August 2006 Newsletter, Vol. 10, No. 2


  • Ask us a FOIA question

    Over the next two pages we have samples of questions Virginia citizens (and a few from outside the state) have asked us via our new “Ask Us a FOIA Question” on our Web site, www.opengovva.org. We have answered at least 100 questions since out Web site debuted in November. The following samples have been edited…


  • Kudos

    CITIZEN ACTIVIST INVOKES FOIA, TURNS UP AN $18,170 TRAVEL TABTravel expenses for Chesterfield County officials will be more carefully scrutinized in the future, thanks to Brenda Stewart’s Freedom of Information Act request. The Chesterfield resident discovered that County Administrator Lane B. Ramsey had chartered an $18,170 flight Dec. 30 out of Scott City, Kan., at…


  • Squabble in Stafford

    It all started with the usual spring-time conflicts over school funding. But before it was over, Stafford County’s rancorous school-budget debate prompted The (Fredericksburg) Free Lance-Star to urge all sides to “halt an unseemly feud.”Backers of a sharp increase in Stafford’s school funding dragged their political foes into court, invoking the Freedom of Information Act…


  • Federal FOIA turns 40 / LBJ signed the landmark legislation on July 4, 1966

    On July 4, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed the federal Freedom of Information Act. As reported by the National Security Archive, LBJ wasn’t exactly thrilled to be throwing open the doors to a secretive government knee-deep in the Cold War, Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. He even threw in a signing statement, those “yes,…


  • Freedom of Information Complaints

    AUGUSTA COUNTY — The Board of Supervisors spent $440,000 on a consultant’s study to bring an industrial “megasite” to the Weyers Cave area, then tried to keep it under wraps even though it wasn’t tied to a specific industrial prospect. Farmer Betty Jo Hamilton’s FOIA request for details on the project yielded the existence of…


  • High court task force proposes new rules; leaves much to be desired

    The future of access to court records in the electronic age is still undecided in Virginia, though a 32-member committee appointed last winter is four drafts closer than it was before.As reported in the January 2006 NEWS, Chief Justice Leroy R. Hassell Sr. created the committee, chaired by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Leslie Alden, to…


  • FOIA in the courts

    White Dog Publishing Inc. v. Culpeper County Board of SupervisorsThe fate of the lawsuit between three Central Virginia newspapers and the Culpeper Board of Supervisors is now in the hands of the seven justices of the Virginia Supreme Court.The Culpeper Star-Exponent, The Culpeper Citizen and The (Fredericksburg) Free Lance-Star sued the board over an October…


  • Fredericksburg’s E-mail Archive: Update

    by Elizabeth Beck,VCOG 2006 Richardson FellowSince its creation in 2003, Fredericksburg’s city e-mail archive is nothing short of a 100 percent success.City Clerk Debbie Naggs created the archive during the lawsuit between citizen activists and some city council members over their use of e-mail to discuss public business. The citizen activists had earlier filed a…


  • E Gov Briefs: From Bland to Chincoteague

    More and more, localities are embracing new technologies to help busy citizens access government records and watch government meetings — without FOIA fights, fee arguments, talk of “extra work” for public employees or the obvious inconvenience of weekday trips to the courthouse.Just as the federal Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to place online…


  • FOI Advisory Council opinions

    by Elizabeth Beck, VCOG 2006Richardson Legal FellowSince December 2005, the FOI Advisory Council issued six opinions. In February, AO-01-06, the Council weighed in on whether the Vienna Town Council violated the Freedom of Information Act by not including in its meeting minutes three matters discussed in open session and reported on by the local newspaper.…


  • FOI Advisory Council updates

    The FOI Advisory Council headed into the late-summer heat with its first meetings of the subcommittees appointed at the June 12 meeting.On July 27, a subcommittee chaired by Councilmember Craig Fifer, examined the so-called “Fifth Response” to be added to the list of proper responses that can be made to a request for records under…


  • VCOG Bulletin Board

    Welcome AboardA big welcome to our newest members:John Bookhultz, GrottoesRoger Hurlbert, Glen Ellen, Calif.Daryl Kerkeslager, PowhatanLeague of Women Voters, Loudoun CountyLexis/NexisPreston Manning, StauntonSmith Mountain EagleCharles Rowe, FredericksburgVirginia League of Conservation VotersWoods Rogers, RoanokeVCOG Web siteOur new Web site (www.opengovva.org) is drawing an average of more than 700 “unique” visitors each week. Pages viewed each week…


  • Count ’em: 11 “whereases”!

    VCOG Executive Director Frosty Landon and Associate Director Megan Rhyne show off copies of the resolutions passed by the House and Senate during the 2006 General Assembly session. FOI Advisory Council Executive Director Maria Everett (left) looks on.The resolution was sponsored in the House by Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, and in the Senate by…


  • GA adds 8 more FOIA exemptions

    Until VDOT threw us a bottom-of-the-ninth curveball, Freedom of Information fared relatively well in the ’06 legislature.There were the usual add-on FOIA exemptions for still more closed meetings and still more secret records, but most of the eight new exemptions are narrow and agency-specific.   (Five are for records, three relate to meetings; several other changes…