Transparency News 3/3/16

State and Local Stories

Please call your senator this morning and ask him/her to vote to override the governor's amendments to SB 494 and to support a motion to enact the measure as is. Read more about the original bill and the amendments in the stories below.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe has made wholesale changes to a key open records bill, rejecting legislation meant to force state agencies and local governments to release as much of sensitive public documents as they can. McAuliffe dispensed late Tuesday with a 24-page bill that passed the General Assembly nearly unanimously this session in response to a state Supreme Court case dealing with the electric chair. In the bill's place, McAuliffe called for a small change to the state's Freedom of Information Act that his administration says addresses the issue raised in that court case. It calls for more study before other changes are made. McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said the administration beliefs the court changed existing law much less significantly than open government advocates have feared, and he said the changes backed by the legislature would increase the administrative burden, and cost, of filling Freedom of Information Act requests.
Daily Press

Lawmakers of both parties expressed concern Wednesday with action by Gov. Terry McAuliffe they said would essentially veto a bill aimed at making sure public records are released. "Effectively it would be a veto," Surovell said. "The FOIA Council has already endorsed this in concept. ....The person who drafted it is the executive director of the FOIA Council. The bill got vetted by all the local governments. It's been out there for eight weeks." McAuliffe's substitute "is like a nuclear bomb," Surovell said. "I was surprised and I was disappointed in that I'm not clear where this is coming from or why it's coming." LeMunyon said he agreed that McAuliffe's move is an effective veto.  "We're trying to restore the redaction process in the FOIA to what we always thought it was," he said. Roger Wiley, a lobbyist who represents the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia Association of Counties, said the associations support the bill.
Virginian-Pilot

Gov. Terry McAuliffe is seeking sweeping changes to an open government bill in a move that supporters said would effectively kill the legislation. Fueling the dispute is a fundamental disagreement about the reach of last year’s court ruling. The governor’s office believes it only extends to the contested exemption dealing with building schematics and operational manuals that may hold sensitive security information. But others feel it applies broadly to the FOIA law and weakens the obligation of public officials to release as much information as possible. “I think it’s been widely understood that this opinion affects every public document in every [government] body in Virginia. That’s why we’ve taken the action we have,” said Del. James LeMunyon, chairman of the state’s FOIA advisory council and patron of an identical House bill working its way through the legislature. Brian Coy, spokesman for McAuliffe, said the governor’s amendments fix the immediate concern raised in the court case while pumping the brakes on larger changes to the state law.
Roanoke Times

Election days are hectic enough already, but the added possibility of civic unrest creates a recipe for chaos. That’s what Winchester Registrar Liz Martin, just six months into her job, faced during Tuesday’s dual presidential primaries. The city’s voter registration office on N. East Lane is close to the site of demonstrations, held Monday and Tuesday, after the death of D’Londre Minifield following a foot pursuit with city police officers Sunday. A decision was made at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday to move the registrar’s operations to the War Memorial Building in Jim Barnett Park, Martin said in a Wednesday morning phone interview.
Winchester Star

The Roanoke County Police Department reaffirmed Wednesday that it would not release the names of officers involved in the fatal shooting of a black teenager armed with a BB gun, stepping into the national issue of when — or even if — to disclose names during a public outcry for transparency. Under Virginia public records law, police departments have discretion over whether to release information regarding officers. The Roanoke County Police Department has no formal policy on disclosing the names of officers, spokeswoman Amy Whittaker said Wednesday. “The officers involved are essential to the investigatory process that is underway,” said a statement released Wednesday by the county. “There is no discernible benefit to exposing officers to unwarranted speculation while the facts related to the incident are yet to be fully known.” It’s unclear if the names of the county officers will ever be released by the department.
Roanoke Times

The Richmond Ambulance Authority has severed ties with an employee who is clerk of Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ church after the authority pursued allegations that she had been performing church work during business hours.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

When we put out the call for nominations for our annual 10 Newspapers That Do It Right feature, we asked newspapers to send us their best ideas; in particular, we asked, “What was your most notable idea/project that helped the company find success?” As you read through this year’s 10 newspapers and our list of honorable mentions, you will find plenty stories of success. Their ideas are diverse and inspirational: video and podcasting, niche websites, new print products, events, and more. What we hope is that their projects will add fuel to this industry that continues to press on.
C-VILLE Weekly
Charlottesville, Va.
Circulation: 23,000 weekly
In her 10 years at the C-VILLE Weekly, publisher Aimee Atteberry has seen her shares of ups and downs. Up: the publication celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014 and saw double-digit growth over the previous year in profit. Down: In spring 2015, Atteberry lost four salespeople along with her editor. She called the transition one of the “hugest hurdles” she had ever faced.
Honorable Mention:
Daily Press
Newport News, Va.
Beginning in 2014 with an eight-part series “The Virginia Way: Politics, Power and Profit,” the Daily Press set out to make clear to its readers just how easy it was for lawmakers to game the system and how difficult it could be to shine a light on their activities. Last fall, the paper organized a statewide Freedom of Information Act project.
Editor & Publisher


National Stories
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The Justice Department has reportedly granted immunity to a former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server. A senior U.S. law enforcement official told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the FBI secured the cooperation of Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the private server at her New York home in 2009. Current and former agents told the newspaper that agents will likely want to interview Clinton and her senior aides about the decision to use a private server, and whether any of the participants knew they were sending classified information in emails as part of the ongoing investigation.
Fox News

A bill that would make Nebraska grand juries report their proceedings to the public will be debated by the full Legislature. An eight-member committee unanimously advanced the measure by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha on Tuesday. Currently, if that jury does not produce an indictment, the public receives no explanation. Chambers says that secrecy fuels distrust of law enforcement.
Omaha.com

The Office of the Maryland Attorney General has appointed Lisa Kershner to the newly-created position of Public Access Ombudsman, which is a newly created office within, though independent from, the Attorney General's Office. Ms. Kershner will begin work as the Ombudsman in the second half of March.
(no link)

Editorials/Columns

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow Tuesday to nascent efforts to track the quality and cost of health care, ruling that a 1974 law precludes states from requiring that every health care claim involving their residents be submitted to a massive database. The arguments were arcane, but the effect is clear: We’re a long way off from having a true picture of the country’s health care spending, especially differences in the way hospitals treat patients and doctors practice medicine.
Charles Ornstein, Governing