Stronger Sunshine Law Needed

By JACK MCELROY, editor@knews.com
February 26, 2006

Tennessee's Sunshine Law was unleashed in the Watergate era, intended as a watchdog on government.

But the old pup is showing its age. Toothless, it mostly sleeps outside meetings nowadays, too feeble even to snarl at lawmakers who pat it, kick it or ignore it as they go about spending taxes and deciding public policy.

Under the law, with limited exceptions, local legislative bodies must announce meetings in advance and deliberate decisions in public. The law carries no penalty for violations, however, and citizens bear the cost of challenging any secrecy in court.

Not surprisingly, complaints about abuse of the Sunshine Law have mounted through the years.

According to the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, 31 cases were reported in 2003, 39 in 2004, and 45 in the first 10 months of 2005.

Let's peek inside a few of those secret sessions:

July 2003 - Unicoi County school board tries to elect a school director and eliminate two board seats by secret ballot.

November 2003 - Elizabethton school board quietly meets at Opryland Hotel, 300 miles from town.

April 2004 - Davidson County solid waste board fails to give notice of its plan to vote on expanding a landfill in a neighborhood.

July 2004 - Cookeville Regional Medical Center board accepts resignation of top administrator during a five-minute meeting at 7 a.m., paying him $500,000.

May 2005 - Madison County Commission committee meets in private three times before picking a fellow commissioner to be finance director.

Perhaps most telling of all:

July 2004 - After the Lawrenceburg City Commission holds an unscheduled meeting, the mayor reminds a reporter that the Sunshine Law carries no penalties.

Hopefully, that's about to change. A "Sunshine Improvement Act" has been introduced by a bipartisan group of legislators, including local Sens. Tim Burchett, Jamie Woodson and Randy McNally.

The bill lets judges impose a $50 penalty on violators and has government pick up the legal fees if a citizen sues and wins.

The Tennessee County Commissioners Association already has lined up against the bill. Its director vows to kill it, claiming fear of the penalty will drive off qualified candidates.

Hey, any office seeker afraid of racking up $50 secret-meeting fines should be scared off.

The first hurdle the bill faces is the House State and Local Government Committee. Its members include Knox County Reps. Harry Brooks, Parkey Strader and Harry Tindell, who all have expressed support for open government in the past.

The legislature already has done a fine job tidying its own ethics house this year. Letting more sun shine on local government would be a good way to continue the spring cleaning.

Jack McElroy is editor of the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 342-6300 or editor@knews.com.