GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) - A judge will decide in November whether the Sumner County school district willfully violated the Tennessee Public Records Act when it did not respond to a request because it was made via email rather than in person.
Open government advocate Ken Jakes in March 2014 sent email and voicemail asking to inspect the district’s public records policy. The district ultimately provided the policy nearly a year later, after he had filed suit.
Judge Dee David Gay in a preliminary finding Thursday said he did not think the school district willfully violated the records law, but said he would consider written legal arguments from both sides before making a final decision. A finding of a willful violation would allow Jakes to recover legal fees.
According to the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, a nonprofit alliance of media, citizen and professional groups that works to educate the public about open meetings and open records law, Gay questioned why the district would require requests in person, calling it a “Pony Express attitude instead of a telegraph attitude.”
Todd Presnell, the attorney for the schools, responded that it was a “policy decision” left up to the district.
“If they want to require through a Pony Express method or a website, or allow anything like that, that is up to them, and not up to a court to come in and read into the statute what is not there,” he said.
Presnell argued that if the school were required to accept email, it could open the door to forcing government agencies to accept requests no matter how they are submitted.
“Where does this end?” he said. “Does a text message to a cellphone of any employee constitute a valid request? What about a fax machine? Voice mails? What about leaving a written note on the school office’s front door?”
Jakes’ attorney, Kirk Clements, said state law does not give government entities the power to decide which records requests are valid other than that they can require a state ID and decide how much to charge for copies.
“If someone posts a note on the door of the central office, is that a records request?” Clements said. “Well, if the school board receives it, why wouldn’t it be? Here’s my point. If the school board doesn’t receive the request, they have no legal obligation.”
The state Court of Appeals last month ruled that the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office owes attorneys’ fees to a man who had to sue in order to obtain public records about policies relating to prisoners’ medical care and contracts. The sheriff’s office had also insisted that that the records must be made in person.
A lower court ruled in June 2014 that the sheriff’s office had to produce the records for advocate Alex Friedmann, but declined to award attorneys’ fees. The Court of Appeals disagreed, ruling that the sheriff’s office does owe legal fees for willfully withholding the records.
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