Transparency News 11/18/14 – Virginia Coalition for Open Government

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

State and Local Stories

Couldn't make it to VCOG's annual conference? Luckily lots of tweeps did, and here is what they had to say.

The FOIA Council meets today at 1:30. General Assembly Building. House Room C

Last month, The Virginian-Pilot announced it was laying off 32 employees, knocking its newsroom back by about a quarter. The cuts would be the deepest the paper has suffered since 2008 and will leave the newsroom “at less than half of its size in 2007,” when it had almost 250 staffers. So it’s been a bittersweet time at the 140-year-old paper in Norfolk, VA, as its newsroom celebrates the clear impact of a recent major investigation that’s rocked city hall and a big bank on Virginia Beach. Today, a week after the first story came out, I spoke with Holland, who is also celebrating his first year on the job this week, about the paper’s commitment to accountability reporting and investigative journalism in a time of severe cutbacks.
Columbia Journalism Review

In the electoral wars, state Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, has had a pretty smooth ride. Unopposed for the last eight elections, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee swept easily into the General Assembly in his first run, with more than two-thirds of the votes cast. He fended off his only major party challenger four years later, winning 81 percent of votes. To fight those battles, Jones has raised just less than $1.9 million in his legislative career. Like many of the legislature's fundraising powerhouses, he has little opposition on the homefront. Much of the big money in Virginia politics flows through the war chests of men and women who don't have challengers.
Daily Press

National Stories

"Innovation" is a word that gets tossed around a lot in public-sector circles these days. Government leaders at all levels right now are under constant pressure to innovate, innovate, innovate. But what exactly is innovation? Certainly it’s about more than just saving money or developing the latest, most clever citizen app. True government innovation is about finding new solutions to our most persistent collective challenges. It’s about taking risks and discovering new ways to make government more effective. Innovation is about leadership — and it’s the driving force for each of these nine Public Officials of the Year. These men and women implement innovative new approaches every day. They’re making the tough decisions necessary to put government on sounder fiscal footing. They’re creating resilient communities that are ready for the future. They’re breaking down political barriers to work with opponents across the aisle. They’re redefining the very nature of their jobs, reaching beyond the traditional scope of their positions to make streets safer for people to walk on, to cut crime by empowering former offenders, to fight for legal justice, to encourage different communities to share their best ideas. They are innovative in every sense of the word. For their continued commitment to public service, their remarkable leadership — and yes, for their innovation — we’re honored to recognize these nine outstanding public officials. Read their profiles here.
Governing

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press today filed a brief in an important case assessing the constitutionality of warrantless acquisition of historical cell phone location data. In United States v. Quartavious Davis, a panel of Eleventh Circuit judges held that the Fourth Amendment applies to requests for historical cell site location information. Prosecutors had obtained over two months' worth of historical location information from Davis's cell phone provider using a court order issued under the Stored Communications Act, which permits a court to compel a service provider to turn over subscriber records, but does not require the court to find probable cause. The Eleventh Circuit granted rehearing en banc, and the Reporters Committee filed a brief in support of the defendant's position. The Fourth Amendment question in the case, the Reporters Committee argued, is inextricably linked to First Amendment questions.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Editorials/Columns

The proposals laid out by the ethics commission Gov. Terry McAuliffe created earlier this year improve considerably on the porous and feeble rules that came out of the General Assembly back in the spring. Two of the most important advancements are limits on intangible gifts and a genuine ethics commission. The commission’s recommendations are welcome. But they are simply recommendations. And voters should note that legislators have been getting recommendations about improving the state’s ethics laws for many years. The hard part is getting lawmakers to act on them. We hope the pressure from a highly public commission can do what pleading by journalists and good-government groups could not. But no one should underestimate the mulishness of lawmakers who are asked to limit what they put in their own pockets.
Times-Dispatch

Paul Revere rode through the streets shouting “The British are coming! The British are coming!” As a clarion call, that was a pretty good one. Somehow the thought of former Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and former Rep. Rick Boucher, co-chairs of the governor’s ethics committee, riding through the streets shouting“Ethics are coming! Ethics are coming!” doesn’t quite have the same ring. One was a warning; the latter a promise, although one Virginia sorely needs.
Roanoke Times