bowles reveals the Advisory Committee released “…a proposal that was only this week distributed by the legal counsel’s office.” Because Government takes the responsibility of fully serving and representing the citizens of Tennessee, the Advisory Committee has scheduled a hearing on this proposal, which makes it much more difficult for citizens and journalists to access Government records, for Friday – just two days from now. Further, the deadline for written comments on the proposal is Thursday – tomorrow – at Noon. Written comments can be submitted by email to open.records@state.tn.us
This is how Government serves the citizen? Not only does it make it harder for citizens to hold Government accountable by making it easier for Government to shirk being responsible to taxpayers and citizens, it does so under the cover of night, bureaucracy, no publicity and no time for anyone but other Government employees to examine and debate the matter.
Read the rest here!
I’m fairly new to Tennesee, and am still learning about the goin’ ons in the state. I’ll be honest, I do not understand the roadblocks that the gubmint keeps putting in the way of ‘open government’. As with the U.S. gubmint, I was under the impression, it is OUR government!
With Muse’s help, I hope I’ll start to figure it all out. In the meantime, he’s the one to go to for information for
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