Transparency News 2/20/18

Abingdon town leaders approved hiring a new lawyer to represent them in the appeal of a favorable decision on a lawsuit that accused them and the town attorney of violating the Freedom of Information Act. Abingdon Town Council voted 3-2 Feb. 12 to hire Bob Ward. Mayor Cathy Lowe, Vice Mayor Rick Humphreys and Councilman Bob Howard voted in favor, while Councilwoman Cindy Patterson and Councilman Wayne Craig voted against it. In August, a judge ruled in favor of Kevin Sandenaw, an Abingdon resident who filed the lawsuit. Town Council’s previous lawyer, Mark Flynn, resigned in January after being appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam to be director of the Department of Aviation.
Bristol Herald Courier

The state’s highest court has rejected an attempt by former Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot to get some of the back payhe was denied last year after he was suspended and later removed from office. Burfoot’s attorney said his client still believes his removal was premature. Andrew Sacks said there is a chance Burfoot will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that no decision had been made.
The Virginian-Pilot

A construction company hired to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline worked on three similar projects that were cited by environmental regulators, who found mountainsides turned to muddy slopes and streams clogged with sediment. The three developers of the natural gas pipelines, two in West Virginia and one in Pennsylvania, failed to comply with plans to control erosion, sediment or industrial waste, according to enforcement actions taken by state regulators. When a pipeline project runs afoul of state regulations aimed at preventing erosion and other problems, it’s usually the company that owns and operates the venture — not the contractor it hires to build it — that winds up in trouble.  Once pipelines are built, their operation is regulated by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The agency keeps detailed records of leaks and other accidents, which can be searched online by the name of the pipeline operator. There appears to be no similar system for contractors.
The Roanoke Times

A former Virginia Department of Transportation supervisor has been sentenced for his involvement in a bribery scheme that awarded nearly $11 million in snow removal work over five years. Anthony Willie, 55, of Culpeper, was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Court documents show that Willie worked with another VDOT supervisor, Kenneth Duane Adams, 42, of Fairfax, to award lucrative snow removal contracts in exchange for cash payments, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Joshua Stueve said. Beginning in the late 2012 and continuing through the 2016‑2017 snow season, Willie and Adams would often meet snow removal contractors at local restaurants, grocery stores and parking lots in Burke and Fairfax, collecting approximately $440,000 in cash bribes, Stueve said.
InsideNoVa

Local Hopewell students got a chance to see firsthand how their hometown operates, as they took part in a special mock City Council meeting on Friday morning. Acting as council members, the students held a meeting in the council chambers, and deliberated on several topics, just as the real council would do. Several students acted as various department heads, presenting the reports to the council as they would in a real council meeting.
The Progress-Index

Recently the Tennessee Comptroller’s office released a list of 538 exemptions to the public records law passed by lawmakers. Most of those — almost 450 — were added in the past 30 years, according to the best information the office could find. But really, isn’t that one of the problems? It was notable that Comptroller Chief of Staff Jason Mumpower, who oversees the Office of Open Records Counsel, told lawmakers in his presentation that the exemptions “are a hodgepodge all over the Tennessee Code Annotated.” It’s hard to tell exactly when some were created. He even acknowledged that they may have missed some, and if someone finds something not on the list, to let his office know.
Deborah Fisher, Knoxville News

Based on our poll results on the subject, the official rollout of Ballad Health — the merger between Wellmont and Mountain States Health Alliance — raised concerns about a monopoly and the impact on health care costs from an overwhelming majority of readers. Even the laborious process to gain the approval of the Tennessee and Virginia departments of health obviously did little to soothe skeptics. Now, two bills in Tennessee that would hide some information from public view might aggravate those worries — or at least raise eyebrows in the more optimistic. Both SB 2048 and HB 2020 propose similar terms for the merger, which seek to disqualify or protect (depending on one’s view) certain bits of information from public record in Tennessee. Business plans, financial audits, and agreements with physicians, employees and vendors are some of the documents that would be kept from the public but made available to the state to enforce the agreed-on provisions of the certificate of public advantage, or COPA, that allowed the merger. Although some provisions that would “unnecessarily impair competition,” as both bills express, make sense to preserve — marketing and strategic plans, for example — others should raise interest from both Northeast Tennesseans and Southwestern Virginians.
Bristol Herald Courier