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Proposal moves county public meeting notices to website

sabrinaBATES

News Editor

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A proposal to allow county government, public-meeting notices to be posted on county websites instead of newspapers is making its way through committees of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly. House Bill 449 (Senate Bill 550) is sponsored by Republican Rep. Elaine Davis of Knoxville. The legislation eliminates the requirement for county governments to publish public meeting notices in a newspaper of general circulation. Instead, government meeting notices would move to a county’s secured website, an e-newsletter or community members could request meeting notices be mailed to them from the county government.

Carroll County Mayor Joseph Butler said his office will continue to support the county’s local newspapers.

“Beyond what legislation requires now or through this bill, our goal will always be to be transparent and informative. We feel that our newspapers are critical to this, and will continue to utilize local media, specifically to us our two local newspapers, to be transparent and informative with the people of Carroll County. We understand how important our local newspapers are, and the reliance of constituents on these local news outlets for information.

“I view the utilization of websites as only an addition to this, and certainly a positive one, with the access it provides. While we will gladly utilize websites and social media to inform locally, we are committed to continue a close working relationship with our local newspapers,” Butler shared.

The county mayor’s office is responsible for maintaining the county government website for Carroll County, in addition to the company who provides the host service. While Butler emphasized his commitment to continue to utilize local newspapers for providing notices, he said he sees the bill as an additional way to share information to his community. He added the proposed legislation would likely have minimal financial impact on county government operations.

The initial bill also includes meeting notices for higher-education institutions

During the bill’s introduction in the House Public Service subcommittee last week, Davis presented an amendment allowing county governments to refuse hard-copy, meeting-notice requests if they feel it is in “bad faith.” She explained officials who believe people requesting meeting notices to be mailed to them are only doing so to put an expense burden on the county could be denied their request.

Rep. Kelly Keisling of Byrdstown told Davis “higher education is having a heartburn” with the proposal and requested she amend the legislation to exclude institutions of higher education in the bill. She agreed to amend it.

“We want government bodies to be able to modernize the way they provide their information,” Davis explained to House subcommittee members. The subcommittee unanimously passed the bill. This week, the Senate State and Local Government Committee will consider the Senate version of the proposed legislation.

Sen. John Stevens represents Carroll County and is a member of the State and Local Government Committee. He may be contacted at 1-615-741-4576 or by email to [email protected].

Tandy Darby is the House representative for a portion of Carroll County. Contact him at 1-615-741-7847 or by email to [email protected]. Brock Martin also represents Carroll County in Tennessee’s House. Call his Nashville office at 1-615-741-7478 or email him at [email protected].

Davis may be reached at 1-615-741-2287 or by email to [email protected].

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