The chief executive officer of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority on Tuesday said he hired a local firm to pay residents of Gilpin Court in exchange for attending City Council’s June 9 meeting and supporting the proposed transfer of the city’s largest public housing project. On Tuesday morning, Alecia Venable — CEO of Venable Community Services — said Nesmith hired her organization to pay residents of Gilpin Court $20 each to go to the June 9 City Council meeting. Venable said representatives with her company had canvassed Gilpin Court, going door-to-door with flyers. The Times-Dispatch obtained a copy of one of the flyers, and Venable confirmed its authenticity. “RRHA wants you to show up at City Council for your community,” the flyers read. “You will be picked up at the Calhoun Center at 5 p.m. You will be paid for 2 hours to hold up a sign.” Asked for comment, Nesmith said the payments were part of an effort to address residents’ complaints that they weren’t being involved in the process.

A heap of battered yellow chairs outside the Roanoke municipal building on Tuesday morning represents a period of transition for the city council. The project includes new paint, carpet, seating and IT equipment, according to a city spokesperson. Asbestos abatement is part of the $77,878.81 project, with an additional 20% contingency budgeted. It’s not the only transition for city council operations heading into August. Future meetings will now be livestreamed and archived on YouTube, rather than Facebook. The change is occurring because Facebook has altered its policies so that live videos are no longer retained past 30 days, said councilman Phazhon Nash, who proposed the switch. Facebook also requires people to sign in, whereas people only need an internet connection to watch livestreams on YouTube, he said.

Anyone wanting to keep tabs on Isle of Wight County’s Economic Development Authority who isn’t able to attend the body’s monthly meetings now has the option of watching them after the fact. Economic Development Director Kristi Sutphin said the EDA’s May 20 meeting was the first to be recorded. A video of the EDA’s July 8 meeting is also available. Both can be found under “other” on the “on demand meeting video archive” page on the county’s website. Unlike the Board of Supervisors or Planning Commission meetings, the EDA recordings are not livestreamed. To date they have been put online one day after the fact. Sutphin said the EDA meetings are not livestreamed because livestreaming requires someone from the county’s Information Technology Department to physically sit in the control room during the meeting.

Lawyers for Armed Forces Brewing Co., the controversial military-themed brewery that closed its Norfolk headquarters earlier this year, sent five critics cease-and-desist letters threatening legal action for comments about the company. Armed Forces Brewing claims that recipients took part “in a coordinated effort with others to willfully and maliciously injure AFBC’s business, trade and reputation,” according to a copy of the letter provided by AFBC’s attorney Nathan Hernandez. The letters targeted some of the brewery’s most vocal critics who spoke out online and at public meetings.

If you’re interested in local history, many records are just a mouse click away. Clerk of Rockingham Circuit Court Chaz Haywood and Deputy Clerk Megan Pullen gave a presentation about the many county records you can access from the comfort of your home during a talk on historic preservation at Rocktown History on Tuesday morning. The courthouse has worked hard to preserve and digitize many of its records, Haywood said. Haywood, who has served as Clerk of Court for the Rockingham Circuit Court since 2008, said he wanted the courthouse to be a destination for people interested in history.

State contracts for Florida’s controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” detention camp were removed from a public database and replaced with far less detailed documents after media outlets began writing about them last week. The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), which is overseeing the state’s new immigrant detention camp in the Everglades, says the contracts contained “proprietary information.” However, open government advocates and state Democratic lawmakers say that removing details of the contracts flies in the face of Florida’s promises to provide transparency in public spending, especially given the massive expenditures of taxpayer money involved. The most recent reporting on the ballooning costs of the Everglades detention camp puts it at $250 million and growing.