A proposed amendment to the Tennessee open meeting or “Sunshine Law” failed in a vote of the Rhea County commission on Tuesday night. The “Sunshine Law” is a transparency code for all state and local governments to comply by.
According to the current “Sunshine Law”, any meeting of two or more local public officials where official government business is discussed is considered a public meeting. Exemptions exist in certain kinds of litigation cases.
The amendment to “Sunshine” as presented to the Tennessee legislature by the Tennessee County Commissioners Association would loosen restrictions on officials meeting in private to discuss official business. The amendment would give local governments the right to hold closed-door meetings as long as a quorum, or accepted minimum number of officials, was not exceeded.
The movement was presented in Rhea County by Commissioner Ronnie Raper.
At a meeting of the county commission on Tuesday night, the amendment was voted down 7-2.