A last-minute addendum to an upcoming specially called Martinsville City Council meeting could provide the public with details on the city’s forensic spending audit and Sands Anderson’s workplace investigation. The addendum seeks to switch discussions at Thursday’s 5 p.m. meeting from closed to open session, as Martinsville councilors get a first look at the audit. Councilmember Aaron Rawls said he wants to bring the council’s review of the audit out of closed session. … “I expect this to fail, but the community deserves the effort,” Rawls wrote. “I also think the resulting discussion will be insightful.” … Rawls’ agenda addendum mentions the unredacted version of Sands Anderson’s report and offers the city council the chance to discuss it in an open session. In August, the city council voted 2-2, with Mayor L.C. Jones abstaining, to not release investigatory information, citing attorney-client privilege.

“People should expect that their water bills will go up,” Mayor Danny Avula said Tuesday — exactly one year since a power outage at Richmond’s water treatment plant precipitated a water crisis that hamstrung the entire region for six days. … On Monday, the Richmonder reported that Avula’s administration, in response to a public records request, had declined to release financial planning documents that included models for utility rate increases, citing the working papers exemption to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. … The documents would give members of the public insight into the options on the table. Avula said he’s not ready for those options to be released yet. “It’s not that the information is that sensitive in and of itself,” he said. “It’s more that the context that the public would need to appropriately respond to or dismiss the things that we’re talking about doesn’t always happen. “We don’t need to litigate every single idea we have,” Avula added. “I think this is a space where, like, hey, let the experts have time to look at the data … and figure out where we should land.”

I spoke with Cusack recently about the Freedom of Information Act, paywalls, and his view that the current morass of propaganda, misinformation, and black-box algorithms has made press freedom more urgent than ever. “We need a historical record,” he said. “We need real journalists. Otherwise everything’s up for grabs, right?” Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. … The reporters’ access exists only because the law recognizes our right to know. If that story then goes behind a paywall, that right becomes a privilege. Now, this is not an argument against paying journalists, or that the realities of the journalism business aren’t fraught. I get that part of it. Newsrooms need to survive. But the news isn’t just a business. It’s enshrined in the First Amendment.