Crossville, TN - Emergency services meeting turns private

CROSSVILLE — A public meeting of the county's Emergency Services Committee was abruptly changed into a private meeting to discuss a "legal matter" and members of the public and press were asked to leave earlier this week.

Emergency services meeting turns private » Area News » Crossville Chronicle, Crossville, TN

Well that's not good, now is it?

I suppose if I lived in Crossville, I wouldn't be too happy about this public meeting turned closed door meeting when the subject of some expensive radio system came up. Can't really say I'm surprised. That's just Tennessee Good Ol' Boy politics.

Makes you wonder if the "closed door" portion was to discuss who gets what share of the bribe money (kickbacks) paid out by whatever carriers of 800 MHz trunking or like utility.

Attorney-client privilege makes a lot of sense - until you are talking about public government transparency.

I don't know if Tennessee has government in the sunshine laws but many states do. Which means that the meetings need to be open to the public, and also advertised for the day and time of the meeting. Now government in the sunshine laws have provisions for executive session done outside of public scrutny but that also has to be advertised as to day and time. Now usually this is done during the course of a public meeting where they ask the public and the press to leave or they adjourn to another room to discuss one item and only one item. This is done during negotiations for labor/management issues as well as vendor negotiations when making large purchases. The results of the meeting have to be made public but not the actual negotiations.

What's the big deal. It's legal...

FFPM571 said:

What's the big deal. It's legal...

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Haha. Said the person in Chicago!

Ha.. I dont live in the City..

If you have ever dealt with public boards you would know that they are within their rights to excuse the public and press when it can involve legal issues of pending or probable litigation or matters of that are protected under law.

It happens alot.

KV4BL said:

Makes you wonder if the "closed door" portion was to discuss who gets what share of the bribe money (kickbacks) paid out by whatever carriers of 800 MHz trunking or like utility.

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Umm, they don't use an 800mhz radio system. They use a UHF P25 trunking system installed by Cassidian Communications. http://www.cassidiancommunications.com/pdf/CaseStudy_Cumberland_Final.pdf