July 2003 Newsletter (Vol. 7, No. 2)


  • E-Government Briefs

    E-Government Briefs Arlington honored for access to county’s public informationThe American Library Association (ALA) honored the government of Arlington County, in “Recognition of Significant Contribution to Public Access to Government Information.” The award was presented at the National Freedom of Information Day Conference, sponsored by the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center in cooperation with the…


  • VCOG Briefs

    Assembly approves identity-theft laws The 2003 General Assembly approved a number of identity-theft bills backed by Attorney General Jerry KilgoreKilgore said passage strengthens existing Virginia identity theft laws by: ” Prohibiting impersonation of a law enforcement officer or any other official of the Commonwealth of Virginia in order to carry out identity theft. ” Prohibiting…


  • Fredericksburg e-mail case back in court

    The Supreme Court of Virginia agreed in early July to hear oral arguments in the Fredericksburg e-mail case. In December 2002, Fredericksburg Circuit Court Judge John W. Scott ruled that one of three e-mail exchanges among three Fredericksburg City Council members was an improper electronic meeting.The lawsuit, brought by political foes of Mayor Bill Beck,…


  • Grumman proposal: ‘proprietary information’

    Northrop Grumman wants to design, construct, maintain and finance a public safety building for Roanoke County. The county’s current public safety building is a converted school that was built in the 1930s as a New Deal public-works project.The defense contractor hopes to use a process made possible by new state legislation that allows public-private partnerships…


  • Filters-for-funding mandate upheld

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 23 that the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which requires public libraries that receive federal funds to install content filters on public access computer terminals, is constitutional.Reversing a three-judge panel decision from a federal district court in Pennsylvania, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote for three others that the law did…


  • Court affirms Megan’s laws

    Court affirms Megan’s laws: Connecticut Dept. of Public Safety v. Doe, and Smith v. DoeIn two rulings interpreting what are commonly known as Megan’s Laws, the U.S. Supreme Court strongly supported the dissemination of truthful information, turning back claims by civil libertarians on behalf of convicted sex offenders. In a Connecticut case, the court voted…


  • Round-up: Access issues in the United States Supreme Court

    by Alison Ferland, VCOG 2003 summer intern Virginia v. Black On April 7, 2003, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor issued the majority opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court in Virginia v. Black, ruling that Virginia can validly prohibit cross-burning with the intent to intimidate, but it cannot be prima facie evidence of that intent. The Virginia…


  • Briefs

    Hampton U. names journalism school head Hampton University has named Christopher Campbell as director of its Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Mass Communications.Campbell recently held similar positions at Xavier University in Cincinnati and the University of Idaho in Moscow. Campbell succeeds acting director Rosalynne Whitaker-Heck, who took over from Charlotte Grimes last year. HU…


  • No Smart Tag records

    The Virginia Department of Transportation failed to keep records of the Smart Tag information it hands over to police, the department recently confirmed.And while the department said in a privacy disclaimer on its Smart Tag Web site that customer information might be given to law-enforcement agencies, the application and customer-agreement forms did not mention that…


  • Restaurant inspections online: a mouse is a good thing

    On its first day of operation, May 1, the Virginia Department of Health’s restaurant inspection report Web site was flooded with more than 800,000 hits. By noon the next day, an additional 400,000 queries had been logged.In short, the public gobbled up the information provided for the first time online, though it has always been…


  • Departing legislator throws AG open-caucus hot potato

    Seldom challenged under either Democrat or Republican regimes, the General Assembly’s closed caucuses suddenly are under fire.Few dispute the right of legislators to go behind closed doors to discuss intra-party housekeeping matters. But in recent years the daily, in-session caucuses  especially those of Republicans who constitute the majority party in the House  have…


  • F.O.I. Complaints

    APPOMATTOX  Less than a week after the Association of Local Government Attorneys said a judge had misinterpreted FOIA, the county board abandoned its effort to overturn the judge’s ruling. The county already had spent $10,000 in legal fees, and supervisors apparently were willing to give up the fight as long as LGA was on…


