Transparency News 12/10/14 – Virginia Coalition for Open Government

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

State and Local Stories

As a group of Richmond restaurateurs pushes for more transparency and oversight in the Stone Brewing deal, a key official is suggesting that the Richmond Economic Development Authority could build Stone a riverfront restaurant with or without future support from the City Council. Richard Johnson, the member of the EDA board who is spearheading the Stone project, said Monday at a City Council meeting that if a future council decides not to approve $8 million in funding for the Stone bistro and beer garden planned for the Intermediate Terminal building, the EDA could find alternate funding to proceed on its own. Most of the skeptics are quick to point out that they don’t oppose Stone coming to Richmond. “What we’re completely against is the backroom deals that go along with financing this thing that the EDA isn’t willing to discuss,” said Josh Bufford, owner of Toast, Estilo and Dash: Kitchen + Carry. “And that they’re going to take the tax dollars that we collect from our customers to fund a competitor.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch

State lawmakers would play a greater role in how public-private projects are vetted in Virginia under legislation to be announced today by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The proposal seeks to increase oversight and transparency in the Public-Private Transportation Act in the wake of anger over two deals in Hampton Roads that McAuliffe's predecessor, Bob McDonnell, struck under his administration: the Midtown Tunnel toll project and the botched contract to build a second U.S. 460. Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said he will carry the legislation in the House when the General Assembly convenes next month. Jones said the legislation also puts into law a requirement for a "cooling off" period during which the public can review and comment on the details of a proposal before state officials can sign a contract.
Virginian-Pilot

In the wake of a county department head’s unethical practices, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution permitting the new county administrator to examine that department’s management. The board unanimously voted to approve a resolution for County Administrator Tom Gates to examine policies and practices related to Roanoke County’s department of human resources and assess its ability to work at a high ethical standard. The resolution comes after Al Bedrosianouted the department director, though never saying his name, as one of two department heads punished this summer for ethical missteps. The outing followed months of Bedrosian vocally refusing to sit in on closed-door meetings dealing with the search for a county administrator because he disapproved of the HR director’s involvement.
Roanoke Times

Of the 28 official Danville boards and commissions listed on the city’s website, about half of them hold meetings during work-day hours — while open to the public, most people with daytime jobs would find them difficult to attend. Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said while her organization does not have a “best practices” stance on what time government bodies should hold their meetings at the most convenient times possible for the largest number of people. “In today’s working world, [working] 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is not the norm, as it was 25 years ago,” Rhyne said, noting that many companies offer flex time and other schedule options to its employees. “But you do want to schedule meetings when most people could attend them.”
Register & Bee

Fifty, sixty, one hundred years from now, when researchers in Arlington of the future undertake to understand much of its past, they will in large measure have Sara Collins to thank for the materials they will find. It was Collins who, beginning in the mid-1970s serving as what was then known as the “Virginiana librarian” of the Arlington library system, took what was a meager, uneven collection of historic records and interviews, and helped turn it into a powerhouse collection now known as the county’s Center for Local History. Collins, described as “a giant of Arlington history” by the leader of the county’s historical society, died Dec. 3.
Arlington Sun Gazette

A prominent civil liberties attorney and constitutional lawyer has questioned whether public schools hosting religious worship services violates the separation of church and state outlined in the First Amendment. John Flannery, a Loudoun litigator and former federal prosecutor, raised the subject to Loudoun County Public School Superintendent Eric Williams at the Loudoun Democrats monthly meeting Dec. 4, where Williams was a guest speaker. Flannery filed a Freedom of Information Act request with LCPS requesting school facility community use applications, revealing 33 religious groups using school facilities. According to the documents, 40 percent of the county's public school buildings are used for religious worship services on weekends.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

When a Culpeper County School Board member abstains from voting on a school-related issue should that public service member be forced to reveal why he or she refrained from casting a vote? That was a question briefly discussed during Monday’s regular meeting when Michelle North of the Jefferson District asked who suggested changing the wording in the school division's policies and regulations to “members abstaining shall state for the record their reason for abstaining.”
Star-Exponent

National Stories

If you walked into a courthouse a decade ago, you might have seen file clerks pushing carts and searching for case folders, paralegals lugging stacks of paperwork to the clerk’s office and staffers entering mounds of documents by hand into a computer system, if there was one. That picture has been changing dramatically in many courthouses across the country. States are moving to systems in which documents are submitted electronically, file rooms are disappearing and the judicial system is going paperless. “We’ve got 50 states and everybody is doing some kind of e-filing project. That was not true even at the beginning of this year. It’s really exciting,” said Jim McMillan, technology consultant for the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). States are taking different approaches to the changeover, depending on how their courts are structured. In many states, each court is independent and funded by the county, so connecting to a central hub is a more complex task. Other states directly fund and run the courts, making it easier to create one electronic system.
Stateline, via Governing

The agency tasked with building the nation’s first emergency communications network broke contracting regulations in hiring consultants, and several of its board members with telecommunications industry ties flouted rules for disclosing financial conflicts, auditors reported Tuesday. Four unidentified board members of the First Responder Network Authority from the commercial cellular industry continued to participate in decision making “even though they were not in compliance with the financial disclosure requirements,” the auditors found. One director initially missed a deadline for filing a disclosure form and then failed to disclose an investment that posed a conflict of interest, they wrote. One director improperly influenced the hiring of 16 consultants, some of whom failed to produce any “deliverables” as defined by contracting regulations, the sharply critical audit by the inspector general’s office at the U.S. Commerce Department found. It described as “unsupported costs” the $11 million paid to the firm that hired the consultants for their work.
McClatchy

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has filed a lawsuit against the Regents of the University of California over their refusal to grant access to important historical documents currently being held in a library at the University of California, Berkeley. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of both the Reporters Committee and Professor Stephen Bloom, a journalist, author, and professor of journalism at the University of Iowa who has written extensively about California’s history. The Reporters Committee and Professor Bloom requested access under the California Public Records Act (PRA) to files relating to the historic Special Crime Study Commission on Organized Crime in California (the Commission Records), which are being stored at the Bancroft Library at UC-Berkeley. As stated in the lawsuit, the “Commission Records have much to tell the public about the conduct of California government agencies and officials at an important time in the State’s history.”
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Editorials/Columns

President Barack Obama doesn't have a stellar record when it comes to transparency. And this session of Congress falls short when it comes to passing meaningful legislation. So it'sfair to say that the two branches agreeing on a bill to streamline and strengthen the federal Freedom of Information Act would be quite an accomplishment. In fact, it would extend a laudable record of enacting legislation that promoting government openness. In order to do that, however, the U.S. House needs to approve the FOIA Improvements Act of 2014 before it adjourns on Thursday. A prior version of bill won unanimous consent from the House, and the Senate on Monday gave its approval without opposition. We therefore look to the House — and, naturally, to our delegation there — to ensure this important piece of legislation does not fall to the wayside in the last-minute rush.
Daily Press