VCOG NEWSLETTER:
the month that was
june ’26

June kept Virginia’s courts, newsrooms and public bodies busy with a wide range of FOIA developments. The Virginia Court of Appeals issued two opinions involving the University of Virginia, including a published decision clarifying the scope of the working papers, while another ruled a report on employee misconduct was wrongly redacted, and litigation continued over the names of law enforcement records in Hanover.

Across the Commonwealth, reporters used FOIA to ask questions about everything from immigration enforcement and automatic license plate reader programs, to public spending and tax records. Public comment rules and vague motions made after closed session continue to rankle people at public meetings.

The FOIA Advisory Council added three more advisory opinions covering electronic meeting minutes, requests for metadata and the application of law enforcement investigation exemptions. June also brought VCOG’s updated edition of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, incorporating changes approved by the 2026 General Assembly, including revisions governing agenda changes during public meetings. And as VCOG continues celebrating its 30th anniversary, the organization was recognized by the Virginia House of Delegates with a commemorative resolution.

Again, some of the items in the news write-up were prepared by VCOG’s summer Legal Fellow, Laura Wood.

HAPPY AMERICA AT 250!!

VCOG’s delegate, Jessica Anderson, presented VCOG Board of Directors President Maria Everett (left) and Executive Director Megan Rhyne (right) with a House resolution commending VCOG on its 30th anniversary. Rhyne couldn’t resist posing with her “FOIA and Find Out” t-shirt.

Misconduct report must be released

For the second time in less than three years, a Richmond judge has ruled that Richmond Public Schools improperly redacted or withheld an investigatory report. In late June, a judge agreed with The Richmonder, represented by Andrew Bodoh, that an internal investigation into employee misconduct in the department responsible for maintaining school buildings must be released.

When RPS released the report with extensive redactions throughout, it cited the personnel exemption, which led VCOG’s Megan Rhyne to tell WTVR, “The personnel exemption was never designed for and never intended to cover up wrongdoing by public employees.” In his ruling for The Richmonder, Richmond Circuit Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland said, “Disclosure of these document is exactly

the degree of sunshine FOIA contemplates in a free and open form of governance.” He noted that facts in the report were not “private,” but were instead “allegations of malfeasance, discrimination, and favoritism by public employees.” In 2024, WTVR and the Richmond Times-Dispatch successfully challenged the district’s redactions of a report into a deadly graduation day shooting in 2023.

At the FOIA Council

The FOIA Council issued three opinions in June. AO-07-26 reviewed several practices of the Alexandria Board of Equalization, noting in part that the board’s minutes for meetings held with electronic participation do not include the reason for or the location of those members remotely participating in the meetings through electronic means

AO-08-26 evaluated VDOT’s response to a multi-part FOIA request and answered several questions, including that if metadata is in a format regularly used by the body, then it may be requested and disclosed, if not exempt, and that Vaughn-style indicies of redacted documents often used in federal FOIA litigation are not required for ordinary requests under Virginia law.

The FOIA Council looked at the Office of the Attorney General’s use of the exemptions applicable to both open and closed investigations, particularly into alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud. AO-09-26 says that while the OAG, or any other agency, may consider a “public interest balancing test,” that would ultimately favor disclosure, there is no statutory requirement to conduct one.

FOIA Full Text

We’ve published the full-text, updated Virginia FOIA, with sections added or amended by the 2026 General Assembly. Of note are the amendments pushed by VCOG in § 2.2-3707 about agenda changes made during a meeting.

Check it out!

UVA at the Court of Appeals

The Virginia Court of Appeals issued two FOIA cases in June involving UVA. In an unpublished opinion (meaning, it can’t be cited as precedent) on June 9, the Court of Appeals weighed in on the case where The Daily Progress has been challenging UVA’s withholding of a report delving into what happened before and after the deadly shooting of three football players by one of their former teammates. Though the university eventually dropped its assertion that the entire report could be withheld under the criminal investigation exemption, the Court of Appeals said it was unclear whether the trial court ruled on whether the exemption applied. Since the report still contained redactions, the Court of Appeals sent the case back to the trial court to determine the exemption’s applicability.

In a published opinion on June 30, the court ruled against a pro se litigant who was seeking records involving former UVA President Jim Ryan. The court evaluated two documents prepared for Ryan before he traveled to Richmond to meet with legislators, and drafts of two statements he was releasing jointly with other university entities. The pre-trip documents were prepared “to aid Ryan in the performance of the duties of his office,” which fit the definition of “working papers.” The draft statements did, too, even though he was working on the drafts with the provost, executive vice president and chief operating officer. Citing a 2015 opinion from the FOIA Council, the court said that the drafts would lose their working papers protection only if the disclosure to those third parties “was not to aid the deliberative process or went beyond the scope of personal or deliberative use.”

Officer name case drags on

The effort to pry loose an unredacted salary database for the Herico County Sheriff’s Office dragged on. In 2025, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled in Alice Minium’s favor when the sheriff cited § 2.2-3706(B)(8) to justify redacting 90% of the officers’ names. That exemption allows records that would reveal the “staffing, logistics, or tactical plans of … undercover operations” to be withheld. A concurring opinion added that the exemption for the identity of undercover officers can be withheld under § 2.2-3706(B) was inappropriate, too, mainly because the sheriff presented no evidence that any given officer was working undercover. The Supreme Court declined to review the decision, which meant the case went back to the trial court for further review. Now, the sheriff is saying that they can still withhold the names under the (B)(10) exemption because of “the passage of time and change of circumstances.”

open government in the news

The Greene County Sheriff’s Office refused to answer a FOIA request regarding 26 Latino men who were taken into custody in a one-day collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security. The sheriff stated that no one was arrested and the sheriff’s office was there only to assist the federal agents. The Sheriff also claims it was the federal agencies that advised him to redact the names of the detainees.

