Audit finds long delays for public records assistance

The state office responsible for helping Tennesseans gain access to public records and entrance to government meetings isn't keeping up with its workload — in some cases lagging more than a year behind in responding to citizens' requests for help, an audit released Wednesday found.

The Office of Open Records Counsel is experiencing a "significant backlog in reviewing and responding to open records inquiries," the audit noted. The office's "inability to provide expeditious responses could impede the office's mission to provide critical information to citizens, media, and government offices regarding public records and open meetings."

The backlog includes six requests that have not received a response for 361 or more days, 153 requests that have gone unanswered for at least six months, and 128 that have been waiting for at least three months.

The office typically gets questions from citizens and government agencies about what information should be made public. If a citizen is having trouble getting a state or local official to turn over records, the office is supposed to be able to intervene and provide clarity about the state's records laws. Public officials also contact the office to clarify what they're required to provide.

State may charge people fee to examine public records

While the office doesn't have the power to enforce the law, it can issue an advisory opinion or make a phone call to a local agency to spell out what's required of them. Those interventions "hold a lot of weight," said Deborah Fisher, executive director for the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.

Fisher's agency has gotten an increasing number of calls from citizens who have received no response from the office dating back to mid-2014, when a full-time staff person left, leaving two part-time employees to field more than 1,800 inquiries in the past year.

"We were concerned when the office went part-time because we already had very little enforcement of the public records laws in this state," Fisher said. "As we've seen several examples of this year, citizens are too often given the runaround or charged excessive fees to access basic records. If the office can't help, can't step in and try to uphold our public records law, we end up with lawsuits that cost everybody."

Sumner schools to appeal judge's ruling

A lawsuit against the Sumner County school board is one example, Fisher said. In that case, a Joelton man sued the board after they denied his emailed and over-the-phone request for records, saying he had to make his request in person or via the mail. A judge in November ruled the board was violating the state's public records law, but agreed to stay his order for 30 days to allow the school board to appeal.

"The biggest complaint I get from citizens is they can only push so much for a government or local agency for public records," Fisher said. "But the easiest way to prevent someone from seeing public records is to stonewall and wait it out. The citizen may just go away. That's why they need the office, not just to make the inquiry but to make a phone call and say, 'No, you really do have to release that public record.' "

John Dunn,a  spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller where the open records office is housed, noted that demand has grown exponentially since it was created in 2008. In its first year, the office received more than 500 inquires. By 2013, it was fielding more than 1,500 each year.

"It's gotten to the point where we just need additional resources to meet the public's need," Dunn said. The office has requested two new positions as part of its budget presentation to Gov. Bill Haslam, Dunn said.

The backlogged requests for assistance comes as a surprise to Lucian Pera, a Memphis attorney and member of the Advisory Committee on Open Government, which meets regularly to advise the Office of Open Records.

"I think I've attended every ACOG (advisory committee) meeting since I joined a year ago," he said. "It was never mentioned at all. It's really disappointing. All of us who deal with public records have a sense that access is not getting better. It's getting worse. The notion that there are hundreds of citizens who have an open records problem and aren't getting help is disappointing."

Reach Anita Wadhwani at 615-259-8092 or on Twitter @AnitaWadhwani.