NASHVILLE (AP) — Lee Pope, an attorney for the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board has been hired as the new deputy open records counsel in the state comptroller's office.

A comptroller's audit earlier this year documented more than 600 open or pending cases where citizens or governments had made requests to the Office of Open Records Counsel.

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam included an additional $147,000 for the office in this year's budget to add staffing.

The office was created in 2008 in the aftermath of the FBI's Tennessee Waltz sting operation. But after its full-time lawyer left in 2014, its duties have been covered by another staffer in Comptroller Justin Wilson's office.

Pope previously worked in the state attorney general's office.