Transparency News, 6/25/21

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the press Thursday, affirming the principle that the right of access to new civil complaints runs contemporaneously with their filing. The ruling affirmed a trial court opinion that found two Virginia court clerks had violated the media’s First Amendment right of access to new complaints on the day they are filed. U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. ordered the clerks to provide that access where “practicable.”
Courthouse News
Read the opinion

A $150 million defamation lawsuit from California U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes will likely soon be dismissed with prejudice by an Albemarle County judge. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Nunes, a Republican, by Charlottesville attorney Steven Biss in Albemarle Circuit Court in April 2019. Legal experts have argued Nunes may have filed the lawsuit in Virginia to take advantage of the state’s relatively weak laws protecting journalists. According to a draft order written by Mair’s counsel, Nunes’ second-amended complaint failed “to adequately allege any defamation.” It is common for a judge during a civil case to request counsel to draft an order reflecting an oral ruling they gave during a hearing.
The Daily Progress

The Rapidan Service Authority (RSA) Board of Members voted last week to table a resolution brought by Greene County asking for specific documents that would aid in developing a plan of withdrawal from the authority. RSA board member and Greene County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Martin (Stanardsville) requested prior to the meeting that the resolution be added to the June 17 RSA agenda. The proposed motion directed the RSA staff to cooperate with the withdrawal by supplying documents that showed RSA revenues, expenses, debt, annual debt service payments—all allocated by county or system—as well as any rate studies by county, equipment and facilities per system, equipment and facilities that cannot be divided, expenses and facilities shared by all three localities, Greene RSA customer list and a list of RSA employees. “I’d like to ask counsel, what in this motion is not FOIA-able?” Carty Yowell, of Madison, asked.
Greene County Record

Martinsville School Board member Yvonne Givens and The Lester Group CEO Jay Dickens were selected by Martinsville City Council on Tuesday to serve on a board that may expire before their terms are finished. City Council met in closed session after its regular meeting and interviewed Givens and Dickens, along with Michael Williamson and Elsie Jones, who had been nominated by council members earlier this month. Martinsville City Council appoints its school board, unlike Henry County, where members are elected, and state code requires their names to be spoken at a public hearing in order to be considered by council. None of the candidates attended the meeting at which they were nominated, and their credentials were not discussed and no information was provided about them. They only had to contact a council member to be nominated. The interview process was conducted in private, and council members were forbidden from speaking about anything concerning their decision process afterwards. But City Attorney Eric Monday offered these words: “The votes for Dickens and Givens were both unanimous.
Martinsville Bulletin

Two groups attended the Augusta County Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday night. In the hours and days before the meeting, they had been threatening each other, charging each other with assault and arrests had been made as tensions rose between the two groups. Wednesday night, they sat down in the same room. Tensions remained high, but they had come to ask for the same thing — body cameras. Both factions attended the board meeting on Wednesday, one group clad in black with camera equipment and the other wearing American flag clothing, blue lives matter t-shirts and patriotic buttons and badges. Throughout the evening, people snickered, glared and shook their heads while telling negative stories about the other to the board. 
News Leader

The Town of South Hill Fire Committee met at the fire department on Monday morning to view the space designated for a fitness center. Town Manager Kim Callis recommended delaying the approval of the request until the Fire Committee could look at the space and make a recommendation. Chief Vaughn, the Volunteers, and members of the community have questioned the motives behind the decision to prolong the process.  Councilmen Honeycutt and Moss voted to allow the fire department to move forward with the renovation but were outnumbered by the majority. The decision was made to have the Fire Committee look at the space and to have the Council vote electronically either for or against the request.  When the Fire Committee met on Monday with Chief Vaughn, Mr. Callis, Volunteers, and members of the public, Mr. Callis explained that an electronic vote would no longer be possible. He said that Town Clerk, Anna Cratch, who was present and taking notes at the June 14 meeting, stays current on policy and procedure and explained to him that it would be illegal to vote electronically on the matter. The decision was made to call an emergency Council meeting for Friday, June 25 at 8 a.m. 
South Hill Enterprise

 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton finds in a ruling that the Public Information Act would not apply to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, meaning documents, text messages, e-mails, and recorded phone calls about February’s deadly storm will not be released. Following an onslaught of records requests related to the winter storm and the ensuing power grid crisis, ERCOT attempted to limit the amount of information it would have to release. In March, ERCOT claimed it was a public agency, and therefore immune from lawsuits. It also claimed the Public Information Act does not apply because it was not a public entity, which, under Texas law, is required to release records. Open government advocates have criticized the refusal to release records, saying ERCOT information is a matter of public interest. The state health department has identified more than 150 deaths directly related to the winter storm, and a Buzzfeed investigative report estimates the death toll to be closer to 700.
Dallas Morning News

A new project led by the North Carolina Open Government Coalition aims to use state access laws to educate the public about the inner workings of UNC’s public records system and to spur collaboration among journalists covering the state’s flagship university. In partnership with a coalition of journalists, professors, and nonprofit organizations, the NC Open Government Coalition filed eight public records requests with UNC on Friday seeking records related to Nikole Hannah-Jones’s hiring as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient, and the author and creator of the 1619 Project. Recent reporting has raised questions about politically motivated interference with the UNC faculty’s recommendation to grant Hannah-Jones a tenured faculty position. The new public records requests lay the foundation for an ongoing collaborative journalism and freedom of information project.
Elon

 

Despite concrete steps toward more openness in the last redistricting in Tennessee, which included a website with information and a hotline, the opportunity for the public to view the draft state legislative maps was still only about one week before they were adopted, and even less for the congressional map. A recent report by ThinkTennessee compares the redistricting process in our state with others. It points out that Tennessee citizens have had less access to draft district maps than those in most other states. Citizens in 33 other states are allowed to view draft maps, with many of those states inviting public comment about the maps. Leaders in 32 states hold public meetings to gather community input before maps are drawn. A growing number of states, 15 to date, have created commissions, to handle redistricting. Some of them are independent. Those maps, those concepts for change, should be made available to the public earlier.
Deborah Fisher, Bristol Herald Courier