OPEN RECORDS: Planning and zoning records easier to get than others

This is the third in a four-part series on the public's right to see public records in Tennessee.

By BOB GARY JR.
Chattanooga Times Free Press

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's zoning and planning record keepers fared slightly better than other officials when it came to making public documents available to the public.

In a Nov. 4-5 statewide audit conducted by journalists and citizen volunteers for the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, 88 percent of requests for the last approved minutes of the zoning board were granted within 48 hours.

That's not perfect, but it's better than the state's school systems, sheriff's and police departments.

Rick Hollow, general counsel for the Tennessee Press Association, called the 88 percent compliance rate "very promising, very encouraging."

"I have to look from the standpoint of the universe of record availability in Tennessee generally," he said. "To see compliance in the 80-plus percentile has to be encouraging, especially when considered against the backdrop of experience with other agencies."

Audits of 356 city and county offices statewide showed only a 67 percent compliance rate — which meant auditors had trouble getting information within 48 hours in 117 public offices.

At school district offices, auditors found they could not see state-mandated disciplinary reports 40 percent of the time.

Hollow said the survey results for planning and zoning agencies matches the calls made to the press association's Tennessee First Amendment Hotline.

"Most of the calls we get involving access issues involve sheriff's departments and school boards," he said. "If you'll look at the open records law litigation, there are a lot of cases involving school boards.

"I don't recall more than one or two calls from media members on zoning or planning matters," he said.

In an effort to duplicate the experience of ordinary citizens, participating journalists and other volunteers went to areas other than those in which they usually work. A Hamilton County-based reporter, for instance, drove to nearby Marion County.

The auditors asked for records that state law says should be available for inspection by anyone at any time during regular business hours. Accordingly, the auditors were asked by the coalition to divulge no personal information, or at least as little as possible.

Auditor Diane Long didn't get off that easily in Lafayette. She wrote in her report that she had to give city official Don Stevens "my name, address, phone number and why I wanted" the zoning board minutes.

He said "there are a lot more rules after 9/11," according to her report.

Stevens said later that asking personal information of record-seeking citizens is "part of our routine ... we need to know who gets information so we can have a way to contact," if necessary, those who ask for it.

Hollow said there has been a "slight increase in denials" since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"The argument is frequently 'homeland security,' which is a form of dodge in many instances," he said.

Auditor Claudette Riley wrote in her report that in Dover, she had to fill out a "request for information" form and pay 50 cents to get a copy of the form she had just completed. Tammy Fielder, Dover's city court clerk, said it was "normal procedure."

"You don't know who's requesting or why" otherwise, she said. "You hate to say it, but someone could want (information) for illegal things."

Though not easily, Long and Riley got the records they sought. Greg Little and Jan Hearne had an easier time, as did the vast majority of auditors statewide.

Little wrote in his report that Lauderdale County officials impressed him with their "openness and willingness to show me the records requested."

Hearne wrote that in Mountain City, city official Millie Arnold "could not have been more helpful." The minutes "were provided without questions," and "she copied the minutes before I asked if I could copy them."

Auditor Kim Morris wrote that she couldn't see zoning meeting minutes in Memphis because those minutes aren't printed, but recorded on audio tape. She wrote that she listened to the appropriate recording with no problem.

Hollow said that's unusual, but meets the standard set in the state's "Sunshine Law" — specifically, that a governmental body's meeting minutes "shall be promptly and fully recorded (and) open to public inspection."

One of the 11 auditors unable to inspect zoning or planning meeting minutes was Shirley Nanney in Tiptonville. She wrote in her report that her search took her to Perkins Tire Co., a private business owned by David Perkins, secretary of the Tiptonville Regional Planning Commission.

Nanney said Perkins' secretary told her that he would mail her a copy of the meeting minutes. Five days later, she wrote, she had yet to receive those minutes.

Perkins said those records are usually kept at Tiptonville's City Hall, but he had the record at his store "to put a new binder on it."

Recording the planning commission's minutes is a "free job I do," he said, and "I've been busy" at the store."

"I've been there 10 or 11 years, and this is the first time someone's not been able to get a record," he said.

Hollow called the Tiptonville episode "irregular."

"(Those minutes) should be retained in a custodial circumstance by the government, where access is readily available to the citizens, not where a citizen has to seek them out in some obscure location," he said.

The attorney said "slippages in the system" are sometimes unavoidable, but some excuses that sound innocent aren't.

"You come to me and say you'd like to see records of XYZ council," he said. "I say, 'I'd be glad to give you that, but my computer's down and the technician can't get here until Monday. I'll have it for you then. I can't say how sorry I am.'

"Then, two or three more stalls later, maybe you just go away. They never say, 'No, you can't have this.' They simply don't do it, and give you excuse after excuse," Hollow said.

Bob Gary is a reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.