January 2006 Newsletter (Vol. 10, No. 1)
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Briefs
FOIA “A SERVICE,” BUSH REAFFIRMSIn a move that took many by surprise, President George W. Bush signed an executive order Dec. 14 aimed at improving disclosure of information under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Under the executive order, U.S. agencies are required within 30 days to designate a senior official as chief FOIA officer,…
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Henrico posts its crime data
Henrico citizens now have easy access to criminal-incident information, arrest reports and other crime data.The information is online at: http://www.co.henrico.va.us/police .To search arrests, the citizen types in a specific date or a range of dates. To narrow a search, a crime category can be selected.Mel Solomon, who leads a neighborhood watch group, said they now…
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Tighten campaign disclosure laws
It was Virginia’s costliest election ever — with contributions easily topping the $60 million mark.Most contributors got identified, online and promptly.But some of that money came from unknown donors, which is not supposed to happen.Those anonymous donors dumped more than $2 million in Republican Bob McDonnell’s (barely) successful campaign for attorney general, taking advantage of…
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2005 FOI Awards
LEXINGTON — An innovative FOIA “Tracker” designed by a four-employee team at the Virginia Department of Transportation won the Virginia Coalition for Open Government’s 2005 public-sector award for outstanding contributions to Freedom of Information. Also honored at the coalition’s ACCESS 2005 conference were Robert McCabe (below), a (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reporter, and citizen activists Andrew Beaujon…
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W&L, VMI host VCOG’s 7th conference
The Coalition held its seventh annual conference this year in Lexington, taking advantage of locations on both the Washington & Lee and Virginia Military Institute campuses for various events.On Nov. 17, the coalition’s board met at W&L’s library, followed by a reception and dinner at VMI’s Moody Hall. Coalition president and First Amendment Ombudsman at…
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Freedom of Information Complaints
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY — Public speakers must stick to the matter at hand when addressing the board of supervisors. Otherwise, the chairman can call a recess and tell the speaker to sit down. When all else fails, the sheriff’s deputies get called in. So far, so good — maybe — if applied in an even-handed way,…
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Shine sun on Va. ports
For years, Virginia Port Authority board members have guarded the salaries of top officials at Virginia International Terminals, which runs state terminals in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News.Though the compensation of state employees who make more than $10,000 is public record under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, VIT claimed it was a private company,…
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Kudos
POLICE DEPARTMENT ENTERS “21ST CENTURY”Not all that long ago, getting information from the Danville Police Department about crimes and criminals was extremely difficult. The Danville Register and Bee commented editorially that the department was not only famously tight-lipped about the amount of information it released to the public, it strictly controlled access to its officers.…
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Supreme Court court-records task force is limited in scope
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia is the most recent to weigh in on finding a balance between access to court records online and keeping some information confidential.As part of the Commission on Courts in the 21st Century launched by Chief Justice Leroy R. Hassell Sr. Oct. 6, a group made up…
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NGOs, say more! Citizens, say less!
NGOs, say more!Secretive non-government organizations that rely on significant public funding continue to pose knotty access issues. In Richmond, the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation had to be pressured into giving Richmond’s Mayor Doug Wilder (and others) a detailed monthly financial report. Auditors suggested that the foundation be required to provide a monthly balance sheet and…
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E-gov briefs
ROANOKE, ROANOKE COUNTY CITEDThe Roanoke Valley continues to get national recognition for its high-tech initiatives. For the fourth time in five years. Roanoke City ranked first among cities in the 75,000-124,999 population category. And for the second year running, Roanoke County was named the most high-tech county for its size. The evaluations came in the…
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Recent council opinions
Since the August 2005 newsletter, the FOI Advisory Council issued just four formal, written opinions.Reaffirming its revised opinion on access to accident reports containing information about juveniles, the council in AO-08-05 told the public relations director for the Department of State Police that other than information falling under §2.2-3706(C) of the Freedom of Information Act,…
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FOI Advisory Council updates
The council released its sixth annual report, available online at http://dls.state.va.us/groups/foiacouncil/2005ar.pdf . The report details council activity for the year — from training session, workshops and requests for opinions, to subcommittee reports, monitoring efforts and new publications.One new publication is “Taking the Shock out of FOIA Charges,” a first-time effort to walk government agencies through…
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Coalition launches new Web site
www.opengovva.org is packed with new features and the best collection of public-access-related resources.The Coalition officially unveiled its newly designed Web site at its seventh annual conference Nov. 18 in Lexington.Designed by Kathy Cashel of Washington, D.C., and funded by a grant from the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the John S. and James L.…
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Pocket guide to FOIA
The Virginia Coalition for Open Government has created what it hopes will be only the first of several editions of the "Citizens’ Pocket Guide to Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act." The guide is a concise summary of the FOI law written in ordinary language, broken down into five sections: • The Virginia Freedom of Information…
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VCOG Briefs
ENDOWMENT GIFTS PASS $330,000 MARKThanks to a $200,000 challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, VCOG may soon realize its dream of a half-million-dollar endowment fund.In recognition of VCOG’s open-government work, the Knight Foundation approved a 1:1 match, up to $200,000, to create the Coalition’s first endowment. The fund-raising effort got…
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PRA to get facelift
The General Assembly’s Joint Committee Studying the Public Records Act wrapped up its two-year study in November with a spiffy revision to a statute that had not been seriously updated since it was first passed 30 years ago.Many of the amendments added over the years had grown obsolete; others create internal and external inconsistencies; and…
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Public-private partnership reforms proposed
After a decade of media grousing, any number of local school-construction squabbles and a nasty 2005 disclosure battle between the governor and a key state agency, a compromise may be at hand to force public-private “partnership” deals into the open sooner.Thanks to a year-long study by a subcommittee of the Freedom of Information Advisory Council,…