January 2003 Newsletter (Vol. 7, No. 1)


  • Closed conference committees in New Mexico

    Legislatures have a habit of writing open-government loopholes for themselves, especially when they’re striking last-minute deals or forcing party-line votes. Not all do it so blatantly as New Mexico, however.There, the Open Meetings Act requires that “all meetings of any public body except the legislature and the courts shall be public meetings.” The state Association…


  • Mexico approves FOI law

    Calling it a “historic change” for his country, President Vicente Fox signed his country’s first FOI law. The new law guarantees citizen access to nearly all federal government information. It also establishes a Federal Institute for Access to Public Information. The agency will aid information-seekers, train citizens and public officials, and produce an annual report…


  • Ga. compiles FOI booklet for police

    Georgia’s 18,000 police officers are getting a 38-page booklet that “very plainly” explains that law enforcement records are subject to public disclosure unless specifically exempted from release.The Georgia First Amendment Foundation, the state press association and seven government organizations produced the booklet, “Georgia Law Enforcement and the Open Records Act.” The guide was produced after…


  • Open-government exceptions to require 2/3rds vote in Fla. legislature

    Access to public information got a strong re-endorsement from Florida voters Nov. 5. In the future, each house of the state legislature must muster a two-thirds vote before adding new open-government exemptions.This is not the first time Florida’s voters have spoken out strongly for transparent government. A decade ago, voters overwhelmingly passed a Public Records…


  • Group unveils guidelines for digital court records

    The national project to create a model guideline for access to electronic records released its final report Oct. 18, 2002. The policy is online at http://www.courtaccess.org/modelpolicy.The project, spearheaded by the National Center for State Courts’ Arlington office and the Justice Management Institute, was officially presented on behalf of the Conference of Chief Justices and the…


  • Access after 9/11 suffers inside the Beltway

    Public access to government information has progressively come under attack as part of the war on terrorism. New measures are still being offered, and the fall-out from previously announced measures is, in some cases, just now being felt.Some of the highlights (or, rather, lowlights) include: ” In October, the Justice Department cited the Sept. 11…


  • Momentum building to prohibit secret settlement orders

    Joseph F. Anderson Jr., chief judge of the U.S. District Court in South Carolina, surprised his colleagues in the judiciary and throughout the legal and access communities, when he sent a letter this summer to the other judges on his court recommending that federal courts stop signing orders sealing settlements in civil trials.Anderson said he…


  • Medical Board reforms facing a critical test

    For 11 years, the state’s medical system permitted a Tidewater surgeon to keep practicing  despite the deaths of three of his patients, falsified billing records, a patient having the wrong organ removed and grave complications for others in his care.In 1997, Virginia Beach’s Sentara Bayside hospital warned a Chesapeake hospital that Dr. Robert G.…


  • New DoC director named

    Gene Johnson, a 36-year veteran of the Department of Corrections, was tapped by Gov. Warner to head the department, succeeding his ex-boss, Ron Angelone. Johnson is a former warden at St. Brides, Mecklenburg, Southampton and Powhatan correctional centers, and has worked as a regional administrator in several areas of the state.


  • 1 of 3 Fredericksburg e-mail exchanges was an improper electronic meeting, judge rules

    The Fredericksburg City Council went back to court for its second Freedom of Information Act-related trial in just over a year, and again the taxpayers will pick up the tab. Fredericksburg Circuit Judge John W. Scott ruled Dec. 13 that e-mail circulated among Fredericksburg Mayor Bill Beck, Vice Mayor Scott Howson and Councilman Matt Kelly…


  • High court hears Virginia cross-burning case

    Over the years the U.S. Supreme Court has placed some expression outside the protection of the First Amendment: obscenity, libel and so-called “fighting words.”Based on December’s dramatic oral arguments in a Virginia cross-burning case, the court may be preparing to create a new category of unprotected expression. It might be called “threatening symbols,” or it…


  • Library of Virginia hit hard in state’s $6 billion shortfall

    Funding for the Library of Virginia got sharply cut in the state’s budget crisis. By one account, the cumulative effect was a 28 percent reduction in General Fund support.Rather than pass on the cuts to local libraries, the state library absorbed a disproportionate amount of the reductions internally. That meant a staggering 39 percent cut…


  • FOIA exemption sought for election-day “meetings”

