Newsletter
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FOIA keeps popping up in eavesdropping case
Edmund A. Matricardi III, the former executive director of the Virginia Republican Party, was fined $5,000 and sentenced to three years probation for his role in the GOP eavesdropping scandal. But the case didn’t end there.Matricardi’s Virginia law license was suspended following his guilty plea; a three-judge court later reinstated the license once his probation…
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Unchecked e-talk would gut accountability
E-mail meetings hurt open government in Virginia by Forrest “Frosty” Landon Reprinted from the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, Oct. 19, 2003.There’s an old saying that suggests if you’re not confused by a complicated issue, you’re clearly misinformed. The Fredericksburg City Council e-mail case, now headed to the Virginia Supreme Court, has a lot of folks confused—and…
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F’burg clerk creates e-mail archive
Prompted in part by the Beck v. Shelton case, and in part because of a massive FOIA request for more e-mails between Fredericksburg Mayor Bill Beck and some of his fellow council members, the Fredericksburg city clerk has begun archiving all of the council’s electronic messages for easy access by the public.During the course of…
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VCOG’s 5th annual conference worthy of historic setting
The Rotunda plays host to panels, speakers and awards on perfect fall day by Bill Atkinson The Virginia Coalition for Open Government held its fifth annual conference on access issues Nov. 15 at the historic Rotunda on the grounds of the University of Virginia. More than 20 panelists and speakers discussed FOIA’s 35th anniversary; the…
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F.O.I. Complaints
ACCOMACK The Accomack and Northampton boards of supervisors subsidize the Eastern Shore Railroad. Both boards are public bodies. The Accomack-Northampton Transportation District Commission oversees the funding. It’s also a public entity.The railroad might or might not be subject to FOIA, depending on how much public money it gets. But when it was time to…
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E-Government Briefs
Va.’s digital legislature ranked 8th in the nation Virginia’s legislature ranks eighth in the nation in its use of technology to keep citizens informed of legislative activity.Nevada has the most digitally advanced legislature, according to the 2003 Digital Legislatures Survey. In addition to good online information, it provides live broadcasts of interim committee meetings. Minnesota…
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Another bad FOIA bill we can expect in 2004
The leadership council of the State Bar is still resisting a FOI Advisory Council ruling that its list of licensed lawyers must be a public record.At a meeting in late fall, the council backed legislation to try to trump that part of the FOI law that mandates disclosure of any existing public-record database. In the…
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FOIA roadshows roll in September
The FOI Advisory Council held its annual statewide training workshops in September. Council staff held day-long events in Richlands, Roanoke, Weyer’s Cave, Virginia Beach, Richmond and Alexandria, attended by approximately 650 people. Attendees included state and local government employees and officials, law-enforcement personnel, citizens and media representatives.The workshops were approved for 5.5 hours of continuing…
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FOIAC subcommittees draft two bills for ’04
Two subcommittees of the Freedom of Information Advisory Council were formed at the June 2, 2003, council meeting.One, made up of council members Tom Moncure and John Edwards, was to explore the possibility of bringing the Sexually Violent Predators Commitment Review Committee back within the purview of FOIA. Legislation from 2003 wholly exempted the committee…
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FOI Advisory Council releases stats in annual report
In its annual report, the FOI Advisory Council detailed the number and types of requests for help asked of the council from December 2002 through November 2003. A draft of the report was made available at the council’s Dec. 1 meeting, though an official version, which will be given a Senate document number, will be…
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FOI Advisory Council Updates: Advisory Opinions
Since June 2003, the Freedom of Information Advisory Council issued more than a dozen opinions, including AO-12-03, in which the Newport News city manager’s office failed to respond to any of three requests made by the Newport News Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference asking for documents related to the public comment period at…
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Library of Virginia wants Public Records Act update
by Bill Atkinson A state subcommittee will recommend that Virginia look at revising the Public Records Act to codify a procedure for storing electronic records. The panel, which is studying overall operations of Virginia agencies, boards and commissions, will ask the 2004 General Assembly to authorize the study, which comes at the request of the…
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Coalition Bulletin Board
