The Shelby-Memphis Open Government blog wants to lift the smog to make all levels of our government open and transparent for inspection and participation by the citizens.
Despite politicians and administrators claiming transparency, we can only see a little of what’s going on. Something is there but it often is not clear, other things are totally obscured. It’s just like a heavy layer of smog hiding our governmental actions from us.
This is not just a theoretical proposition. In this blog we intend to provide examples of the lack of transparency and the violations of the Tennessee open meetings and public records laws. These practices keeping the public from full knowledge of what is being done in their name and with their money are very common.
It would be extremely difficult to document all the cases of open meetings and open records laws in local government. Every week there are many. Some are unintentional, others are willful.
We will also attempt to point out other aspects of our government in which the public is prevented from being informed, even if the specific situation may not violate open meetings or open records laws.
We hope you will insist that your government will allow you and other members of the public to learn what it is doing and to actively participate in our forms of self-government.
Shelby-Memphis Open Government 