In mid-June, following an hour-long closed session, the board of the Chesapeake Regional Healthcare Authority voted on an “agreement,” without explaining what that agreement was, and a subsequent FOIA request by The Virginian-Pilot to get the agreement was denied under the exemption for personnel records. The Pilot learned from draft minutes of a May meeting that the board terminated the CEO and president without cause and agreed to give him a severance, which is presumably what the June “agreement” referred to. A follow-up request for the amount paid in severance was met with a response that “no severance or other payments have been agreed to be paid.” Meanwhile, a reporter with Loudoun Now pointed out that the Loudoun County School Board frequently votes on vague motions after coming out of closed session, a practice the FOIA Council said in 2005 that a vote on an undisclosed recommendation did not comply with FOIA’s requirement that motions for public votes ““shall have its substance reasonably identified in the open meeting.”

A former Crewe town council member used the bulk of her 5-minute public comment allotment to urge the town manager to look at her when she spoke. The former council member complained that the manager showed up for work wearing shorts, tennis shoes and no socks, then said, “I will continue to wait the full five until he looks at me, or chooses not to.”

At least a dozen people have sued the Greater Richmond Transit Company since 2025 over collisions and other incidents, but in early June, GRTC refused to divulge how many of the cases had been settled and, if so, how much they were settled for. Settlements are paid by insurance, which is paid for by taxpayer dollars in the form of premiums. Eventually, the Richmond Times-Dispatch was able to obtain records through FOIA that showed 69 payments were made, totaling $420,923, with the highest payment being $150,000.

UVA faculty — particularly professors of color and those who teach topics related to race, gender and inclusion — have reported feeling unsafe amidst what they say is increasing online harassment and demands for them to release their course materials and other documents. The professors claim that the 19 FOIA requests seeking 200 syllabi are politically motivated and intended to pressure the university into removing certain topics or faculty.

The Albemarle County Police Department changed police chiefs temporarily without notifying the public. The fact came to light a month later after a FOIA request from The Daily Progress for internal emails, though the police department incorrectly said that HIPAA prevented them from releasing any information about the chief’s possible medical details. In other documents secured by The Daily Progress, the chief was downplaying the results of an internal survey that showed declining morale and concerns about leadership.

Despite a 2024 law to require an autopsy after any in-custody death at a state prison facility, data obtained by WVTF showed that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner completed autopsies just 44% of the time in 2024, though that rate went up to 57% in 2025.

Richmond officials confirmed that “mom and pop operators” were not the ones who paid the outstanding tax bill for short-term rentals that had not paid their taxes to the city. On the other hand, the city refused to release any information about who did pay the bill — though it is suspected that either Vrbo or Airbnb did — and how much the bill was, citing the Tax Code, which prohibits the release of taxpayer information.

A story by The Richmonder posed an interesting question, perhaps unique to public meetings in bigger cities: How much do citizens have to pay to park in order to attend city council meetings? “[T]he combo of hourly time limits and unpredictable meeting lengths means going to a public meeting to engage with the local government can cost a few bucks and risk a $30 parking ticket.”

The Richmond Police Department said it was “committed to transparency” regarding the use and oversight of automatic license plate readers, commonly known as Flock cameras. On the other hand, it refused to disclose any records related to the queries officers have made in the system or internal audits that show they are using Flock in compliance with state law and department policies.

Norfolk’s mayor adjusted the rules for the public comment period to limit “repetitive” or “cumulative” comments. The adjustment came after several meetings where a group of around 10 people spoke out against the use of Flock cameras in the city. Mayor Kenny Alexander asked the group to choose a few representatives to speak instead of having all of them come up to speak.

The Smyth County School superintendent cited “state and federal privacy laws” that prevented the board was publicly discussing any information about any student’s report, details or a school-based investigation or any disciplinary action taken. The statement came after some citizens were prevented from speaking at a meeting about allegations of inappropriate teacher conduct because they had not fully filled out the sign-up information cards, giving only their names and not their physical addresses. Audience members heckled the school board throughout the rest of the meeting.

The Richmond City Council’s Committee on Finance and Economic Development again postponed discussion of a proposal to investigate why the city’s administration stopped complying with a city ordinance to regularly publish spending data. This came after a similar postponement in May. “This is very important legislation,” Committee Chair Ellen Robertson said. “And I think we need to get this right.” As with the establishment of the online FOIA library earlier this year, there are two competing proposals to reignite compliance with the ordinance: A broader one, offered by Councilmember Kenya Gibson, and a narrower one offered by the mayor’s office.

The Blackstone Town Council entered into an agreement with Councilmember Chris Page to settle his FOIA case against the town. Page was attempting to get records from Downtown Blackstone Inc. (DBI), which runs the town’s Main Street America and Virginia Main Street efforts to support and revitalize the downtown area. DBI said it was not subject to FOIA, but under the agreement, DBI will maintain records relating to activities performed on behalf of the town.

Following FOIA-based reporting by the Richmond Times-Dispatch earlier this year that showed millions of dollars’ worth of transactions at the fire department being funneled into businesses registered at an employee’s home and addresses belonging to others, a Georgia man identified as the employee’s nephew has been charged with submitting “false invoices” worth $340,000 to the fire department.