City faces public records requests over sign ordinance enforcement

The Chronicle of Mt. Juliet has filed a public records request for the number of signs confiscated and the number of citations issued under the newly amended sign ordinance.
Realtor Monica Doll has filed a public records request for documentation on all citations for violations of the sign ordinance issued over the past 24 months.
Realtor Bob [...]

Department of Irony

from the Mt. Juliet News website:

City employees hear back on Sorey FOI requests
By: LAURIE EVERETT / Managing Editor
Posted: Friday, May 1, 2009 10:00 am
April 29, 2009 – The City of Mt. Juliet employees and officials who filed Freedom of Information requests to learn more about Chris Sorey’s background checks into them have heard back, according [...]

Public Records Karma

The Chronicle of Mt. Juliet has it as their lead website story:
‘Smyrna Nine’ hire attorney, demand answers
The Mt. Juliet News has it featured prominently as well:
City employees back from trip to Smyrna to ask about Sorey investigation; filed open records requests
Seems that City Manager Randy Robertson and six Mt. Juliet employees paid a visit to [...]

Franklin’s termination letters removed from file, replaced with resignation letter

so runs a headline from a story on the Mt. Juliet News website (registration required, but it’s free).
Here’s a .pdf scan of the agreement.
Here’s the text of the agreement:
1. The claims against Sheila Luckett & Linda Elam will be dismissed with full prejudice.
2. TML will pay $85,000 to settle the case; The claims adjuster will [...]

Sorey conducted background checks on fellow county commissioners

Headline from the Mt. Juliet News, Dec 10, 2008.
Bernie Ash (district 23) and Gary Keith (district 17) both confirmed that they had been contacted by the Smyrna Airport Authority and told they were on the list of people whose information was improperly accessed.
Mt. Juliet Mayor Linda Elam called on Sorey to resign, apologize, and pay [...]

Mt. Juliet’s City Manager and City Attorney and Police Chief

Were all spotted at a hearing of the Advisory Committee on Open Government last Friday, September 5th, 2008. The topic of the hearing? The new Public Records law passed by the legislature this year – and how much local governments should be allowed to charge citizens who have the temerity to request Open Records.
The City [...]

Will Sellers and The Chronicle – What did the Commissioner say, and when did he say it?

On the cover of the July 30th Chronicle, there was a prominent quote from D2 Commissioner Will Sellers – “They’ve got reason to worry.”
At the August 11th meeting of the City Commission, Commissioner Sellers approached the editor of The Chronicle, Tomi Wiley, and demanded a front-page retraction, claiming he never said that.
Wiley had her notes from [...]

Headlines from the Mt. Juliet News, July 30, 2008

Is your home safe?
Some MJ homes built without proper firewalls
[a report on the press conference called by the city in advance of the Channel 5 news story]
Auto emissions testing comes to MJ
[mobile testing center will set up at Mundy Park the last week of each month]
Safer passage for all
City to receive $2M grant for Curd [...]

Ground Rules

Before the campaign season begins in earnest, we believe it is important to remind everyone of the ground rules for this site.
The purpose of RFMJ has not changed. It is to provide information to the citizens of Mt. Juliet. The City’s website provides only limited access to much of the important information about the government [...]

The City of Mt. Juliet doesn’t want you to watch…

The City is making it harder for citizens to watch City Commission meetings, and they have yet to post the budget on the website. Citizens of Mt. Juliet should be asking “Why?”
It’s never a good sign when the government doesn’t want citizens to see what they are doing.
From 2002 until 2008, the City of Mt. [...]