Eagleville city councilmen voted at last Thursday’s council meeting to have new city attorney Adam Dodd develop a proposed policy for handling public records requests.

If the proposal follows what Dodd addresses in a memorandum on the subject, citizens should have greater and faster access to the records than they have had in the past.

The Tennessee Public Records Act requires that all state, county and city records be open for public inspection during normal business hours unless the records are confidential.

The city’s current policy states that the city has up to five days to comply with a public records request, and the city seldom if ever has produced a record in less than five days for the Eagleville Times.

When the newspaper has made a request to view a public record instead of having the city make a copy, the request was never granted but copies were made even though the law says that the records should be open for public inspection during normal business hours.

Dodd’s proposal is aimed at reducing the time it is taking the city recorder to answer public records requests by making the records available for public inspection instead of having the recorder research what is requested.

"Folks have a right to get the record unless they are otherwise exempted from disclosure," Dodd said. "So if they want them, they have a right to come up here and inspect the records as opposed to having us find what it is they are looking for."

Once citizens have found a document they would want copied, they have a right to ask for copies, Dodd said. Currently the city charges 25 cents a copy but Councilman Matthew Smitty said he thought 20 cents might be more appropriate.

One procedure Dodd suggested in his memorandum goes against the Tennessee Public Records Act, however.

He says all people making a request for information shall provide such information as name, address, business telephone number, home telephone number, driver’s license number or other appropriate identification prior to inspecting the records.

The city cannot require this information unless the person is asking to inspect law enforcement personnel records. In fact, some courts have found identification requirements for non law enforcement record requests to be improper impedances to public records.

In other business at the council meeting, Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill reported the park board wants to start charging a $25 nonrefundable fee to reserve the pavilion at the park.

Councilmen suggested the issue was up to the park board to decide. Park director Jeff Mooneyham would be in charge of collecting the fee.

Hill also noted that the walking trail at the park needs to be completed this summer because the grant period will be up on Oct. 1. The proposed 2,000 foot paved trail would cost about $25,000 to $30,000.

Also, the council declared the city’s 1974 yellow fire truck as surplus property and agreed to put it up for public bid. The city will be accepting closed bids until close of business on April 23 and the bids will be opened at the April 24 council meeting. The money for the truck is to go to the fire department.

The city declined resident David Turner’s offer to trade a 1989 Ford tanker truck with a 2,000 gallon capacity for the old yellow fire truck. Turner said his truck was recently removed from service in Chapel Hill, after that department received a new 3,000 gallon truck.

Smitty questioned the legally of trading the city truck. Also, Fire Chief David Martin said Turner’s truck is gravity fed and would not help Eagleville’s ISO rating. Martin also listed other objections to accepting the truck.

"Needless to say, this would be just adding more surplus to our fire department and we don’t have housing for it right now," Martin said.