Tennessee is facing a lawsuit from FW Publishing, the parent company of Nashville Scene, and Scene reporter Stephen Elliott. A Nashville Scene reporter, Elliott also serves as the interim editor at the Nashville Post, which the Scene describes as its sister publication.
FW Publishing and Elliott have named Juan Williams, the Commission of the Department of Human Resources (DOHR), and Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee in the public records suit. The lawsuit tries to access reports from McKinsey & Company. The consulting company was granted a no-bid contract worth $3 million to release reports about assistance to the UCG (Unified Command Group), Tennessee’s reopening, and government operations.
After the completion of the reports in 2020, the Lee government used deliberative process privilege to keep the findings confidential. The lawsuit claims that the US public is a lot keen on knowing the information offered to the Economic Recovery Group/UCG and Lee in its entirety. As per the lawsuit, the public wants to know the information for help with responding to this pandemic.
Lawyer Paul McAdoo from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press represents FW Publishing and Elliott. The lawsuit also seeks a different McKinsey report associated with state government efficiencies, also denied as per the deliberative process exemption. It is not the first such lawsuit about the McKinsey & Company findings. There was another public records suit from Nashville resident Thomas Wesley and Tennessee workers against the US state. Wesley and the workers filed that lawsuit to access the efficiency reports included in the work of McKinsey & Company. Thomas was also denied access to the information as per the deliberative process privilege.
According to open-government representatives and journalists, the Tennessee Public Records Act does not have the said exemption.
As per McAdoo, the records are vital to understanding Tennessee’s response to this epidemic, the buyout program of the state for its workers, and its payment of over $3 million in taxpayer money for private consultants. As for McAdoo, besides pursuing access to those records, the lawsuit provides the court with a chance to determine whether state legislation recognizes the said privilege. Where it is recognized, it tends to be misused and asserted to hold back the kind of information that has to be made public. If the said privilege is recognized in this state, it would be an impediment to understanding how the government operates.