TN AG tells judge COVID-19 reports should be withheld to avoid 'Monday-morning quarterbacking"

[Nevilledog]

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Brad Batt for TN State Sanity ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾
@bradbatt
TN Deputy Attorney General Janet Kleinfelter is attempting to block taxpayer-funded reports regarding COVID to prevent “Monday-morning quarterbacking” of state decisions

Lack of transparency means lack of accountability and oversight. We deserve better.
Stephen Elliott and Paul McAdoo
tcog.info
AG tells judge COVID-19 reports should be withheld to avoid ‘Monday-morning quarterbacking’
The deputy attorney general for Tennessee argued in court this week that reports by consultant McKinsey and Co. regarding the re-opening of Tennessee and other government responses during the COVID…
2:21 PM · Jan 28, 2022

https://tcog.info/ag-tells-judge-covid-19-reports-should-be-withheld-to-avoid-monday-morning-quarterbacking/

The deputy attorney general for Tennessee argued in court this week that reports by consultant McKinsey and Co. regarding the re-opening of Tennessee and other government responses during the COVID-19 pandemic are exempt from the public records law because revealing them would open up the executive branch to second-guessing by the public.

Stephen Elliott, a journalist with the Nashville Post, and his attorney Paul McAdoo, the Tennessee-based attorney for Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Local Legal Initiative, pause after the hearing in a public records case. Elliott is challenging the state’s denial of access to reports from consultant McKinsey and Co. related to the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The case was heard Tuesday, Jan. 25, in Davidson County Chancellor Pat Moskal’s court.

Nashville Post journalist Stephen Elliott filed the public records lawsuit after 20 months of trying to obtain the reports. The reports were commissioned by state government in a multi-million contract and, among other things, outline facts and potential scenarios for the COVID-19 response, such as re-opening government and workforce management.

After Elliott’s public records lawsuit was filed on Jan. 4 — and another similar lawsuit on Dec. 17 by state employee Thomas Wesley seeking some of the same records — the state appeared to scramble to release the reports related to the state workforce. Wesley dropped his lawsuit, and a hearing was held Tuesday afternoon on Elliott’s lawsuit before Davidson County Chancellor Pat Moskal. Elliott had asked for more than the state workforce-records.

The state filed its response brief at 4:45 p.m. the day before the hearing. The brief and the state’s arguments during the hearing offered the first detailed window into its legal reasoning to withhold what many would normally consider to be public records — reports produced by a consultant for the state in 2020 that in total cost taxpayers $3.8 million.

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[SheltieLover]

1. Kicking for visability

[greenjar_01]

2. What's the matter with Tennessee?

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

4. They need to tell this dipshit that she works for the people of Tennessee.

You know, the ones who pay her salary.

And if she doesn't comply, she should be removed and replaced.

[peggysue2]

6. What's the matter with Tennessee?

With right-wing MAGA supporters in charge:

EVERYTHING!

Couldn't wait to escape.

[NCjack]

3. Repugs: We know what is best for you. Trust us.

I will never trust Repugs with anything. Shine the Sunlight on those reports.

[Generic Brad]

5. They want us back in the office desperately

I suspect they have invested heavily in Covid treatments.

The official numbers where I live look like we have had a dramatic drop in new cases but that’s only because they haven’t reported new cases in a week. Anecdotally, I know more people who have been diagnosed with active cases than at any time in the pandemic.

[BadGimp]

7. WTF!

God forbid the state release public data to the public and legislature members so they can inform their decisions.