Around the Commonwealth
FRONT ROYAL – It’s been a roller coaster ride in Front Royal over bribery allegations involving a solar farm. For months the town refused to give out much information about the allegations, legitimately citing various FOIA exemptions. Then in July, the mayor announced that to clear the air, he was going to “open the kimono” by posting many of the records on the town’s website. No good deed goes unpunished, of course, because after just a few days, and after being named as defendants in a $30 million defamation, the town voted unanimously to remove the records. The defamation suit is still pending, prompting columnist Chris Fordney to quip in the Northern Virginia Daily that he was leery of writing about it because he might get sued himself.
CHARLOTTESVILLE – Soon after police seized several items from the apartment of the prime suspect in the Yeardley Love murder case, the Charlottesville Daily Progress, obtained the search warrant and published information from it. Shortly after that, a judge ordered the search warrant sealed. No one else could see it. Then, the order sealing the search warrant was itself sealed. The Daily Progress and several other news outlets went to court to force the circuit court clerk, Paul C. Garrett, to turn over the order-to-seal-the-sealing-order. In late May, Judge Cheryl Higgins said the legal maneuver was the incorrect one procedurally, so the press groups went back to court to intervene and to open the sealing order. This time they were successful when Judge George McGrath ruled that the sealing order had to be released. The warrant itself could stay sealed, the judge ruled.
NORFOLK – Norfolk has faced a myriad of problems this summer, many of them exposed by the Virginian-Pilot’s requests for records under FOIA. In short order, the Commissioner of Revenue was found to have stretched the bounds of propriety when using the city credit card while lobbying the General Assembly; the same commissioner hired her own daughters to work as summer employees; an official in the gang-fighting unit used a city credit card to buy a cell phone for a suspected gang member, which he later allegedly used to abduct and rape a young woman; and the local Community Services Board continued to pay an employee who didn’t show up for work for 12 years. It was all too much for Pilot columnist Kerry Dougherty, who predicted that the city would soon sink “under the weight of its own arrogance.”
ROANOKE – Running for elected office on an open government platform is one thing; putting it into practice is another. When Bill Bestpitch won election to the Roanoke City Council, he vowed to open up the process the council uses for real estate deals. When going into closed session, public bodies are supposed to say what the “subject matter” of that session will be. Many localities around the state specifically identify the parcel being discussed, or explain why the discussion will be held behind closed doors. Bestpitch urged his new colleagues on the council to do likewise, but they rejected his overtures in part because of the city attorney’s warning that they might be overwhelmed with questions from the press and public. Bestpitch kept trying, though, vowing to vote “no” on requests for closed sessions on the consent agenda to talk about the disposition of public property “as a quiet reminder that I think we can be more transparent with the public.”
CENTRAL VIRGINIA – No one would disagree that politics can get ugly. The Congressional race for the 5th District is no different. First it was the debate over the debates, where Republican candidate Robert Hurt said he would debate Democrat incumbent Tom Perriello but not Jeffrey Clark, a Tea Party favorite. After that, someone sent Hurt an envelope containing suspicious white powder. Perriello canceled an appearance at a Lynchburg Tea Party forum because the organizers were going to close it to the public. The Daily Progress also reported that Clark had a string of unpaid debts in his past, which prompted Clark to make the following proposal: if the person who dug up the debt-dirt on him would publicly admit his or her involvement then Clark would drop out of the race. The Register & Bee reminded Clark that because the information came from public records, “the list of possible ‘suspects’ is long.” Clark later rescinded his offer. And that all happened before Labor Day.
HARRISONBURG – It is the official policy of the Harrisonburg public school system — Community Relations: Requests for Information (505) — that when FOIA requests ask for “sensitive information including the name(s) or position(s) of school employee(s), the employee(s) shall be notified of the individual, group or organization to whom the information is released and the nature or content of the information released.” The section was invoked when a citizen advocate requested salary data for all school employees. The employees were notified of the request and given the citizen’s name and address. FOIA says that salary information for all employees making over $10,000 must be released.