Bredesen: Ombudsman May Need To Cover Open Meetings Questions

By ERIK SCHELZIG
Associated Press Writer

Oct. 3, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday that he hopes a newly created ombudsman position will help avoid the need for lawsuits similar to The Knoxville News Sentinel's successful lawsuit against the Knox County Commission.

Bredesen, a Democrat, said that while the ombudsman was originally envisioned to handle disputes about public records, he said he will consider whether those responsibilities need to be expanded.

"If open meetings need to be included in some fashion in that, I'm willing to take a look at that," Bredesen said.

When told of Tuesday's verdict in the Knox County case, Bredesen said he was pleased with the ruling that the commission violated the state's Open Meetings Act when members privately discussed how to fill a dozen appointments for term-limited offices before casting a public vote in January.

The verdict nullifies the appointments, which included several relatives of retiring or sitting commissioners and deputies of former officeholders.

"I thought the newspaper should have won the lawsuit from what I knew about it," Bredesen said. "It seemed to me the actions were fairly egregious and kind of outside the road of what seemed to me to be reasonable behavior, and I'm actually glad the newspaper won."

A special committee has been meeting this year to propose improvements in the state's open government laws.

Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said his group will encourage the committee to "consider that the ombudsman be given some role, however limited, in the open meetings area — even if it's nothing more than collecting information and providing education to the public and public officials."

Both the News Sentinel and The Associated Press are charter members of TCOG.

The Legislature this year approved $100,000 to create the ombudsman position within Comptroller John Morgan's office. The special committee is considering whether specific responsibilities for the ombudsman need to be written into law.

Bredesen said he considers the ombudsman as a go-between for people to who don't have substantial resources to gain access to public information. But the governor acknowledged that no official can prevent the need for future lawsuits.

"The ombudsman will not take the place of the court," he said. "There are always going to be things where someone takes a position that they think the law says this, and that's what courts are for: to sort out what it actually says."

"But I think we can reduce the number of (lawsuits) through the ombudsman," he said

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.