Following a nearly 2-hour closed session meeting Tuesday, Chesapeake City Council voted 8-1 to censure longtime member Ella Ward for allegedly violating the confidentiality of a closed session. It’s not clear for which closed session meeting the confidentiality allegedly was breached. Council members were meeting on several matters in a lengthy closed session Tuesday, including the council’s boards and commissions appointment process, ongoing litigation, the acquisition of property and a potential business expansion. Following the session, council member Pat King read the motion to censure, and only Ward voted against it. Council then adjourned without further explanation or comment. The council’s rules of order and procedure regarding closed sessions states, “Any Council member or person violating the confidentiality of a closed session or using a recording device during a closed session shall be subject to censure or reprimand by a two-thirds vote of the City Council.”

Lawmakers are expanding their rewrite of the state’s Freedom of Information Act, further undermining the law that allows the public to know what their government is doing. It began with House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, proposing a bill to exempt the Legislature from West Virginia’s public records law. He argued that it is a good idea for lawmakers to write a separate rule to exclude at least some legislative records from public disclosure. After it narrowly passed the House, the Senate Government Organization Committee did a quick but wholesale rewrite of the bill. The bill overturns the presumption of openness. It eliminates the burden of proof on agencies in FOIA litigation. The legislation expands what agencies can charge for records. Response times will greatly increase, from 5 days to 14.

The number of FOIA requests filed in fiscal year 2024 surpassed 1.5 million, which represented a 25% increase from FY 2023.