Newsletter
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VCOG bulletin board
Wat Hopkins, VCOG Immediate Past President and professor of communications at Virginia Tech, has been named the Roy H. Park Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina for the spring semester of 2010. Hopkins, a North Carolina native, earned his Ph.D. from UNC. Rod…
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It was mostly sunny for FOI in ’09
Bad FOIA bills were few; other bills were pro-accessThis year’s General Assembly session forwarded at least 20 bills affecting records and meetings under the Freedom of Information Act to the governor, with the majority containing either positive, neutral or procedural changes for open government, and only three critically limiting public information. Five “good” FOIA fixes…
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The highs and lows of the legislative session
Impressions on the sausage-making factory from a "newbie"by Megan RhyneExecutive DirectorVirginia Coalition for Open GovernmentThough I’ve attended legislative committee meetings for the past several years as VCOG’s associate director, this was the first year — as executive director — that I immersed myself in the session. Everyone knows the comparison between making laws and making…
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One citizen’s FOIA requests lead to legislative action
(scroll down for a chart of bills that will amend the Freedom of Information Act)It started with curiosity, and ended with a new law.Prince William County resident Mark Hjelm was curious about the new Visitor Identification System the PWC school system started using in October 2007.The system requires visitors to at least three Prince William…
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Five bills referred to FOIA Council
(scroll down for a chart of bills referred to the FOIA Council)Five bills will be considered by the FOI Advisory Council this summer. The fate of bills referred to the council for study can range from a decision not to act at all, to a full-fledged examination by all interested stakeholders and proposed legislation for…
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Also of note
While many other states, most notably Tennessee, are currently embroiled in the controversy over access to names of concealed weapon permit holders, Virginia disposed of the issue (for now at least) pretty easily and pretty quietly in 2009.Angered over the Roanoke Times’ 2007 publication of the State Police database of permittees, Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg,…
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Access legislation came in many shapes and sizes
Access legislation came in many shapes and sizes(scroll down for a chart of access-related bills)The 2009 General Assembly was especially interesting for the number of bills filed that promoted access to information in general, or that promoted e-government services to the public. The highest-profile of these bills were advanced by Del. Ben Cline, R-Amherst, and…
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Legislation RIP
Legislation RIP: Public notice bills among axed legislation(scroll down for a chart of bills that did not pass)Several bills did not make it out of committee, not even to see the light of day in a further study or commission.Some of those bills were bad, from VCOG’s perspective, and we will not mourn their passing.Two…
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What about SSNs?
A joint study of the FOI Advisory Council and the Joint Commission on Science and Technology has been analyzing access to Social Security numbers. The two organizations surveyed state and local government asking when and why they collected SSNs. When survey results showed just how widespread government collection of SSNs was, the joint committee agreed…
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VCOG annual conference
The 2009 Virginia Coalition for Open Government Annual Conference returns to the fall.Join us Oct. 15 and 16 at the historic Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton, Va., for topical panels, notable keynoters and the camaraderie of others who share an interest in open and transparent government.VCOG will present its annual awards honoring individual, media and…
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Ask us a question
Q: A county board of supervisors has discussed appointing an interview panel to screen applicants for an open position. The board has five members. The interview panel would consist of two board members, a member of the county economic development authority, a representative from the Chamber of Commerce, the county administrator and possibly a citizen…
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SSNs can stay on watchdog’s Web site
Privacy activist challenges law that would have punished her for publishing Social Security numbers she got from public recordsA newly enacted law prohibiting people from intentionally posting a person’s Social Security number online is unconstitutional as applied to privacy advocate B.J. Ostergren’s Web site, a federal district judge in Richmond ruled Aug. 22.The new law…
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FOIA legislation under the dome
