A Botetourt County resident’s lawsuit alleging that the county’s board of supervisors violated the state’s open meetings and open records law when it greenlit a Google data center campus is legally sufficient to move forward, a circuit judge ruled Tuesday. But after nearly three hours, which featured some testimony and a lot of arguments about the case’s merits, substitute Judge Michael Doucette said court schedule issues forced him to postpone a further hearing on the matter until next week. Robert Dallas, who lives near the Botetourt Center at Greenfield site, filed suit Nov. 2, seeking to invalidate the county’s economic development performance agreement with the limited liability company behind the project. His case alleges that the county violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act when it approved documentation advancing the Google project.

Botetourt resident Robert Dallas is suing Google subsidiary Helio Capital and the county, its board of supervisors and its economic development authority on the grounds that votes leading to the approval of a performance agreement between the entities did not follow the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. His lawsuit contends that the board did not reasonably identify the substance of the performance agreement when it voted June 24, 2025 to approve it, and did not adequately identify that the agreement would be discussed when it moved into a closed-door session earlier that day. … “The code says you don’t have to list the business or industry that’s coming,” said Julian Harf, the lawyer representing the county. The public vote to approve the agreement also became lawful when, less than three hours after the vote and during the same meeting, the board announced the project and shared additional details about it, he said. And even if the county had violated the law, Harf argued that the appropriate remedy would not be what Dallas outlined in his lawsuit: that the contract be nullified, the board rescind all actions it has taken under the contract since the vote and that the board be prevented from taking any additional actions in accordance with contract.

The City of Fairfax Regional Library’s Virginia Room has long stewarded an extensive collection of historical photographs taken throughout the decades in the county, city, and region. Now, many of those snapshots are available online through Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL). Launched last week, the Fairfax County History Portal now offers users 24/7 access to more than 5,600 digitized, vintage photos that include local landmarks, aerial views of neighborhoods, and Park Authority sites spanning from Great Falls to Centreville. The database can be browsed by location and features an interactive map of geotagged photos.

Cities, counties and states are full of a variety of boards and commissions, many of which play a vital role in the smooth running of government. Sadly, though, over the course of time some of these bodies fall into disuse and disarray. In many cases, meetings are cancelled with regularity, which can turn into a kind of vicious cycle in which board members don’t take schedules seriously and are more inclined to miss even those that take place. What’s more, even commissions that exist in little more than name can drain a governmental entity of resources, including money, staff energy, initial participant enthusiasm and time.