Transparency News 7/25/14

Days before former Gov. Bob McDonnell goes on trial over his dealings with a wealthy benefactor, a majority of Virginians questioned in a new poll say he acted wrongly. Of those polled, 54 percent said they think McDonnell did something wrong in his interactions with businessman Jonnie Williams while 20 percent said he did nothing wrong and 22 percent were unsure.
Virginian-Pilot

Sandton Capital Partners announced today a settlement with creditors from its purchase of The Free Lance–Star Publishing Co. Sandton purchased the Fredericksburg media company for $30.2 million in a bankruptcy auction earlier this summer. The settlement resolves issues over how to distribute proceeds from the sale. Details were not made public because the agreement has not yet been filed with the bankruptcy court. The judge in the case must sign off on the settlement, but Sandton principal Rob Orr said all parties involved were happy with the agreement. A hearing on the settlement is scheduled for July 31.
Free Lance-Star

The regional jail may not have been as ready as needed when it opened, the superintendent said Thursday. The most significant problem – the video systems for the magistrate and the courts – has not been fixed. The jail continues to struggle to get service into the building for its video arraignment system, Russ Gilkison told the committee. The jail also needs to wait for the Virginia State Police to install equipment so the facility can connect to the Virginia Criminal Information Network, Gilkison said. The jail needed to be certified before it could order equipment and the state could not begin connecting to the network until the facility became operational. In the meantime, the jail is working with the sheriffs' offices to obtain criminal history information. The jail also can't use the electronic fingerprint system until it connects to the network. At both the committee and board meetings, members met in closed session to discuss the hiring of a permanent superintendent and to get legal advice from authority's attorney Bill Hefty on an existing contract with a vendor. The name of the vendor or what it supplies to the jail was not disclosed.
Northern Virginia Daily

A U.S. judge in Mississippi on Thursday threw out an $85-million lawsuit in which an electric car company founded by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe alleged Watchdog.org had libeled the firm. Judge Michael P. Mills said GreenTech Automotive failed to prove his Mississippi court had jurisdiction over Watchdog.org’s parent, Virginia-based Franklin Center, and Watchdog’s Virginia reporter, Kenric Ward. The judge’s order noted that Watchdog’s “articles were not aimed at Mississippi” or even GreenTech itself.
Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau

The newest member to the Amherst County School Board will be announced on Aug. 12, bringing an end to what has been a contentious appointment cycle for the board. Chairman Don Kidd said he believes the person who is appointed to the District 3 slot should attend a joint meeting with the school board on Thursday, Aug. 14 at 7 p.m., during which the division’s efficiency study is set to be released. The study will recommend cost-saving strategies within the school system. “At least they’ll be able to sit at the table for that school board meeting,” Kidd said about the new appointment.
New Era Progress

It’s a quick and easy tool that has changed how information is packaged and received in Essex County. If any citizen, be it someone who lives in the county or elsewhere, wishes to see the upcoming agenda for a county meeting, he or she can find it on the county’s BoardDocs. If people want information and times on special meetings or budget worksessions, they can go to BoardDocs. Curious about the Airport Authority’s application to rezone 24 acres of airport property to light industrial, which was approved July 15 by supervisors, as well as the planning commission’s report on the matter? Just a couple of clicks away on BoardDocs. The web-based platform, recently implemented by the county and before that by the Essex school system, has served to not only save the administrative office time and resources in compiling stacks of paper-based packets into binders for each board member and requesting community member, but to also make it easier for the public to access county documents.
Northern Neck News

National Stories

There’s more than one way to do Las Vegas, as half a dozen members of the D.C. Council have shown. The cost to taxpayers to send half the council to the Global Retail Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas was close to $14,000 this year. The annual convention has been a big draw for city officials for years as the District seeks to attract new businesses and investments. But the cost of the trip varied by council member, from just under $1,000 to almost $3,000, according to expense reports submitted by the council members and obtained by The Washington Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Washington Times
 

Editorials/Columns

Virginia next week will see something it has never seen before — a former governor standing before the bar of justice, charged with committing crimes while in office. Former Gov. Bob McDonnell faces 13 felony counts under what the public knows loosely as “corruption” charges, essentially that he took $165,000 in jewelry, fancy clothes, golf trips, cash, stock and loans from the head of a struggling dietary supplement maker and in return used the power of his office to promote the company. Is McDonnell guilty? Twelve of our fellow citizens will hear the evidence and tell us. But we know this much already: This will not be pretty.
Roanoke Times

This week's roses go to: Gloucester's Information Technology Department, which scored very high in the recent efficiency assessments by the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties. Gloucester ranked sixth in the state in its population range (150,000 or less) and was the only locality in Hampton Roads to make the top 10 in every category measured in the study.
Daily Press