The Sevier County Commission passed an emergency resolution at their meeting Monday night.
     The action came about after a resident, Brad Lowe, was asked by deputies to move to a designated area to film the commission meeting.
     Lowe, who had a small tri-pod and camera set up in front of his seat in the Courthouse third floor meeting room, refused to move from his seat. He told deputies that he had mobility problems because of a bad back and that he had been allowed to tape meetings from his seat for months before.
     The designated area for audio and visual taping in the meeting room is to give everyone, either from the media or a resident, an equal chance to capture the meeting, said Sevier County Communications Coordinator Perrin Anderson.
     In addition, the county now has an official camera crew taping commission meetings and those tapes are available to the public for purchase the following week at a cost of $30.00.
     After speaking for several minutes with Lowe before the meeting began, deputies approached Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters at the front of the meeting room.
     Before the meeting was called to order Waters, the County Attorney, deputies and some commissioners spoke about the issue amongst themselves before determining that they would vote on an emergency resolution during the commission meeting. 
     Lowe said this action was in direct violation with the Tennessee Sunshine Law and he was targeted because he is “watchdog” over the county government.
     The Tennessee Sunshine Law, passed by the General Assembly in 1974, requires that meetings of state, city and county government bodies be open to the public and that any such governmental body give adequate public notice of such meeting.
     Anderson said that the commission did not foresee having to pass this resolution before the incident with Lowe because they did not expect anyone to have a problem with recording in a designated area.
     The resolution, unavailable at press time, which was also discussed during the meeting, states that any person wishing to record commission meetings would have to do so in the area designated, or be removed from the meeting room by deputies.

… read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.

... read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.