Newsletter
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Federal FOI reforms: Will Congress act?
Inside-the-Beltway secrecy keeps expanding despite growing public concern, according to the Secrecy Report Card, produced annually by OpenTheGovernment.org.The September report found a troubling lack of transparency in military procurement, new private inventions and the scientific and technical advice that the government receives, among other areas. The public’s use of FOIA continued to rise and agency…
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FOI Complaints
ALEXANDRIA — Following its regular meeting, Alexandria City Council went into a closed executive session with the Alexandria Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s Board of Commissioners. Most authority members did not know the reason. Sources said the council was looking for a solution to saving a deteriorated public housing project. The authority has an aversion to…
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Virginia Supreme Court records task force issues final draft of proposed rules
A Supreme Court task force issued a fifth and final draft of proposed rules governing access to court records on Dec. 4. The draft was sent to Chief Justice Leroy Hassell, who formed the committee in 2005, and presumably will be vetted through the usual rules-creation process for public comment.Few changes were made between the…
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Lobbyists often omit some needed details
Lobbyists spent a record $15.4 million attempting to sway members of the General Assembly between May 1, 2005, and April 30, 2006. According to records at the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office reviewed by Tyler Whitley of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the money went for everything from dinners out to golf trips to $650 for a…
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Searching for warrants
The judicial branch of government in Staunton suffered a collective brain freeze this fall when a prosecutor and a judge decided to block public access to normally available search warrants.It all started when a secretary in the Commonwealth Attorney’s office, looking to cut down on paperwork and interviews, drafted a blanket order to seal all…
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$137 million secret
No secret lasts forever. But it can last seven months, and that’s how long it took state officials to fess up to a $137 million mistake involving school funding. Top fiscal officials in the Warner administration knew about the mistake, and still said nothing to Governor Timothy Kaine. Nonetheless, Kaine took responsibility.Republicans were outraged; Democrats…
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Legislation considered for 2007 session
The proposed legislation to come out of the FOI Advisory Council will not be the only legislation that seeks to amend FOIA or otherwise restrict access to public information.Prompted by a 2006 court case, the council agreed with council staff that a clarification of FOIA’s venue rules was needed. In Shaw v. Casteen, Louisa County…
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FOI Advisory Council updates: FOIAC subcommittees submit draft laws
It was a tortuous journey, measured in straight lines, radii, traffic snarls and mountain roads, but the FOI Advisory Council’s subcommittee on electronic meetings finally produced a recommendation that the full council adopted at its Dec. 15 meeting. Draft legislation reflecting the recommendation will be introduced in the 2007 General Assembly session.The e-meeting subcommittee, which…
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FOI Advisory Council Updates: Opinions
Since the August 2006 newsletter, the Freedom of Information Advisory Council has issued four opinions. The opinions were dominated by questions involving the public-body status of various quasi-governmental entities, an issue bound to come up even more in the future.AO-07-06 addressed a question from the assistant secretary of transportation on the public-body status of an…
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President’s Page: Fear spoils freedom’s promise
by Paul McMasters, pictured below, presiding over his last meeting as VCOG board presidentThe First Amendment turned 215 years old on Dec. 15. At its birth then, as it is today, this constitutional guarantee was a breathtakingly beautiful testimony to the value of freedom of conscience and expression.The Bill of Rights officially became a part…
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VCOG Bulletin Board
HOPKINS NAMED VCOG PRESIDENTDr. W. Wat Hopkins, an associate professor at Virginia Tech, has been elected president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.Hopkins, a member of the state’s FOI Advisory Council, succeeds Paul McMasters of Manassas, the First Amendment Ombudsman at the Arlington-based Freedom Forum. Hopkins teaches communication in Tech’s College of Liberal Arts…
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VCOG’s 10th anniversary celebrated in style
It was no ordinary night. In fact, it was a night that can occur only once a decade. It was the Virginia Coalition for Open Government’s 10th Anniversary Gala, held Nov. 16 in the foyer of the Library of Virginia.More than 150 people were on hand at the black-tie-optional reception and dinner, where regular folks…
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Unanimous pro-FOIA ruling from Supreme Ct.
The Virginia Supreme Court unanimously reversed a Culpeper County Circuit Court ruling that had okayed a closed-door session of the Culpeper Board of Supervisors to discuss a contract between the Culpeper County School Board and an architect hired to design a new public high school. Justice Cynthia Kinser’s 7-0 ruling found the board of supervisors…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…