BURRISS: Public information belongs to the public for good reason on The Murfreesboro Post

Sidebar Ads

BURRISS: Public information belongs to the public for good reason

Related Articles

MRS. MURFREESBORO: Thoughts of dad flood Father's Day

HUNTER: Celebrate Father's Day with variety of sports

WOODY: Could spitting be national pastime?

VINSON: DOJ lights more fireworks in Coffee County

BURRISS: Companies just as guilty as government

Campus School principal reassigned

WOODY: Witnesses take winding road to straight answers

MRS. MURFREESBORO: Make life easier by seeing ahead

LOGUE: NFL should lose nonprofit status

BURRISS: Adults need to know reasons behind rules

View All

By: LARRY BURRISS, Post Columnist

Posted: Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:00 am

It’s been said that all politics is local, meaning the most important political decisions are really made at the local level, not the state and national.

And if that’s true, then it follows that the most important examples of political and public information are also local.

So, let’s take a quick look at who can look at local public records, and what records are available to the local public.

Under the Tennessee Open Records Law, almost all records involving the expenditure of state and local money are open to anyone who wants to look at them.

That means that anyone in the state can go to where the records are kept, and upon reasonable notice, look at them.

You don’t have to be a public official, you don’t even have to have a good reason to want to see them.

In other words, anyone in the state is entitled to look at the documents, for any reason they want.

I also believe that part of an official’s job is to answer requests from the public for information and records.

Now, a corollary to this is that any time government officials are asked to produce records, and they refuse to produce the records, or the records are heavily edited, or the agency makes it difficult to get the records, it almost always means the agency is trying to hide something from the public.

So, what does this mean locally?

It means that when, for example, a school principal writes checks, those checks are open to public inspection.

Anyone who wants to has the right to look at the checks and see who the check was made out to, the amount, and who signed the check.

Now, apparently some folks don’t understand why documents should be available to anyone who wants to see them.

Quite simply, it’s because what government officials do is my business.

They are working for me.

And if they don’t want me to know what they are doing, then they shouldn’t do things they want to hide.

The Tennessee Open Records Law is very clear: If you want to see a public document, you can.

It doesn’t matter who you are, why you want to see it, and what you are going to do with the information.

Public information belongs to the public.

It’s really that simple.

Tagged under Campus School, Larry Burriss, Media Matters, Voices

Member Opinions:

By: nemesis411 on 11/10/11
Thanks Larry! Very informative and easy to understand.

By: Blazinsoon on 11/10/11
I guess if you wear overalls then access can be denied.

By: MTBoro on 11/10/11
I hope you wrote this in a suit and tie. otherwise you have no credibility. It is shocking to think we taxpayers can actually look into how our money is being used. We are supposed to take the good ole boys word for it and go sit down and let them tell us the "truth."

By: Just.me on 11/11/11
Thank you, Mr. Larry Burriss! It seems pretty simple, yet Dr. Bridgman has a hard time understanding the law. I'm anxiously awaiting the outcome of this mess.