Calhoun Commission Does Not Let NC9 Camera In Public Meeting

One small city continues to make big headlines. The city of Calhoun, Tennessee held their monthly commission meeting Monday but decided not to allow our cameras inside.

Tennessee's Sunshine Law says that whenever public policy is being made it cannot be conducted in secret. The United States Congress allows cameras inside. Tennessee's Legislative body allows cameras during their sessions and the Chattanooga City Council always allows cameras in their public meetings. But Monday night the City of Calhoun decided to break from that precedent.

One by one members of the public walk into to Monday night's regularly scheduled Calhoun Commission meeting. But when we tried to go in here's what happened....

"No cameras allowed in the meeting," a Calhoun Police Officer tells us.

"It's just not making any pictures," City manager David Wilson says. "Do you guys have any recording devices in there?" we ask Wilson. "They do in there at city council," Wilson responds.

Both city manager David Wilson and city mayor Gary Barham told us recording devices were allowed inside and that this was an open meeting, but they told us we could not bring our camera inside.

"Why are cameras not allowed in here?" we asked Mayor Barham after the meeting. "Because we took the cameras out of the meetings...we had individuals that was coming in here with movie cameras," Barham says.

Barham says they've had problems with cameras being disruptive so now all cameras are barred.

"All I can tell you at this point is that the commission voted that we would stop the movie camera while conducting the meeting," Barham says.

"Actually I'm kind of shocked - it's in violation of the sunshine law number one...these are open meetings," Terri Damouth, a former commissioner, says.

Damouth says in her time in office the commission never voted to keep cameras out.

"I don't understand if they don't have anything to hide then not why not let the cameras in these gentlemen are acting very unprofessionaly, rude, I'm just shocked...I'm just shocked," Damouth says.

This is the latest in a long line of controversial issues in Calhoun. Earlier this year Wilson fired both of the city's police officers, changed the locks and then named a new police chief but he was not certified and later resigned leaving Calhoun with no police officers. The city has now brought in two certified officers who did attend Monday night's meeting.

"I think we are moving forward now...we're going forward with the city...things are looking a lot better," Barham says.

"The city of Calhoun is in trouble...they're in serious trouble," Damouth says.

The two police officers who were fired have filed a lawsuit against the City of Calhoun. The mayor told us tonight that he's been advised not to talk about that lawsuit.