VCOG thank-you’s Thanks to the many friends of open government who helped us make the Access 2003 conference a success.Former Gov. Jerry Baliles, State Sen. Bo Trumbo, former Del. Jay Deboer and the press association’s Ginger Stanley provided a fine roast of retiring Del. Chip Woodrum at the fund-raising dinner although, as expected, Chip…
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Records committee holds off on ’04 bills, awaits research
The joint subcommittee to study the protection of information contained in court records ended its second year not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with a wait-and-see.Sen.-elect Jeannemarie Devolites, R-Vienna, who chairs the subcommittee, adjourned the Dec. 15 meeting, the second of the fall, without a legislative agenda for the 2004 term. Last…
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Fredericksburg e-mail case in Supreme Court’s hands
Local governments and public access advocates will look to the Virginia Supreme Court in 2004 for resolution of the hot-button issue of the times: can the use of e-mail by members of a public body ever be considered to be an illegal electronic meeting.Electronic meetings are not allowed at the local level; they are allowed…
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Ky., Ga. university foundations must comply with FOI regulations
A Kentucky circuit court ordered the University of Louisville Foundation to disclose the names of 45,000 people who have made a donation to the public institution.The (Louisville) Courier-Journal sued the university for copies of expenditure receipts, minutes of meetings, names of donors and the amounts of their gifts. In July 2002, a judge ruled that…
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Albert Pollard: Your government and the information you own
As an elected official, I can testify that meeting the requirements of Virginia’s Freedom of Information law is not always easy. However, Virginia’s FOIA laws are every bit as important to our democracy as the right to free speech. FOIA is the ability to find out papers and information in the government. If government can…
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Do-Not-Call list attracts millions
Sixty million Americans have declared their phone numbers off limits to sales pitches by signing up with the national do-not-call list. Virginian-Pilot columnist Dave Addis imagined what those pitches might have sounded like in earlier times: “Mr. Madison, Mr. Madison! We’re giving you a free vacation for two at a muddy, stanky campground in Colonial…
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House majority leader, Griffith, signs up for FOI Advisory Council
Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, has appointed the House majority leader, Del. H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, to the Freedom of Information AdvisoryGriffith introduced legislation in the 2004 General Assembly session that would have exempted meetings of the legislature from the open-meetings portion of the FOI Act. Griffith will replace Del. S. Chris…
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Commission to take on review, revision of Public Records Act
On March 9, the Virginia General Assembly formally commissioned a joint subcommittee of legislators and citizens to examine the impact of electronic records on the state depository. The purpose of the study is to generate proposals to amend the Public Records Act (“PRA”).The PRA designates the Library of Virginia as the depository of state records.…
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State prisons pay $350,000 in Connecticut inmate’s death
A $350,000 check got cut in an out-of-court settlement involving the death of Larry Frazier, an inmate from Connecticut who was housed at a Virginia “super-max” prison.Despite a Freedom of Information Act inquiry from The Roanoke Times, the Office of the Attorney General insisted that “attorney-client privilege,” as well as a confidentiality agreement with Frazier’s…
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President Bush signs ID-theft billn
A new federal law gives consumers added protections against identity theft, including free credit reports and a national fraud-alert system. The measure also requires that receipts omit the last digits of credit cards.Opponents of the bill said it pre-empts tougher state privacy laws that prevent businesses from sharing their customers’ financial information with other companies.…
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Madison mansion to get new/old look
Montpelier, the home of James Madison, will undergo a $30 million restoration over the next four years, returning the mansion to its original 1820s condition.The majority of the restoration money, $20 million, will be provided by the estate of philanthropist Paul Mellon. A federal program will donate an additional $1 million, and the remaining money…
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Hampton U. editor wins $5,000 prize
Talia Buford, editor-in-chief of Hampton University’s Hampton Script, is one of 10 winners of this year’s Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award.Buford got the $5,000 prize “for serving as an inspiration to student journalists everywhere when she won the university’s promise of an uncensored student newspaper.” Buford said, “I have a staff of about 15…
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Kudos
• Hampton — Even when a closed meeting’s technically legal, closure isn’t always good policy or good politics. Hampton’s new city council obviously agrees. Acting on the recommendation of City Attorney Paul Burton, it went into secret session to discuss the city’s options for handling state funding for schools.But once the members were behind a…