By Katie Northcott, News Director
NOTE: This article has been updated to include a comment from Alderman Ryan French, who reached out to Peterson Media Group after the article was published.
At its meeting on Tuesday, March 3, the Manchester Board of Mayor and Alderman (BOMA) voted to pursue filing a complaint against an individual who has filed numerous open records requests.
Prior to the meeting, the BOMA held an executive session, which was not open to the public.
“We had an executive session for the Board to consider information regarding a potential injunctive relief lawsuit that the city is investigating and requires a Board vote to further that investigation, which could result in a complaint being filed with the Circuit Court,” City Attorney Craig Johnson said.
Johnson said that there was a state statute that allowed for open records requests, but that same statute sets limits on open records requests. He said that if those requests become “disruptive to government,” then the city can seek an injunction. Johnson later clarified that the city must prove that the individual making the requests intended to be disruptive.
“There’s a threshold once a person reaches so many requests in a twelve-month period that you have to go through this process that we’re going through,” Johnson said. “You have to warn them. That’s been done.”
Alderman Julie Anderson made a motion to postpone the BOMA’s vote on the item in order to first contact the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office of Open Records Counsel regarding the nuisance law and any existing case law that could inform the investigation.
Alderman James Threet supported Anderson’s motion.
“I would have to say that I generally think we need to let the public see the records,” Threet said. “I think we make a mistake if we start hiding things.”
Threet said he had not attended the executive session, so he was not sure whether the complaint would be warranted in this case or not.
“I just want everyone to know that we’re not trying to hide anything, Alderman Threet,” Vice Mayor Mark Messick said. “If you had been here at the meeting, … you would have known what we were talking about and maybe better understood.”
Johnson said he would be “glad to” seek the advice of the Comptroller’s office.
Anderson’s motion failed 4-3 (Anderson, Threet, and Alderman Ryan French in favor). Mayor Joey Hobbs cast the tie-breaking vote.
“I am very uncomfortable with the prospect of wading into something like this to restrict citizens’ access to information–records, meetings, anything like that–without getting the best and most current advice that we could get from people who do this every day,” Anderson said after the motion failed. “I’m concerned that this is a bad look for the city.”
Anderson said she was concerned that the city could be expending funds to pay for representation in the potential lawsuit and could open itself up to settlement fines if the city misinterpreted the law in this case.
“I am absolutely confident in the advice we received from our city attorney,” Messick said in response.
The motion to continue the investigation into pursuing an injunction relief lawsuit passed 4-2 (Anderson and Threet opposed). Before passing, the motion was amended to instruct Johnson to ask the Comptroller’s office for a definition of “records”.
French reached out to Peterson Media Group with a comment after this article was published. That comment is published below.
“I felt like a request of the comptroller’s open records office is a completely reasonable place to start. I understand the law lays out what qualifies as burdensome, but it’s very much a gray area. When the vote to postpone for time to make that request failed, I figured the vote to proceed would pass with the same support. So that is why I essentially asked for the original motion to include an opinion and determination from the open records office. My thoughts are if they believe it is not a violation, that would surely stop any further legal action.”
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