Transparency News 5/10/16

Tuesday, May 10, 2016


State and Local Stories

Tucked in Virginia’s far southwestern corner, Bristol Virginia Utilities, aka BVU, had the market cornered on electricity, water, sewer and high-speed Internet, and a breadth of corruption that could stun the most jaded cynic. In the past year, eight former BVU executives, board members and contractors have pleaded guilty to a wide-ranging collection of federal felonies. The utility was rife with self-dealing, extortion, tax evasion and fraud. There were kickback and bid-rigging schemes, demands BVU’s major vendors underwrite fancy holiday parties (one cost more than $12,000) and provide executives with choice tickets to pro football and college basketball games, NASCAR races, horse races and other sporting events.
Roanoke Times

Botetourt County’s former voter registrar, who claimed that she was ousted from her job for political reasons last year, has opted not to make that argument in court. At the request of Phyllis Booze, a judge in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on Monday dismissed her lawsuit against the county electoral board. Booze had claimed that because she is a Republican, the two Democrats on the three-member board decided not to appoint her to another term last June and then replaced her with a member of their own political party. But the new registrar, Traci Clark, is in fact a Republican, according to County Attorney Michael Lockaby.
Roanoke Times

Policy revisions designed to prevent corruption drew mixed reactions from the Martinsville School Board on Monday. In a unanimous vote, the board approved a revised conflict of interest policy that now includes requirements for "disclosure of economic interests." But the board postponed considering adopting a revised policy on "employment relationships" — to be retitled "employment of family members" — due to confusion about some of its wording.
Martinsville Bulletin

A Front Royal town leader took heat Monday for comments she made about the police department last week. Town Council heard from several residents who called on Councilwoman Bébhinn Egger to apologize for her remarks made during council’s May 2 work session. Egger criticized the department at the work session, claiming the agency offered misleading information pertaining to its budget request for fiscal 2017. Council received “misleading” documents related to the police department’s funding request for fiscal 2017, Egger recalled. Council can’t do its job if it doesn’t have all the facts, she added. R. Wayne Sealock, a retired law-enforcement officer, said he was concerned about the comments made by Egger and published in a local newspaper. As to Egger’s concerns about the department’s budget request, Sealock suggested council discuss the matter in a closed session. 
Northern Virginia Daily



National Stories

Keeping Jeffrey Clay quiet at an Alton select board meeting wound up costing more than $40,000. The town settled a federal civil rights lawsuit this week with Clay, who sued for damages after he was arrested during the public comment period of a select board meeting in February 2015. Clay, who considers himself a government watchdog, went to the select board meeting on Feb. 3, 2015, like he had before and told board members they had violated the right-to-know law and should resign. “Every time I show up here, it is with my fervent hope that I find you folks have resigned,” Clay said at the outset. “But you continue to show an unwillingness to take responsibility for your actions as selectmen and resign.” The board members didn’t like what they heard. One called it “character assassination.” The board chairman at the time, R. Loring Carr, called Clay’s comments libelous and defamatory. They quickly voted to close down the public comment portion and told Clay to stop talking. Clay continued. Heath, in uniform, approached Clay and told him to stand up and leave. When Clay didn’t, he was arrested.
Concord Monitor

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the presidency of George W. Bush changed instantly. In a new collection of never-before-seen photographs from that day, the president can be seen responding to the worst terrorist attack in United States history — an event that would redefine his time in office and propel the nation into two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The images, which were given to FRONTLINE through a Freedom of Information Act request, provide a new window into President Bush’s actions on 9/11 — from the initial scramble for information upon learning of the attack at an elementary school in Florida, to his meetings with senior staff throughout the day, and his return to the White House that evening, where in an address to the nation he vowed to “find those responsible and bring them to justice.” The images were released Friday in response to a FOIA request by Colette Neirouz Hanna, coordinating producer for the Kirk Documentary Group, which has covered the legacy of 9/11 in multiple films for FRONTLINE, including Bush’s War, Cheney’s Law, and the forthcoming investigation The Secret History of ISIS. They were taken by Eric Draper, who was the president’s personal photographer.
Frontline

It’s been almost a year since the White House first announced that it would be leading an effort to unite law enforcement agencies around the goal of achieving greater transparency through data. In April, the White House Police Data Initiative (PDI) celebrated its progress by gathering leaders in the field for a two-day event to discuss the challenges and successes of releasing open police data to the public. The initiative began with 21 participating jurisdictions last May. Since then, that number has more than doubled to 53 jurisdictions that have published over 90 datasets in the process. In light of commitments by 32 additional agencies and organizations, Sunlight reaffirmed its dedication to the ideals of the initiative by pledging to add all datasets opened by participating agencies to Hall of Justice, a repository of criminal justice information launched in February.
Sunlight Foundation

Editorials/Columns

An actual epic rejection letter came from a Transit Police Department in the case of a dog-naming scandal. It all started when Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority police solicited the public’s help in naming the team’s new dog via an online poll, and the public chose “Mr. Spaghetti.” But despite Mr. Spaghetti’s clear lead, after the polls closed, the dog was named … Hunter. Gawker attempted to find out why, but the department’s superintendent was having none of it. “All correspondence as it relates to the naming of a K9 can be easily obtained publicly on the internet via our FaceBook and/or Twitter Account,” he wrote in response to Gawker’s FOIA. “We consider this request closed.” Moral of the story: Stop asking the public to name things.
Chava Gourarie, Columbia Journalism Review