Sun will shine on House subcommitteesHouse Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford, issued a statement in mid-December announcing that subcommittee votes will be recorded during the 2009 session. Since 2006, a House internal rule allowed legislation to be killed in subcommittee on an unrecorded voice vote.The press hammered the practice, noting the Senate records its subcommittee votes…
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FOIA Complaints
AppomattoxAfter the Times-Virginian reported that the county school board may have violated FOIA by holding a meeting without properly notifying the public, as required by FOIA, and speculating that the meeting led to the ouster of a high school principal, school superintendent Aldridge Boone went on the offensive. Boone not only argued that the board…
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FOIA Council updates: opinions
In AO-07-08, issued in June, the council wrangled with what constitutes records responsive to a citizen request. A Richmond-area citizen asked for the calendar of the deputy secretary of natural resources, but was told that a single calendar did not exist. The council said that while the secretary might not use a calendar in the…
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FOIA Council updates: subcommittees
Council committees propose fixes, will further study other issuesAt the council’s Aug. 5 meeting, Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, switched roles. The council’s enabling legislation requires the chairmanship to rotate every four years. Houck will now be the council’s vice chair, while Griffith will pick up the gavel as chair from…
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President’s Note
By LAWRENCE McCONNELLPresidentVirginia Coalition for Open GovernmentIn the business world, the quantitative often can reveal much about the qualitative. And, as the incoming president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, I’ve reviewed some of the numbers associated with the coalition — numbers that I think you’d agree tell a positive story about the impact…
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VCOG bulletin board
Coalition names new directorMegan Rhyne was named executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government in October 2008 by VCOG’s board of directors. Rhyne previously served as VCOG’s associate director for 10 years. Megan has an undergraduate degree in radio, television and motion pictures from University of North Carolina, and a law degree from…
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VCOG installs new officers
VCOG installs new officersFamiliar faces begin terms Jan. 1, 2009The Virginia Coalition for Open Government installed new officers at its Nov. 21 board meeting at the Virginia Press Association home office in Glen Allen.Lawrence McConnell, publisher of the Charlottesville Daily Progress, was elected to succeed Wat Hopkins of Virginia Tech’s school of mass communication, as…
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Correcting the record on the Virginia Tech shootings
Correcting the record on the Virginia Tech shootingsRecords released through FOIA contradict officials’ earlier statements about timeline of broadcast warnings; students create records archiveWhen Virginia Tech reached a settlement with the families of the victims of Seung-Hui Cho’s shooting spree in April 2007, it agreed to make public some of the key details of the…
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Ask us a FOIA question
The followin are samples of questions Virginia citizens (and a few from outside the state) have asked us via the “Ask Us a FOIA Question” feature on our Web site, www.opengovva.org. We answer an average of seven questions per week. Questions were answered by VCOG Associate Director Megan Rhyne. The following questions have been edited…
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VCOG 2008 citizen & media FOI awards
Leigh Purdum of Madison County received VCOG’s Laurence E. Richardson award for individual citizen contributions to open government. The award honors the memory of a longtime Charlottesville broadcaster and VCOG founding director.Purdum, a former sheriff’s office employee, won a landmark court decision against Madison County Sheriff Eric J. Weaver for willfully violating the state’s Freedom…
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Boucher headlines VCOG conference
The Virginia Coalition for Open Government held its annual conference May 22-23 in Fredericksburg.The conference kicked off with a dinner May 22 honoring the recipients of this year’s FOI award winners: Leigh Purdum and Laurence Hammack (see story, page 9). The keynote speaker was Sen. Edward Houck (D-Spotsylvania), the chair of the FOI Advisory Council,…
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FOI Complaints
GLOUCESTER – The Gloucester Board of Supervisors played “fast and loose” with the state’s FOI laws, county Commonwealth Attorney Robert D. Hicks said in a February report on the board’s cloak-and-dagger firing of the county manager and immediate hiring of the board chair’s friend, Lacy Smith, as a replacement. Though Hicks said there wasn’t a…
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FOI Advisory Council updates
Council opinion summariesIn AO-11-07, the council concluded that the sheriff of Madison County had to release the names of the citizens he appointed to a citizens’ advisory committee. The sheriff cited §2.2-3705.1(10) (as the Attorney General did in his opinion about releasing the names of concealed weapon permit holders to justify withholding personal information, like…