I suppose it’s nothing new, but we saw a flurry of open government conflicts last month. Richmond launched a FOIA “reading room” while also continuing to defend a whistleblower suit from its former FOIA officer and facing a potential credit card scandal. Southampton County sued its school board for FOIA delays, while in Roanoke, a judge ruled the city must release Flock camera footage despite limitations the contract may have imposed. And the Court of Appeals issued a FOIA ruling related to the governor’s “divisive concepts” tip line from 2022.

Councils in Chesapeake, Petersburg and Mineral issued censures against board members. In Lynchburg, Martinsville and Grottoes, contentious public comment periods led to walkouts, removal and police involvement. Charlottesville had problems with its legal advertising for tax hearings, and members of Purcellville’s council came under fire from all directions.

At the state level, the FOIA Council reviewed legislation and proposed a study of “vexatious requesters.” Three Library of Virginia grants were revoked, cutting off key digitization efforts. And at UVA, the administration refused to release a “damning” investigative report about the former head of the health systems.

Got all that?

VCOG would like to thank everyone who helped make Access 25 a success. Thanks to our speakers and panelists, who took time out of their packed schedules to share their insight and expertise with our audience.

We heard about recent FOIA court cases, transparency in animal testing at public universities, using AI to build civic engagement tools and the treasures you might find at your local clerk of court’s office. We also talked about getting information on solar project proposals and data center developments, and we got an update on the rollout of a new website, State Navigate, that promises to be all-things-state-legislature for every state!

Congratulations to our annual FOI award winners, and a special shout-out to the staff at Court Square Theater, who went above and beyond to ensure things ran smoothly.

Finally, we thank our generous corporate sponsors and individual donors, without whom none of this would be possible.

The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled April 29 that the trial court correctly found plaintiff Heather Sawyer had a valid FOIA claim, but erred by ordering all withheld records released without reviewing them for potential application of the “working papers” exemption.

The case centers on the tip line Governor Youngkin created in 2022 to report the teaching of “divisive concepts” in schools. Sawyer, head of American Oversight, requested general and specific communications about the tip line—not the submissions themselves. The governor’s office released some records but withheld 12 pages of general and 700 pages of specific documents, citing the working papers exemption. Sawyer filed a FOIA suit in Arlington County, and the trial judge ruled she had a viable claim. Rejecting the governor’s offer to submit the documents for private judicial review, the judge instead ordered full release of the withheld records.

A unanimous appellate panel upheld the ruling that Sawyer had stated a claim, noting she presented evidence that could rebut the presumption of government good faith in its record searches. The court also noted that whether an exemption applies is a factual issue unsuitable for dismissal at the demurrer stage.

However, the court said the judge overstepped by ordering release without reviewing the documents. It remanded the case, directing a proper in camera review based on guidelines set out in the Citizens for Fauquier County v. Town of Warrenton case from last fall. The court noted that the judge should be looking at whether the people receiving the communications were eligible under the exemption and whether the documents qualified as “working papers.”

Note: VCOG signed onto a brief penned by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in support of Sawyer.

A Roanoke City Circuit Court judge ruled that the police department must respond to a FOIA request from the executive editor of Cardinal News for records of his vehicle captured by Flock license plate reader cameras. Instead of releasing or withholding the records, the city filed a declaratory judgment action in circuit court to determine whether it was required to respond at all, citing its agreement with Flock, which governs access to the data.

The judge ruled that FOIA takes precedence over local policies and contracts with third parties. Any contract that limits the government’s ability to release documents otherwise available under FOIA is void, the judge said. He also found that although such data may be used in criminal investigations, the specific records requested were not part of an active investigation and must be released. Additionally, the judge noted that querying a database to locate specific information does not constitute creating a new record, which FOIA does not typically require. The city has 30 days from the date the ruling is filed to decide whether to appeal.

The FOIA Council met April 22 to set work in motion for the rest of the year. The council reviewed legislation impacting FOIA passed by this year’s General Assembly (though some bills are still awaiting final action from the governor), and it assigned bills referred to the council for study to various subcommittees. The council also heard a proposal to study so-called vexatious requesters, as well as a suggestion by Loudoun County to relax FOIA’s meeting rules in times of one-off emergencies.

The Purcellville vice mayor faced conflict-of-interest questions due to his dual role as a police officer and his desire to be named police chief. Even after his firing, the Commonwealth’s Attorney said there was a conflict if he voted on police matters and the Virginia Attorney General launched a criminal investigation. The Coalition on Loudoun Towns suspended the mayor over “ethically questionable practices,” perhaps tied to the decision to dissolve the police department (though that decision was reversed) or for appointing a permanent town manager without interviewing other candidates. Meanwhile, residents launched recall petitions against four council members, citing FOIA violations among the reasons. 

A week after a Martinsville City Council member left a meeting after being approached on the dais by a sheriff’s deputy, the mayor held a press conference saying neither he nor the city manager ordered the removal. If it had been up to him, he said, he would have called for a recess or a closed meeting to discuss the underlying issue: the city manager’s pay. By the end of the month, the mayor was calling for a citywide investigation of all council members, city employees, constitutional officers and volunteer board and commission members who he believes are attempting to “slander, defame, and undermine my integrity and character.” He added, “We must embrace transparency as our guiding principle.

