After a brief stint on the Chattanooga City Council lawn, Occupy Chattanooga packed up their gear and moved onto the lawn of the Hamilton County Courthouse on Georgia Avenue in downtown Chattanooga.
It didn't take long for this to raise the ire of the Hamilton County Commission, who met behind closed doors, in violation of the Open Meetings Act or "Sunshine Law", to discuss legal options to kick the Occupiers off.
Wishing to have their voices and concerns heard, and to be a part of the public discussion about their occupation of the Courthouse lawn, Occupy Chattanooga visited the Hamilton County Commission on Wed. Nov. 16th. The County Commission clearly did not want to listen to the Occupiers, cutting them off at ten-minutes and refusing to entertain any motions for more time to speak.
During the course of the meeting County Mayor Jim Coppinger offered a suggestion that the County Commission send a delegation to the Nashville General Assembly to call for the repeal of the Open Meetings Act. Commissioner Warren Mackey, never missing an opportunity to advocateagainst transparency, openly supported Mayor Coppinger's proposal, citing the need of the Commission to "meet privately with one another."
The Open Meetings Act is a good law, but one that is very difficult to enforce and in instances of obvious violations, such as the County Commission's meeting concerning Occupy Chattanooga, there is very little that can be done to hold them accountable. That is, very little except calling them out. And that is why Mayor Coppinger and Commissioner Mackey want to repeal the law. They no longer wish to be hassled by journalists seeking to inform the public about the Hamilton County government's closed door deliberations about matters that affect the public.
Recently, the Tennessee County Commissioners Association has come out in public support of potential state legislation that would overturn the Open Meetings Act. It is our duty to remind the Hamilton County Commission that a secret government that deliberates in private is NOT a "government of the people" but, instead, a "government over the people."