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The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council's subcommittee on criminal records will use less formal work sessions to study a proposal by the Virginia Press Association to redo section 2.2-3706, the FOIA section dedicated to law enforcement records.

By John Edwards
The Smithfield Times 

A couple weeks ago, we published on this page a quote from the late Howard Broun, a noted newspaper journalist of a century ago. The quote, it seems, is worth pondering today: "Almost nobody means precisely what he says when he makes the declaration, 'I'm in favor of free speech.'"

When a New York school district hired a new employee to take care of open records requests, the deputy superintendent for the district had this to say: "We can't be digging out all this information at the same time we're trying to deal with legal issues, budget issues and reduced administrative staff."

His frustration is probably shared by just about every local government in the nation. State government, too.

Local governments in particular have more to do, but less money and fewer people to do it with. They're swamped.

In preparation for tomorrow's seminars in Roanoke on FOIA and on records management, I asked our presenters to put together a list of FOIA tips and/or strategies. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing what they come up with.

And in the meantime, I came up with a list of my own.

What would you add?

IN GENERAL

FOIA is a tool for gaining access to records; it's not for getting "information" or answers to questions.

FOIA is not adversarial: keep it cordial and professional.

RECORDS

I have to admit, that as the daughter of two former college professors, the flap over using FOIA to gain access to professors' emails makes me a bit queasy.

I know. Sounds hypocritical, doesn't it?

Part of it is disbelief. Deep-seated childhood memories of boredom at the dinner table as they talked on and on about their work makes it hard for me to believe that someone could actually be interested in what they had to say.

Last year and this year bills were introduced in the Virginia General Assembly that would allow government to get a court order against a citizen it felt was harassing the government through FOIA. Both bills originated from situations in small localities where a lone clerk -- part-time, at that -- was getting too many FOIA requests from the same person and was unable to get other work done.

Last year, the bill was sent to the FOIA Council for study, but no consensus could be reached. This year the bill was killed in subcommittee.

I'm passionate about open government. About what it means to our country. About what it means to citizens and to democracy.

Working at the Virginia Coalition for Open Government for over a decade, I've met a lot of other people whose passion for open government's ideal far exceeds mine. Most often these are everyday citizens. Sometimes they are reporters, editors, broadcasters.

And more and more often, the folks I'm hearing from -- the ones whose commitment to open government is so strong it's almost palpable -- are elected officials.

When my good friend Maria Everett gives presentations to state and local governments as director of the Virginia Freedom of Information Council, she frequently tells people that sometimes, even when what they are doing is legally defensible under the Freedom of Information Act, sometimes it is better from a public relations standpoint, not to do it.

Sometimes you see the same concept phrased like this: it's as important to adhere to the spirit of the law as it is to the letter of the law.

Consider these recent examples:

Now that the legislative committee system has wound down (save for the budget conference, which isn't exactly a forum for broad citizen input), I wanted to highlight this column that ran last weekend in the Washington Post.

Sunshine Week is an effort spearheaded by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Spanning the week of March 16, which is the birthday of James Madison, the patron saint of open records, the effort seeks to highlight the ways in which public records figures into our everyday lives.

The Virginia Coalition for Open Government is the Virginia coordinator for Sunshine Week.

Below are a few things on tap for this Sunshine Week.