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The Clarksville Human Relations Commision and the Sunshine law

By Bill Larson | June 15, 2006 |

On Tuesday, I had lunch with David Shelton. He is by chance a Member of the Clarksville Human Relations Commission (CHRC). David and I are also friends. During our lunch David mentioned to me that he had a training session later to attend at the CHRC. As it was late afternoon I offered to drive him there and drop him off.. Little did I know that some people might later feel that by that simple act, I was aiding and abetting a violation of state law.

This commentary is based on the news report in today’s Leaf Chronicle that “Clarksville Human Relations Commission may have violated law, that no public notice was given of a meeting with title VI compliance officer”.

What is the Tennessee Sunshine act you ask? Well the law makes that fairly clear in it’s introduction:

The general assembly hereby declares it to be the policy of this state that the formation of public policy and decisions is public business and shall not be conducted in secret.

This is a laudable goal and one which I agree wholeheartedly with. I do not believe in secret acts by the government or it’s agents. It is one of the reason why I have such serious problems with secret searches by police; warrantless spying on American citizens; secret prisons; rendition of people to countries with, well lets be nice and say lax human rights records; and secret courts.

All meetings of any governing body are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times, except as provided by the Constitution of Tennessee

Lets see what the law identifies as a meeting:

(2) “Meeting” means the convening of a governing body of a public body for which a quorum is required in order to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision on any matter. “Meeting” does not include any on-site inspection of any project or program.

So in order to qualify as a meeting which requires public notice, the meeting must be for the purpose of deliberating towards, or making a decision; on any matter. Any meeting which is not directed towards those goals would then, not be subject to the sunshine laws.

CHRC Chairman Robert Brooks said to the Leaf Chronicle that:

The meeting was designed to be a lecture by Birdsong, not a debate among commission members — that, he said, would have been properly advertised. No action was taken at Tuesday’s meeting

This meeting was much like an in-service training session conducted by a state employee to help familiarize the commission with an area of their responsibility.

The article quotes an Enoch Hagans, The executive director of the Title VI Action Committee, as saying

I don’t participate in closed-door meetings. I don’t understand why it was closed…It should have been announced. I believe it should have been open to the public so the public could come and express their viewpoint.

I do not believe it was the intention of the CHRC or it’s individual members to deny this group or the public at large, their rights to address the commission at a normal public meeting. It should be beneath the dignity of anyone to suggest otherwise. However during an in-service training session public participation would have been a distraction from the things they were there to learn, and thus would have been in-appropriate. I am sure, if anyone has questions for John Birdsong who is the executive director of the Tennessee Title VI Compliance Commission, the CHRC can invite him back on a future date or they can contact him directly.

I intend to be at the next meeting of the CHRC to give my thanks and show my support for the commission, and the important work which they do for our community.

About Bill Larson

Bill Larson is the Creator and Publisher of Clarksville Online, and works as a network administrator for Compu-Net Enterprises. He is politically and socially active in the community. Bill is a member of the Friends of Dunbar Cave, and an associate of the Clarksville Free Thinkers for Peace and Civil Liberties. You can reach him via telephone at 931-920-0043 or via the email address below.

Email: clarksville@clarksvilleonline.com

Sections: Politics
Topics: Commentary, Human Relations Commission, Open Meetings Law, Sunshine Law, Title VI

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