Transparency News, 6/17/20

Upon his resignation last week, Stanley Jones and the Danville School Board entered into a mutual separation agreement, allowing Jones to receive a superintendent’s yearly salary of $175,000 even after he departs his position at the end of this month. The document, obtained Monday through a Freedom of Information Act request, supersedes the terms of his 2018 contract extension, which stated all salary and benefits would cease on the day the resignation becomes official, which will be June 30. The mutual release agreement shows that Jones will be paid a full year’s salary in 12 installments, and it also outlines stipulations for deferred compensation, a car allowance and health insurance benefits for the next year. Also included in the mutual release agreement is a non-disparagement clause that applies to both Jones and members of the school board. In that same section, it instructs any members of the school board approached for comment to refer to Jones’ original letter addressed to school board Chair Terri Hall.
Register & Bee
 

 

On June 4, 2020, Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in The Center for Investigative Reporting v. Department of Labor that employers’ injury and illness records, submitted to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), are not confidential and can be released if requested through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
National Law Review

History, a bit like science, is constantly remade. New facts emerge, fueling new interpretations. That’s what just happened with the Battle of Antietam, where Union and Confederate soldiers died in droves on the bloodiest day in American history. A newly discovered 1864 map, spotted by an alert historian in Gettysburg, pinpoints their hasty graves on the Sharpsburg, Md., battlefield in startling detail. Historians researching a different battle than Antietam happened upon the map created by Simon Green Elliott, a New Hampshire resident lured west by the California gold rush. Now, it is shedding new light on the places where more than 5,800 Americans were buried on the scenic Maryland battlefield, often just feet from where they fell. It should prove a treasure for interpreters, including the National Park Service rangers at Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Md.
Culpeper Star-Exponent

After the repeal of a law that kept police disciplinary records secret, the New York Legal Aid Society is pushing Mayor Bill de Blasio to make the information public in an online database. The state Legislature voted last week to repeal a law known as 50-a, which kept records of disciplinary actions and misconduct complaints against police officers confidential. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the measure Friday. In a letter Monday to de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Legal Aid asked for the records to be published online in a searchable database — rather than requiring the public to make a formal Freedom of Information Law request to get them, a process that can take months or years. “Proactively making these records available to the public would save the City resources in responding to these requests and avoid the protracted litigation that has followed missed opportunities for transparency in other states who have taken similar steps away from the secrecy of police disciplinary records.”
Politico

Two veterans in Congress introduced legislation Monday that would force the Department of Veterans Affairs to respond to a backlog of requests made through the Freedom of Information Act, many from veterans themselves and advocacy groups. Reps. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., and Max Rose, D-N.Y., accused the department of lacking transparency. They said technology issues at the VA have prevented the agency from responding to hundreds of FOIA requests for information. The bill would require the VA to fix the IT issues and reduce its backlog of FOIA requests by 75% within three years.
Stars and Stripes

 

As Virginia enters and moves through Phase 2 of COVID-19 recovery, public bodies must reassess the propriety of continuing to conduct electronic meetings. The fact that the commonwealth is entering Phase 2 is significant when it comes to satisfying the first requirement of Amendment 28. Under Phase 2 guidelines, gatherings of up to 50 persons are permitted, so long as the participants are able to maintain social distancing. Many public bodies could comply with Phase 2 guidance by, for example, placing limitations on the number of attendees who can gatherin a meeting room and requiring those attendees to space themselves throughout the room. Overflow attendees still could virtually attend or practice social distancing outside the building. It is difficult to overstate the importance of public participation in open government in Virginia today. Virginians have been silenced for months — sitting in their homes, obeying quarantine orders, unable to share their views with leaders and elected officials. Many members of the public have decided the only opportunity for public participation is through protests and civil disobedience. Not only are they required by law when feasible, but in-person public meetings play an important role as a “release valve,” providing an outlet for members of the public to directly voice concerns about critical issues to their elected officials and know that those concerns are being heard.
Stephen C. Piepgrass and Miranda A. Dore, Richmond Times-Dispatch