Rep. Elaine Davis’ Bill To Require Public Comments At Government Meetings To Begin July 1st
Image: Rep. Elaine Davis calls for a vote on HB0448 on the Tennessee House floor. Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov
Press Release –
Starting July 1st, government meetings will be required to have a period of public comments thanks to House Bill 448, by State Representative Elaine Davis, R-Knoxville.
The legislation came about when freshman State Representative Davis was working with staff on drafting language related to local government. During that research Davis discovered that Tennessee was one of a minority of states that do not have a requirement for public comments at public meetings.
“It is important that the voices of citizens are heard and opposing viewpoints receive representation,” said Davis. “I am committed to continue to support legislation to promote good government and free speech.”
While many governing bodies do allow for public comments on their agenda they were not required to, a fact that Tennessee courts have pointed to in the past.
The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government (TCOG) worked with Representative Davis to help improve the language of the legislation to better protect the public’s right to speak. The law has been widely praised by Tennessee media organizations and public advocacy groups.
Deborah Fisher, Executive Director of the TCOG said on their website, “The Tennessee Open Meetings Act hasn’t changed too much over the years. But this year, the General Assembly made two major improvements that were a long time coming.” She described the changes as “good for citizens and for the people who serve on our governing bodies.” The other bill Fisher referred to dealt with clarifying language for agenda items.
The public comments legislation was adopted by almost unanimous bipartisan support.
This will not solve anything. Govt. bodies will still formulate ‘rules,recommended by the alien-non-elected ‘professionals’ with CTAS to whom these bodies bow and scrape. CTAS does not care about our God-given Rights, but their Arbitrary Rights to swoosh in and throw their highly-educated weight before what they consider ignorant and unlearned Commissioners who are burdened down with the monumental tasks of reading edicts from these professional pencil pushers. Such ‘laws’ merely give us back what we already had the Right to do, with strangling regulations to do so.
You are exactly right. They still have private deliberations that the public is shut out of. It’s NOT a jury. Even deliberations should be public and recorded
GOOD!!