Lawmakers Consider Proposals to Close Some Public Records

By ERIK SCHELZIG
Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Traffic accident reports, information about animal diseases and the addresses of judges would be sealed from the public's view under proposals being considered by lawmakers.

The proposals come after a special legislative session on ethics that was designed to open up the dealings of state government in the wake of the Tennessee Waltz corruption scandal.

"If transparency in government is not ethics, then I don't know what is," said Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government and an opponent of record closing proposals.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Jim Bryson, R-Franklin, would make vehicle accident reports "confidential and not open for public inspection."

Accident reports were closed in 1998 after a state Court of Appeals ruled against chiropractors who were using them to find clients.

But lawmakers later that year restored the open records provision while making it a crime "to knowingly use such written report or information contained in the report for solicitation."

"We don't know what's behind this," said Gibson of the most recent proposals.

Bryson did not return a phone call seeking comment. House sponsor Rep. Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, said she was not aware of the details of the bill, deferring to Bryson.  The bill had been scheduled to be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee, but was delayed two weeks.

The Senate State and Local Government Committee voted 8-1 Tuesday to advance a bill to keep state animal disease records secret. The full Senate was expected to vote on the measure Thursday.

The existence of a diseased animal would not be secret under the bill, but the owner and location of the farm would, said Irwin Venick, lobbyist for the Tennessee Veterinary Medical Association.

The bill would encourage farmers to report sick animals instead of just burying them, he said.

"With this bill, the public official would know that that animal had mad cow, but Farmer Jones wouldn't have 5,000 people on his property the next day asking him about that cow," Venick told the committee.

Gibson said that keeping the location of diseased animals secret could make a bad situation worse.

"If you had five pig farmers in one county, and one of them had contaminated animals, under this bill, the other four might not know that, and might buy one," he said.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Charlotte Burks, D-Monterey, and a companion bill is scheduled to be considered in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

The Senate committee wasn't as quick to advance a proposal to allow judges to conceal their home addresses by listing their residence at a post office box. The bill sponsored by Sen. Thelma Harper is designed to protect judges who have received threats, the Nashville Democrat said.

But Sen. Steve Cohen, the committee's chairman, asked why judges should receive special treatment.

"I got a very, very threatening anti-Semitic e-mail yesterday that said it would deal with me later," said Cohen, D-Memphis. "Should I also get a P.O. box?"

Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey cautioned that the recent experience in a disputed Memphis senatorial election illustrates the problem with residences.

A Senate committee has declared 12 votes in that election illegal because they were cast in the names of dead voters, felons and people who didn't live in the district.

That's within one vote of Democratic Sen. Ophelia Ford's 13-vote margin over Republican challenger Terry Roland, and the committee is now trying to confirm whether another 44 voters lived outside the district when they voted.

Harper was granted a weeklong delay to evaluate the bill.

Gibson said efforts to close public access to records are often a knee-jerk reaction.

"The first avenue that government uses when any isolated situation arises is to just close every record on that subject instead of looking for other alternatives," he said.

"We've had situations where people want to close information that's available in the phone book."

The bills are SB2818/HB3728 (traffic records); SB3031/HB2820 (judges' addresses); and SB3617/HB3433 (animal diseases). All bills can be viewed on the General Assembly's Web site at: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us