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Motion for Petersburg’s hastily called council closed session violated FOIA protocol

The closed session that followed Mayor Sam Parham’s angry outburst at last week’s City Council meeting was improperly requested, according to both the Rules of Council and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the group of laws that govern the dissemination of public information and the conduct of government meetings. Parham’s request, which came after he publicly dressed down Ward 4 Councilor Charlie Cuthbert for not voting in favor of issuing bonds to pay for Petersburg’s planned courthouse expansion, should have been clarified to include the proper citation of FOIA that allows governing bodies to go behind closed doors. “I want a motion from this council on personnel issues. We need to have a talk in closed session,” Parham angrily said at the conclusion of his tirade during the July 5 meeting. He called for a motion and a second, and after receiving them from Ward 5 Councilor Howard Myers and Vice Mayor Darren Hill respectively, council voted unanimously to go into closed session.

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Closed session antics, including secret recordings, happen across the state

During the June 14 Augusta County Board of Supervisors meeting, a motion to go into closed session was met with comments by two members accusing another of “secretly” recording a closed session on June 2. It has typically been the practice in Augusta County that what is discussed in those meetings remains private. Both Butch Wells and Vice Chair Jeff Slaven accused Wayne District representative Scott Seaton of recording a closed session without the consent of other members June 2. There is nothing that The News Leader could identify in the Virginia Code that would prohibit recording closed sessions. The Code does say that “minutes may be taken during closed meetings of a public body but shall not be required. Such minutes shall not be subject to mandatory public disclosure.” “In my opinion there is a difference between ethical and legal,” Wells said. “A big difference.”

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‘Peace in the valley’ after Buckingham County election office drama

Allegations of misconduct and incompetence have bombarded the Buckingham County election office since last November, shoving the rural county — where there is more cattle than voters — and its civil servants into the national spotlight. Now, after the entire office chose to resign rather than tolerate the accusations, a staff of four has been replaced by a staff of two. Electoral Board member Sandy Banks, like chairwoman of the Buckingham County Republican Committee Ramona Christian, denies ever accusing former registrar Lindsey Taylor or her office of fraud. But emails obtained by The Daily Progress show that Banks sent out the same press release as Christian alleging voter fraud. The document claims that 21% of absentee ballots in the 2022 General Election in Buckingham County came from nonresidents. The release was authored by the Election Process Education Corporation, or EPEC, a nonprofit group. The Daily Progress found a copy of the document online under EPEC’s domain name.

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State trooper resigns as special prosecutor decides against perjury charge

A state trooper who was investigated for perjury after working a fatal crash in Pulaski County will not be charged — but has resigned from the police force, attorneys reported Monday. Special prosecutor Roy Evans, the commonwealth’s attorney in Smyth County, wrote in an email that he decided not to bring a criminal charge against Joseph Hunter Lowe because he did not think that Lowe purposefully made a false statement about a crash he investigated. The investigation of Lowe was triggered by his mishandling of the aftermath of a Jan. 9 fatal crash in which a Pulaski woman drove across the center line of U.S. 11 near Draper and collided head-on with a car driven by a Wythe County man. The Wythe County man, 90-year-old Garnie L. East of Max Meadows, was killed. As the incident’s investigating state trooper, Lowe turned in a sworn statement claiming that Monica Carolyn Harder, 32, the driver who crossed the center line, told him that she was using her cellphone at the time of the crash. But recordings of the officer’s interaction with the driver did not support his account of what Harder said, attorneys said. Attorney Mike Barbour of Dublin, who represented Harder, wrote in an email last month that Harder’s cellphone records also showed that Harder was not using a phone.

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