Office of the State Comptroller: Appointments to Advisory Committee on Open Government Announced Today

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE STATE COMPTROLLER

July 21, 2008

For more information, contact: Ann Butterworth or Elisha Hodge
Office of Open Records Counsel
615.401.7891 (local)
1.866.831.3750 (toll-free)
615.532.9237 (FAX)
Email: open.records@state.tn.us


NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Today Comptroller John Morgan announced his ten appointments to the Advisory Committee on Open Government. This Committee, created by Public Chapter 1179, Acts of 2008, was established to advise the Office of Open Records Counsel on matters regarding Tennessee's Public Records Act.

Below is the list of persons, and the organizations that they represent, appointed to the Committee effective July 1, 2008:

Dorothy Bowles (Tennessee Coalition for Open Government) Frank Gibson (Tennessee Press Association) Chad Jenkins (Tennessee Municipal League) Jay West (Tennessee County Services Association or County Officials Association of TN) Amy Martin (Tennessee School Board Association) Dick Williams (Common Cause) Margie Parsley (League of Women Voters) Joseph Dawson (Tennessee Hospital Association) Mike Cutler (Tennessee Association of Broadcasters) Chris Modisher (Tennessee Board of Regents or The University of Tennessee) Also serving on this thirteen member Committee are Ms. Janet Kleinfelter (designated by Attorney General Bob Cooper to represent his Office), and Senator Bill Ketron and Representative Ulysses Jones (Chairmen of the respective State and Local Government Committees of the Tennessee General Assembly).

The Office of Open Records was originally established in 2007 as the Office of Open Records Ombudsman but was renamed by the recent legislation, signed into law on June 19, 2008, and effective July 1, 2008.

For more information on the Office of Open Records Counsel and on the Advisory Committee, go to http://www.comptroller.state.tn.us/openrecords/index.htm

"The mission of the Comptroller's Office is to improve the quality of life for all Tennesseans by making government work better."