Tuesday, June 30, 2015
State and Local Stories
With a legal cloud hanging over Botetourt County’s voter registrar and its electoral board, the two parted ways Monday. The board opted not to reappoint current Registrar Phyllis Booze. Tensions between her and the board majority long have simmered, leading to accusations and counter-accusations that now are the subject of a state police investigation. Rather than continue Booze’s 10-year tenure for another four, the board hired Traci Clark, of Botetourt County, currently the office manager for a three-physician medical practice in Bedford County. Following a nearly two-hour closed-door meeting, board member William “Buck” Heartwell and board member Paul Fitzgerald voted to appoint Clark, effective July 20. John Rader, who chairs the three-member panel and has been supportive of Booze in the past, abstained. Heartwell and Fitzgerald are Democrats; Rader is a Republican. In a written statement, Booze called the decision not to reappoint her “a direct result of partisan politics and nothing more.” Heartwell and Fitzgerald have denied suggestions of partisanship. They said the decision to consider other applicants was rooted in dissatisfaction over Booze’s interaction with the board and her management style.
Roanoke Times
The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors’ legal fight over sectarian public prayer by members of the board could cost taxpayers $81,558. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia — on behalf of county resident Barbara Hudson — is seeking $7,466.67 in additional attorney fees in the case. A federal judge granted Hudson’s first request of $53,229.92 in attorneys’ fees in August 2013. Last month, a federal magistrate awarded Hudson an additional $20,861.54 in attorneys’ fees. If this latest request is granted, the county would owe $81,558.
Register & Bee
National Stories
Drive through most Connecticut communities on trash pickup day, and you’ll discover two containers in front of many homes. One is for run-of-the-mill garbage. The other is for recycling. Obviously, most communities would prefer that their citizens recycle as vigorously as possible. In Stamford, Conn., for example, leaders know that citywide about 28 percent of the trash is recycled. That may be useful information, but far more helpful is to know how much trash is recycled neighborhood by neighborhood. “Certain communities will recycle over 60 percent,” says Jay Fountain, chair of the Fiscal Committee of the Stamford Board of Representatives. “Others will recycle from 5 to 10 percent.” That breakdown — or disaggregation as it’s known in data circles — provides the kind of information that allows the city to “find the areas in which we need to encourage recycling,” Fountain says. An emphasis on disaggregating information has been growing in importance as states and cities tap into huge quantities of information for more sophisticated analyses. It’s at the “heart of the new focus on data analytics,” says Harry Hatry, director of the public management program at the Urban Institute, who has been an advocate of using disaggregated data for decades. Not only does disaggregating data make it more useful for policymakers, it’s also key to engaging public interest. Consider schools in New York City, our hometown. Any data related to the quality of the public schools citywide is only minimally useful to parents and school administrators.
Governing
Weeks before a trial that pits Gawker Media against professional wrestler Hulk Hogan in a high-stakes legal tussle, it’s still unclear whether the press will be allowed to view a sex tape that ignited the years-long invasion of privacy dispute. Earlier this month, Hogan — real name Terry Bollea — filed a motion to close a portion of his trial against Gawker Media, scheduled to begin early next month in St. Petersburg, Florida. Specifically, the motion argues for preventing the press and the public from viewing a sex tape published by Gawker on the grounds that it will further erode the wrestler’s privacy.
Poynter
For more than two years the IRS has played its old game of hide the ball regarding requests to release Lois Lerner’s e-mails — e-mails that would teach us a lot about what actually went on during the exempt organization scandal. Many of those requests came from the United States Congress: the elected officials who control the IRS budget. The IRS’s stalling tactics have run the gamut from eye-rollingly comical to downright disturbing. Through this and and other worrisome developments, one thing is clear: the IRS is now in desperate trouble. Most of that trouble it created itself. It would be unfair to call them the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, because when it comes to shooting itself in the foot the IRS is an expert marksman. The IRS is an agency whose initial reaction to almost anything is secrecy. This predisposition for secrecy has reinforced the willingness of many in Congress to gut the agency’s budget. And the budget cuts being considered for next year could truly stop the IRS from running anything close to effective tax collection, nevermind taking care of those taxpayers who need assistance the most. Let’s face it, it wasn’t Corporate America getting the “courtesy disconnects.”
Forbes
Editorials/Columns
A little-noticed Supreme Court decision Monday is satisfying news for a small business in Norfolk that’s been fighting the government for years. It is good news, too, for anyone who believes in the right to speak out when government abuses its power.
Virginian-Pilot
Buried among the Supreme Court's orders on Monday was a decision to vacate a Fourth Circuit ruling requiring North Carolina to make pro-choice license plates. Before that ruling, North Carolina made anti-abortion license plates—but refused to make any plates supporting abortion rights. The Fourth Circuit held that its rejection of pro-choice plates violated the First Amendment, and ordered the state to make plates reflecting both sides of the debate. But then, in mid-June, the Supreme Court ruled, by a 5-4 vote, that Texas could ban Confederate flags on its license plates. License plate designs, the court held, constituted "government speech," not private speech. Thus, states may refuse to make a proposed plate—purely on ideological grounds—without violating the freedom of speech. By vacating the Fourth Circuit's pro-speech ruling and directing it to reconsider the case in light of Walker, the justices all but ordered Fourth Circuit to reverse itself and allow the state's censorship. Despite its rejection of a Confederate flag plate, Walker was not a victory for civility or tolerance. It was an invitation for states to engage in the suppression of expression.
Mark Joseph Stern, Slate
Mayor Muriel Bowser, in April, proposed outfitting every patrol officer with a body-worn camera to record interactions with the public. She announced the expansion at her State of the District address, claiming “[a]ccountability is embedded, and will be embedded in everything this administration does.” The goals were to improve interactions with civilians, assist investigations of officer misconduct, and promote public trust of the MPD. The cost: $5.1 million in fiscal year 2016 and a blanket exemption denying the public access to the videos. The experiences of other urban police departments with BWC programs demonstrate that Lanier’s claims regarding the labor and financial burdens on the MPD if it must respond to FOIA requests are vastly exaggerated. In Baltimore, for example, the average length of an interaction between an officer and a civilian is 13 minutes, and a working group commissioned by its mayor estimates that responding to a FOIA request for that video would require less than an hour of staff time and cost less than $50. There is no reason to assume that day-to-day policing in the District is much different. But Lanier claims it would take several hours to review and redact the video, and the OCFO’s unsubstantiated estimates appear to peg the cost at hundreds of dollars.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
It has been seven months since Richmond was, according to state law, to have finished a comprehensive financial audit of city operations. The audit remains unfinished. And Norman Butts Jr., who was brought in to help the city get its books straight, has resigned after only a year. As this newspaper reported earlier, “Butts repeatedly has told the City Council that the job has been much more difficult than he imagined, particularly the city’s ongoing struggle to complete its audited financial report. … Butts has cited employee turnover, a lack of training, and challenges in implementing a new financial system as causes for the holdup.” Richmond was getting help from a private accounting firm, Cherry Bekaert. But Cherry Bekaert has bailed because “the Finance Department currently lacks the technical critical mass to effectively and efficiently prepare the report.” “Nothing is more important in my portfolio” than getting the audit report finished, Butts said back in March. But he is leaving before the report is complete. When will it be finished? Will the city get it done before its next annual audit is due?
Times-Dispatch