Transparency News, 4/20/21

 

Republican legislative leaders called for lawmakers to begin an investigation of misconduct at the Virginia Parole Board following coverage in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this weekend of a meeting between the governor’s office and a state watchdog agency. Democrats who control the General Assembly have already dismissed GOP calls for an investigation by the legislature. The Times-Dispatch reported Saturday on a recording of the Aug. 14 meeting between members of the governor’s staff and a team from the Office of the State Inspector General, which at the time had been investigating numerous reports of misconduct by the parole board.  In the meeting, Brian Moran, the secretary of public safety and homeland security, lectured the inspector general and his team, accusing them of being used as a “political tool.” A deputy to Moran accused OSIG of bias. Senate Republicans in a statement said Northam’s administration “never expressed interest in the merits of the Inspector General’s report, only in how the facts revealed by that report would make them look. … That they would bully the State Inspector General into abandoning the mission of his office is disgraceful.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The names of hundreds of Chesterfield County students and school staff who tested positive for COVID-19 were mistakenly made accessible. The names were sent as part of a contract tracing spreadsheet to a person who’d requested those documents in a Freedom of Information Act request. Officials said the person notified school leaders and destroyed the spreadsheet. School leaders said the mistake was caused by a software error and they’re currently reviewing other redacted FOIA-related documents.
WTVR

As Mayor Andrea Oakes banged the gavel to end the Staunton City Council’s budget work session, six or seven people rose and spoke in unison. “All voices must be heard!” SILENCED. The word was hand-written on canvas and stitched to the backs of their shirts. The protestors had covered their masks with black duct tape. The Staunton citizen’s appearance on April 15 came one week after the city council’s decision to cut off citizen’s ability to call in over the phone to speak at public hearings during council meetings, a policy included in the Uncodified Emergency Ordinance that was added at the beginning of the pandemic last March. After the vote went through to repeal the Uncodified Emergency Ordinance on April 8th and the council was informed by the city attorney that it had also removed the ability for citizens to call into meetings, a slew of phone calls came in during the matters of the public section as residents took their final chance to make their voice heard over the phone.
News Leader

 

 

 

The public should have access to all records related to disciplinary proceedings pending against Rudy Giuliani, given the substantial public interest in Giuliani’s role in challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. So says a letter written by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The National Freedom of Information Coalition and 31 other organizations also signed the letter. New York law permits appellate justices to release documents related to an investigation of an attorney’s professional conduct if “good cause” is shown.
NFOIC

The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Supreme Court on Monday to open a window on the government’s secretive system for approving national security surveillance on U.S. soil. Transparency advocates petitioned the high court to review whether the public has a right to access the decisions of a largely secret federal surveillance court, whose growing reach and brushes with political controversy have drawn increasing attention — and contrasting opinions about public access within the court itself. The filing comes after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and an associated review panel issued rulings in September and October saying they lacked authority even to consider a public claim under the First Amendment to their secret decisions and lawmaking. Petitioners said the ruling after years of litigation threatens not only individual rights but also informed public debate about the extent of government spying, the public legitimacy of that spying and of the court, and the quality of the secret law it relies on and shapes. “It’s crucial to the legitimacy of the foreign intelligence system, and to the democratic process, that the public have access to the court’s significant opinions,” said Theodore B. Olson, who served as U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush and joined petitioners.
The Washington Post