Transparency News, 4/27/20

 

COVID-19 has made responses to public records slower and more uncertain. Most agencies are dealing with a new normal of remote work and staffing levels limited by socially-distancing. At MuckRock we have helped file more than 75,000 freedom of information requests over the past 10 years. Our standard advice holds even during this extraordinary time. Be empathetic to transitions necessary to maintain health and safety of government workers but be prepared to enforce the expectations of the state public records and open meeting laws. The following FAQ (including, “What should I request?”) can help you work through the rest.
MuckRock

A new announcement from the Supreme Court of Virginia could open doors for remote hearings to keep litigation moving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons said judges may, in their discretion, conduct any civil or criminal matter by electronic audio-visual communication with the consent of the participants. Megan Rhyne of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government said she hopes courts will address the requirement of public access to court hearings. “Access to court proceedings (not involving juveniles) is largely guaranteed by the Constitution, and to me that means the public should be made aware of and have the opportunity to observe hearings or proceedings they would otherwise have had access to if held in open courtrooms,” Rhyne said.
Virginia Lawyers Weekly

The Fairfax County Health Department has launched a new COVID-19-centric data site – www.fairfaxcounty.gov/covid19/case-information – in the Fairfax Health District, which includes Fairfax County, towns within the county and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church. Among the items reported on the Website are total cases, hospitalizations and fatalities, along with case rates by localities, ages, racial/ethnic groups and groupings of ZIP codes. 
InsideNoVa

The Virginia Beach City Council announced on Friday that it will hold a virtual coronavirus briefing to bring the community update as well as a public hearing on real estate tax rates. The Special Meeting will be broadcast Tuesday, April 28 via cable VBTV, vbgov.com, and Facebook Live. The COVID-19 update and briefings on federal and state funding housing assistance will be held at 5:30 p.m. and following that, the real estate tax assessment rate virtual public hearing will be at 6 p.m. Those who want to submit comments to the City Council prior to the Special Meeting have to follow a two-step process, according to city officials.
WAVY

 

 

Near the end of a long Vallejo Planning Commission meeting via Zoom, Charles Platzer holds a striped cat up to the camera at his home in the Northern California city, a video shows. “I’d like to introduce my cat,” Platzer says, before throwing the feline off-screen in the April 20 video. The cat landed with a thud. A fellow commissioner covers his face with his hands, while another laughs. At another point in the video, Platzer walks off-screen, then returns with a green bottle and guzzles it, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Vallejo Times Herald identified it as a beer. Platzer resigned from the commission Saturday, The Vallejo Times Herald reported.
Sacramento Bee
 

This country has seen how, in times of crisis, the need to safeguard citizens can clash with the protection of privacy rights. That potential conflict is surfacing again, amid the battle to defeat COVID-19. In McHenry County, Ill., a county judge has ordered the McHenry County Department of Public Health to disclose to police the names of individuals known to have been infected with the coronavirus, so that officers know ahead of time what risk they face when they go out on a call. The case came to Judge Michael Chmiel’s courtroom after prosecutors ordered the health department to comply and the department refused. Health department officials said complying would violate individuals’ private health information, which they argued is protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The department is abiding by the order, but has asked Chmiel to reconsider.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Perhaps most menacingly, Trump has proposed rewriting the nation’s defamation laws, stripping away protective Supreme Court precedents that safeguard robust and unfettered debate on public issues, particularly political campaigns. Libel and slander suits brought by public figures, particularly public officials, have to clear a very high evidentiary bar because of the Supreme Court’s landmark New York Times v. Sullivan ruling. A unanimous court held in 1964 that public officials had to prove not just that damaging published statements are false but that the publisher knew they were false or acted in reckless disregard to their falsity, a standard the court called “actual malice.”
Bob Lewis, Virginia Mercury