VCOG names 2025 Open Government Award Winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT  Megan Rhyne | 540.353.8264 | mrhyne@opengovva.org

The Virginia Coalition for Open Government is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 open-government awards. The community advocacy group Citizens for Fauquier County is our Laurence E. Richardson Citizen Award winner. Our media winner is Samuel B. Parker of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. And Sen. Danica Roem of Manassas Park is our government honoree.

The awards recognize ordinary Virginians, journalists and government representatives for their outstanding efforts to advance access to government records and meetings and improve awareness of state open government laws so that their neighbors and communities can fully participate in the democratic process. Winners will be honored at VCOG’s annual conference, April 3, in Harrisonburg.

Founded in 1968, Citizens for Fauquier County is a non-partisan, non-profit organization representing hundreds of area individuals interested in local conservation efforts. In 2022, CFFC filed a FOIA petition against the Town of Warrenton over access to emails about a proposed special use permit for an Amazon Web Services data center. The case reached the Virginia Court of Appeals, where a 3-judge panel ruled the town improperly interpreted the scope of the working papers exemption. The town council voted to appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court, but before that court could decide whether to take the case, several new members sympathetic to CFFC’s efforts were elected to the town council. In January, they voted to drop the appeal, and in February, they provided public access to more than 2,600 of the previously withheld messages.

“The FOIA principle the CFFC fought for was important enough to VCOG to file a brief in support of their case. Their arguments not only persuaded the court, but their persistence changed minds at the local level and ultimately led to more transparency and broad access for all,” said Maria Everett, president of the VCOG board of directors and member of the award review committee.

Samuel B. Parker covers the busy Richmond government beat for the RTD. He’s written about the former FOIA officer who filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city, saying her boss pressured her  to disregard FOIA requirements. Using FOIA, he uncovered non-disclosure agreements the city wanted restaurant owners to sign to settle their meals tax collection settlements and payments the housing authority paid to a board member’s business. Additionally, after Parker reported that an online payment register hadn’t been updated since 2019 — despite city code requiring it— the register was taken offline entirely. Throughout his reporting, he frequently explains the FOIA process to readers and highlights problems with the city’s responses.

“Samuel consistently uses FOIA to hold local government accountable, to inform the community, and to educate the public about how FOIA is supposed to work. All three align perfectly with VCOG’s mission and efforts,” Everett commented.

Senator Danica Roem, a former journalist, has been an advocate for better FOIA processes since she first took office in the Virginia General Assembly as a delegate in 2018. She consistently opposes new FOIA exemptions and has successfully championed improvements to the law. However, her most ambitious and potentially helpful proposal — reducing the cost to obtain public records — has been thwarted year after year. Throughout the summer and fall of 2024, Roem actively participated in the FOIA Council’s study group on FOIA fees, working to find common ground while holding firm on key policy principles. The bill that emerged from the study made it through the Senate and a House committee but was unexpectedly defeated on a voice vote on the House floor.

“Senator Roem is a critical voice at the General Assembly who advocates for the public’s right to know and against government secrecy. Her advocacy for fee reform aligns with one of VCOG’s guiding principles, and we would love to see her persistence pay off,” said Everett.

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The Coalition for Open Government engages Virginians to monitor the actions of their state and local governments as part of the democratic process. Founded in 1996, the coalition is a non-profit, non-partisan membership organization that presses for access to public records, meetings and judicial proceedings.

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