Megan Rhyne's blog

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.

The school board for Williamsburg and James City County met Tuesday in closed session to discuss a personnel issue.

Last fall, a successful high school football had been accused last fall of mistreating a player during practice. The athletic department's investigation cleared the coach, but the parent who complained took the matter to the administrative officers, where the coach got word that he was about to be fired. He resigned instead, effective at the end of the season. The coach said recently that he tried to rescind his resignation but that administrators wouldn't let him.

Last year, thanks in large part to some stirring testimony from two VCOG members, a bill that would have allowed government to sue a citizen that the government felt was harassing it with FOIA requests was sent to the FOIA Council for further study.

The discussions in those FOIA Council study committees was thorough and often impassioned. Ultimately, there was no agreement and the full FOIA Council declined to recommend any measures to the 2011 General Assembly.

McLean delegate Barbara Comstock is introducing two bills we find particularly noteworthy.

One is called the Government Transparency Act and it attempts to create a website that would allow users to search for and aggregate various information, like

An interesting FOIA bill was filed yesterday by Del. Bob Marshall. In HB1722 Marshall proposes to add a requirement that