  • Two FOIAC subcommittees formed

    At the suggestion of council member Tom Moncure, a subcommittee was appointed to study the possibility of reorganizing FOIA’s 87 records exemptions into smaller categories.Virginia has followed a model opposite from the federal FOIA, which has only a handful of exemptions, but those are riddled with subparts and exposed to broad interpretation. Virginia’s exemptions are…


  • FOIA hits the road again

    The FOI Advisory Council staff is preparing once again to take its training routine on the road, with sessions in six cities in September.Sept. 8 – Richlands Sept. 9 – Roanoke Sept. 10 – Harrisonburg Sept. 11 – Alexandria Sept. 16 – Richmond Sept. 17 – Virginia Beach As in past years, sessions will likely…


  • By the numbers

    According to Assistant Executive Director Lisa Wallmeyer, the FOI Advisory Council fielded 543 inquiries from Dec. 1, 2002, through June 2, 2003.There were 16 erquests for written opinions citizens 6 government 7 media 3 There were 527 phone and e-mail requests citizens 213 government 219 media 95 Executive Director Maria Everett said at the council’s…


  • A stern rebuke: AO-15-03

    In a June 18 opinion to Virginia Beach attorney Kevin Martingayle, the FOI Advisory Council used strong language to reproach the city of Virginia Beach for its handling of a city employee’s FOIA request seeking results of a work life survey.In an opinion earlier this year, the council said that the “Member Survey on Quality…


  • FOI Advisory Council updates: recent opinions

    Between January and June of 2003, the FOI Advisory Council issued 14 written advisory opinions. Among them: In AO-01-03, the council said that although the Allegheny Board of Supervisors could reach a tentative agreement about the purchase of land during a closed meeting, the actual purchase of the land was unauthorized because the board did…


  • Whistle while you work? Not if you want to keep your job in Virginia

    by Alison Ferland, VCOG 2003 summer intern This year the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act went into effect. That Act provides protection and job security, as well as financial compensation, to citizens who file suit on behalf of the government, and blow the whistle on acts of fraud against the state perpetrated by private companies…


  • O’Neil: Reflections on the Coalition and its origins

    An excerpt from outgoing president Bob O’Neil at VCOG’s 4th Annual Conference, Access 2002, on Nov. 15 in Richmond. . . A few of you may be aware that I assumed this position quite by accident. When the Coalition was being formed . . . several of us agreed to serve as the initial nominating…


  • Coalition Bulletin Board

    Web site: 8,568 pages viewed VCOG’s Web site averaged nearly 200 daily visitors in June.Page views totaled more than 8,500 in the same month, with a number of visitors from outside the U.S. Among the most popular pages are those featuring the text of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, an overview of the act,…


  • VCOG Guiding Principles

    1. Privacy is best protected by strictly limiting government agencies to collection of data for which they have an absolute need and clearly articulated use; redaction must occur whenever a record contains non-public information, to ensure maximum dissemination of public information.2. While innovation by enforcement of intellectual property laws should be encouraged, no copyright or…


  • Coalition reaffirms its guiding principles, sets priorities

    The Coalition’s board of directors held a three-hour work session prior to its March 6 meeting at the Waterside Marriott to discuss organizational and advocacy issues. The board reaffirmed its commitment to its original guiding principles (see sidebar) and reached consensus on short-term and long-term priorities.The board was asked to vote on the five most…


  • Defeated: A purpose test that served no good purpose

    No-strings access has long been an underlying principle of Virginia’s 35-year-old Freedom of Information Act. In the ’03 legislature it almost fell by the wayside  until Gov. Mark Warner intervened, and a lot of legislators had second thoughts.By a 21-19 vote, the state Senate tacked a “purpose of access” question onto an Internet privacy…


  • List keeps growing: FOIA exemptions reach 118

    Eight new discretionary exemptions got added to the state’s Freedom of Information Act on July 1  two for meetings, six for records.None of the eight significantly restricts previous access policy  but that’s because most were tightened before getting a final OK from the General Assembly and Gov. Mark Warner. FOIA took its biggest…