Time for transparency on COVID-19 hotbeds

by Steve Stewart, Publisher of The Smithfield Times.
Originally published in The Smithfield Times

During a global pandemic, we tread lightly with criticism of pubic health professionals, who’ve served admirably and, in many cases, heroically while guiding society through the challenge of our lifetimes.

Yet, we can’t leave unchecked a recent lack of transparency that has stoked unnecessary fear and confusion in Isle of Wight County.

NOTE: This column, by one of VCOG's founding board members, John Edwards, was originally published by The Smithfield Times. Edwards, the former editor of the Times, still writes a column for the paper, called In the Short Rows. Edwards was instrumental in setting up the FOIA Council and served on the council for his first several years.

Read the original editorial as it appeared in The Daily Progress, April 5, 2020.

Megan's note: I wish I had written this. It's perfect.

Opinion/Editorial: Democracy's health also must be shielded

Local governments are charting new territory in their move to electronic meeting forums.

It may be the height of irony during Sunshine Week -- the access and transparency community's annual love letter to open records and open meetings laws across our country -- to hear me say the rules of open government might not apply right now.

I've never been one to shy away from the soapbox, to point out inaccuracies, call out bad policy, question practices, or challenge interpretations. It would be fair (though not entirely accurate) to call me an absolutist: all access, all the time!

FOIA requests by elected officials prompt backlash from fellow board members.

We are at a tipping point now because more and more requesters are seeing larger and larger bills. Without an understanding of the complexity of an email search, these charges appear not only arbitrary, but also punitive, a tool for discouraging requests.

"The rules are the latest salvo in an aggressive push to divorce the courts and the Office of the Executive Secretary from FOIA. In 2018, SB 727 would have removed them from FOIA. The bill was withdrawn by its sponsor, but then a circuit court judge ruled similarly some months later in a case that stemmed from a citizen request to see OES’ long distance telephone bills."

OK, this story makes me tetchy.

At a Pulaski County Board of Supervisors meeting, a supervisor and the county administrator engaged in an exchange over a projected slide showing the number of FOIA requests filed each year for the past nine years.  The total was 361, which equals 35.4/year, which equals fewer than 3/month. (A story from The Southwest Times is reprinted below.)

The agreements Amazon signed with the state and Arlington County contain unique public records provisions unlike those in other company deals.

Versions of the following were wrtiten on the encouragement of Lawrence McConnell, VCOG board member and editor of The Roanoke Times, and published in:

• Bacon's Rebellion (online)
• Bristol Herald-Courier
• Daily Press (Newport News)
• The Daily Progress (Charlottesville)
• The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg)
• Richmond Times-Dispatch
• The Roanoke Times
• The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk)