FOI Blog

The Freedom of Information Advisory Council found itself on a list no state agency wants to be on: a list suggesting that various boards and commissions be shuttered. The list, which also includes recommendations for consolidating other boards, has been compiled by a subcommittee on Governor Bob McDonnell’s Government Reform Commission. Not all recommendations for…

  Two roads cross at “The Busiest Intersection in Virginia”: Money and politics.   So says the promotional brochures for the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), the 13-year-old non-profit founded by David Poole to shine the light on political contributions and political expenditures in Virginia.   The organization, which now boasts three employees and may…

At the Virginia Coalition for Open Government’s annual conference, the panel topics were very different, but there was nonetheless a common thread running through them all. Panelists and speakers who gathered at the Capitol on Oct. 22 discussed lobbying the General Assembly, access to information on college campuses, government technology, FOIA basics and using FOIA…

One of the ideals underlying VCOG’s formation in 1996 was the notion that Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act was a citizens’ law, not a press law. It was the people’s right to know, not just a reporter’s right to know.   VCOG’s first director, Frosty Landon, was a newspaper man himself, but he tirelessly championed…

The FOIA Council has had its plate full this summer, studying issues affecting access and the Freedom of Information Act.   Some of the issues are not particularly problematic, more matters of degree or of detail, like figuring out the right language to use for the amount of advance notice a public body must have…

I’ve lost count of the articles and editorials I’ve read over the past several months. I’ve even lost count of the localities or boards. The Albemarle School Board stands out only because it may be the most recent (and, truth be told, because a faithful VCOG member of many years alerted me to it). So,…

From time to time I get calls from reporters who are doing stories about Virginia’s FOIA or public access laws in general. Invariably, I’ll be asked how Virginia rates against other states: is it better, worse, average?   When asked, I tend to limp along in response, hedging here, qualifying there, because it’s really tough…

  It was a busy week in the courts last week for access to government records, and I’m not even talking about the release on Wikileaks of tens of thousands of classified documents related to the war in Afganistan.   Right here in Virginia, three cases in varying stages of litigation were bright on the…

Better records management and better tracking of FOIA requests can make a government clerk’s ability to keep up with FOIA duties easier.

I received two comments yesterday from readers about another reader’s suggestion for reducing costs from the Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum post earlier this week. The original suggestion came from a frequent records requester in California, and it appears that Virginia law isn’t set up in a way to make the suggestion feasible. (p.s. Changes to…

According to the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Mississippi, the Magnolia state’s open records law says public bodies can charge the “actual cost” for providing the records. “Who knew those two words could be interpreted in so many ways?” the center asks in its spring newsletter.   Virginia similarly uses…

The law is the law is the law.   We can have heartfelt and earnest discussions about whether certain laws should exist. We can also reasonably debate the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law.   Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, we should also add to the mix the role…

A few weeks ago I talked about the great tips and strategies suggested by David Cuillier in his Access Across America talk. Between the things Cuillier had to say during the presentation, the fantastic handouts and Cuillier’s book, The Art of Access, there are so many helpful suggestions that it’s hard to pick among as…

Public records in Virginia are presumed open. As such, they must be disclosed upon request unless a law in another part of the Virginia (or, possibly federal) law prohibits it. Period.   But, wait a minute, what about exemptions to disclosure in FOIA? Don’t those prohibit disclosure?   No, no they don’t.   FOIA’s 142-some-odd…

It happened again today.   Some FOIA issues come up over and over and over. Usually, it’s an overarching issue with lots of possible permutations. That is, maybe it’s an issue having to do with response time, but there are a thousand different scenarios. Or, maybe it’s about exemptions, but there are over 120 exemptions…

There were two stories last week in the Daily Press about the Hampton City Council and its efforts to reduce the cost of public meetings.   The first story, “Hampton City Council may ditch the costly paper agendas,” sets us up, telling us that it costs an average of $1,500 to print agendas for council…

It was a cruel spring at Mr. Jefferson’s University. In what should have been a time of flowering dogwoods and days of hope and promise for the future, the University of Virginia found itself in the midst of two issues of national interest, and both including a transparency element.     The first, and most…

VCOG was pleased to play host yesterday, May 22, to David Cuillier’s Access Across America tour. Forty citizens, private investigators and print and broadcast journalists signed up to spend their Saturday afternoon hearing Cuillier deliver a lively presentation on the power of public records and strategies for getting them.   The Society of Professional Journalists…

In today’s troubled economic times, it’s not hard to understand the sense of nervous excitement generated by the prospect of a new business locating in the area or of an existing business expanding: jobs, tax revenue, community involvement, stability.   If there were ever any doubt, see the crushing flip side of this when, say,…

In an excellent editorial published in late April, the Daily Press criticized the Hampton City Council’s recent changes to the citizen comment period of public meetings.   The Daily Press didn’t fault the city for wanting to improve the meetings’ efficiency, or to eliminate personal attacks or the rehashing of past decisions. The newspaper’s complaint instead…

Prince William County resident Mark Hjelm finally got his day in court April 14. And it was a pretty good day.   The aftermath, well, that’s not so pretty.   Hjelm has been locked in battle with the Prince William County School system for the past few years over Hjelm’s FOIA request to view visitor…

FOIA isn’t something most people think about day in and day out. I remember the Virginia FOIA Council’s Maria Everett once saying something to the effect of, “No one grows up wanting to be a FOIA geek.” True that. But it is funny to me, as a card-carrying FOIA geek, how FOIA suddenly becomes the…

Working the edges By Megan Rhyne   1. Prior to a city council meeting, Councilman A huddles with Councilman B, talking, nodding and gesturing. Councilman B then goes over to Councilman C, again talking earnestly. Councilman B, then goes to Councilman D, then Councilman E, then Councilman F, where similar conversations take place. The meeting…

Watching Richmond politics unfold in person or on the General Assembly’s Web site is complicated, but one man has made getting informed simpler Waldo Jaquith, the Albemarle County resident behind the 3-year-old legislative tracking Web site Richmond Sunlight (richmondsunlight.com), spends his nights and weekends keeping up the aggregation site and giving people a place to…