The City of Richmond laudably launched a “reading room” of documents related to the early-January water crisis that had been previously released in response to various FOIA requests. However, that meant that many of the documents were also redacted, some substantially.

The Southampton County Board of Supervisors filed a FOIA lawsuit against the school board. The board chair said the county made 17 FOIA requests over the past several weeks, but none had been responded to. At an April 14 meeting, the school board chair laid out the context and timeline of the requests, admitting that the school district waited 13 days before telling the county that (in their opinion), the request was too broad and would interfere with operations and would cost a lot. Two months later they were still wrangling over the scope of the request. At a December board meeting, the chair asked the superintendent for details on what kind of burden FOIA requests imposed, and the school superintendent said, “If we’re going to have to start tracking, especially with the way that the Board of Supervisors is going and all that’s happening, it’s too much. It’s too much work.”

Three federal grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Library of Virginia were terminated by the Trump administration, eliminating funding that went toward digitizing 100,000 pages of historical Virginia newspapers and World War II separation notices, and canceling a new exhibition featuring Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood.

The Chesapeake City Council emerged from a 2-hour closed session and voted to censure one of its own for allegedly violating the confidentiality of a closed session. The Virginian-Pilot reported it wasn’t clear which closed meeting was compromised, and the council members did not discuss the matter before or after the vote.

The Mineral Town Council censured a member of the planning commission for “inappropriate behavior” at a January planning commission meeting (for arguing with a town council member) and one in March (for inviting the former town council liaison to the planning commission to the  meeting). Later, that town council member said it was OK for four of the town council members to be present at the planning commission meeting — without giving prior notice — because the “three council members in one place” rule doesn’t apply to anywhere that would be considered generally open to the public.

The only female council member present at the April 10 Lynchburg City Council meeting left the meeting after a fire department captain told her during the public comment to keep the name of a deceased fire fighter “out of your mouth during meetings,” then advanced towards her carrying a floor tile, which he put on the dais in front of her. As she was saying she didn’t feel safe, the firefighter countered with, “Do not violate my 1st Amendment rights.”

UVA President Jim Ryan apologized for calling the physicians and faculty who signed a letter of no confidence in UVA Health System’s leadership “dissatisfied” employees. The apology came after UVA paid an outside law firm $4 million to investigate the allegations raised in the letter. The investigative report was described by the Board of Visitors as “damning” but, as with past reports, the university is refusing to release it. The university also refused to share information with the student newspaper about the BOV’s vote to dissolve the university’s DEI office.

The whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Richmond by its former FOIA officer was in court April 29 to haggle over the discovery process. Both sides accuse the other of not being forthcoming with requested documents, prompting the judge to admonish both of them: “I understand strong advocacy. But without pointing fingers in either direction, I would like counsel to start anew.”

Public records from multiple sources confirmed three things for Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter Samuel Parker: (1) a former management analyst for the Richmond Fire Department used a city credit card to spend $38,686 at a company, (2) the company is registered to a house in Henrico County, and (3) that the analyst is the owner of that house.

(Another) argument broke out at a Spotsylvania County School Board meeting and lasted for nearly two hours before the chair regained control and started work on the board’s agenda.

A frequent critic of the Grottoes Town Council was escorted out of a town council meeting after arguing with the mayor about the pace of growth in the town. Subsequent speakers complained about the lack of information about town meetings and asked for them to be streamed.

The Petersburg City Council issued a second censure against one of its members, this time for allegedly directing a racial slur at the police chief during an argument at a city council meeting. It was only through the letter describing the incident that it became public the council had censured the same council member last year for “disruption in the city’s ongoing operations.”

Records obtained by The Richmonder set out who said what to whom in the situation where an instructor at VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs was abruptly terminated mid-semester. The text messages appeared to confirm what Bill Leighty said publicly shortly after his dismissal: that former Gov. Wilder was upset with him for not asking a question the former governor wanted him to ask Mayor Danny Avula during an online forum.

Speakers at Richmond City Council meetings have been chafing under the council chair’s restriction on comment rules that bar speakers from referencing public officials by name, leading one speaker to refer to Mayor Danny Avula as “he who shall not be named,” a reference to the way characters in the Harry Potter books refer to the villain Voldemort. There is a 2016 attorney general’s opinion that says rules prohibiting the naming of employees or officials, or on “personal attacks,” are unconstitutional.

While personnel decisions — hirings and firings — are typically discussed during closed session, Hopewell took the unusual step of placing two items on its upcoming agenda to determine “whether to terminate the … employment contract” of the city manager and the city clerk. The decision may be a foregone conclusion, given that the agenda also includes “Appointment of Interim City Manager” and “Appointment of Interim City Clerk” as Special Business.

Charlottesville had to delay its public hearing on the city’s tax rate for the upcoming budget year because of advertising issues. Public hearings (as different from ordinary public meetings) are required to be advertised a certain number of times, and within a certain time frame. This was the second advertising error on the same matter.

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