    Virginia’s three-member local electoral boards want election-day relief from some of FOIA’s procedural rules for public meetings.How, they ask, can they provide three-day advance notice of their routine polling-place work, and how can two board members discuss even a voting-equipment breakdown without prior notice? Rosanna Bencoach, senior policy analyst with the State Board of Elections…


  • At the Legislature

    The Virginia General Assembly convenes Jan. 8, 2003, for a short session. Most FOIA bills are assigned to the Senate and House General Laws Committees, then to subcommittees.The House General Laws Committee is chaired by Del. John Reid. The FOIA-Procurement Subcommittee is chaired by Del. Chris Jones and consists of Dels. Thomas Bolvin, Kirk Cox,…


  • E-government briefs

    Warner, JLARC propose sweeping tech overhaul Gov. Warner wants a sweeping overhaul of informational technology in state government. A consolidated Virginia Information Technologies Agency would replace the Department of Information Technology, the Department of Technology Planning and the Virginia Information Providers Network Authority.The VIPNet and Virginia Geographic Information Network boards would be abolished. IT divisions…


  • FOI Complaints

    ALBEMARLE COUNTY  On a 5-2 vote, the school board adopted a gag order for anything discussed in a closed session. Public disclosures can occur only when authorized by a majority vote. But a footnote was added: “Nothing in this policy shall be construed to limit rights protected regarding freedom of expression or freedom of…


  • FOIAC by the numbers

    According to its 2002 annual report, the FOI Advisory Council fielded 1,011 inquiries from Dec. 1, 2001, to Nov. 30, 2002. That number includes inquiries made by phone and e-mail, as well as requests for written opinions.There were 21 requests for written opinions citizens 12 local government 7 media 2 There were 990 phone and…


  • Council to honor Woodrum

    Current members of the FOI Advisory Council board will honor Del. Chip Woodrum, D-Roanoke, who served as the council’s first chair before being replaced by Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, in a resolution to be presented some time iin 2003.The resolution commends Woodrum for his two years of service as chair and for his general advocacy…


  • FOIAC subcommittees tackle payment for record requests and Public Procurement Act conflicts

    By unanimous voice votes, the FOI Advisory Council agreed to recommend two legislative proposals to the 2003 General Assembly. The recommendations are the result of two subcommittees created by the council at its June 12, 2002, meeting.One subcommittee, comprised of council members John Edwards, Wat Hopkins and Roger Wiley, studied a bill introduced in 2002…


  • FOI Advisory Council Updates: Opinions

    The FOI Advisory Council issued 11 written advisory opinions between July and November. The council was expected to issue an additional opinion some time in December.In AO-06-02, the council said a prearranged gathering of three members of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors at the request of a member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board to…


  • Correction

    Four open-record exemptions were added to the Freedom of Information Act in the legislature’s 2002 session  not five, as reported in our July newsletter.


  • Paul McMasters elected Coalition’s second president

    VCOG is fortunate and proud to have as its new president Paul K. McMasters, First Amendment ombudsman for the Freedom Forum in Arlington.McMasters has been a VCOG board member since 1998. He came to the Freedom Forum in 1992 after 30 years in journalism and active participation in the Society for Professional Journalists. Paul is…


  • Coalition Bulletin board

    Web site visits OPENGOVVA.ORG had more than 10,000 unique visits in the last 90 days of 2002. One in five was a repeat visitor each month. Non-U.S. “hits” averaged 3-4 per cent.Heaviest usage occurs on the home page, the FOI-opinion search pages, roundups of legislative activity and our overview of the FOI Act. Membership report…


  • VCOG annual conference at the new VPA in Glenn Allen well attended, well received

    If nothing else, Access 2002, VCOG’s fourth annual conference, may have foreshadowed what’s to come in the next gubernatorial election.Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, who is expected to be the Republican nominee for governor, kicked off the conference with a 30-minute speech about open government initiatives he pushed last year and hopes to see through this…


  • Gilmore produces missing records; 12 boxes will stay sealed until 2015

    On a Sunday afternoon in November, a van from the Library of Virginia pulled up at a self-storage facility in Richmond and loaded up 236 boxes of the records of former Gov. Jim Gilmore’s administration.A mediated settlement produced the public records, five months after state archivists had been told the records did not exist “or…