FOI Blog

Consider donating to the Virginia Coalition for Open Government this holiday season. Read about what we do here at VCOG and why every penny counts. http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/560788/e9ff536f91/282550247/d5b8798474/

(Note: Laurence Richardson was a founding member of VCOG)   Call For Entries The Laurence E. Richardson Community Service Award is is annual award given by the VAB to the station that exemplifies the benefits of local community service by Virginia’s broadcasters.  The award will be presented at the Legislative Cocktail Reception on Wednesday, January…

“There are citizens and members of the media who are convinced that all of us in this room are … criminal[s]. They will never change their mind. You could give them the key to your entire filing cabinet and they’ll still think you’re hiding something. “But on the flip side, you have public officials who,…

The following is a statement issued by ASNE, the sponsors of the yearly effort known as Sunshine Week (March 14-20). If you know of a Virginia “local hero,” please pass that information on to VCOG at vcog@opengovva.org. Next year’s national Sunshine Week (March 14-20) will highlight local heroes across America who have played significant roles…

Back when he was still roaming the halls of the Virginia General Assembly, and keeping everyone laughing along the way, Del. Chip Woodrum added a nice little provision to the law governing purchases made under the Virginia Public Procurement Act.Section 2.2-1111(B)(2) says that the Division of Purchases and Supply within the Department of General Services…

Election results of contested seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates. Results were taken from the State Board of Elections’ Web site, current as of 9:30 a.m., 11/4/09. An asterisk indicates the incumbent candidate. Bolded names indicate the contest winners. District Democrat Republican Other Party Other Party 3 Dan Bowling* James Morefield 6 Carole Pratt Anne…

On Monday, Oct. 26, the Advisory Committee on Rules of Court, a committee of the Judicial Council of Virginia, issued a revised proposed rule on the confidentiality of juror information. The new rule eliminates the blanket use of anonymous jurors in all criminal cases and reworks a few of the provisions regarding subsequent use of…

Valerie Garner at Roanoke Free Press did an outstanding job writing up summaries, linking to other news articles, taking pictures and posting videos of VCOG’s annual conference …. all on her own. But that’s Valerie for you! She’s as dedicated to open government in Virginia as VCOG is. Take a moment to look through the…

Thank you to Bob Corso, Ed Reams and the other folks at WHSV in Harrisonburg and Staunton for having me on as a guest for their daily one-on-one feature for the 5:00 news.      

Virginia Coalition for Open Government bestows open government awards in citizen, media and government categories Carol Lindstrom is this year’s recipient of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government’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 and will…

When it comes to understanding both the letter and the spirit of Virginia’s Freedom of Information law, John Edwards, editor/publisher of The Times of Smithfield is one of the state’s best. So, it is of little surprise that he would have something to say about a couple of FOIA fights brewing in his home-county of…

  This day in 1996: President Bill Clinton signs amendments to the Freedom of Information Act that help usher in a new age of digital democracy. The new law requires the government to make electronic documents available online. http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/10/1002electronic-foia/ ====================   A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to release…

   Today at the FOI Advisory Council’s meeting, a representative from the Prince William County Schools, and the county’s outside attorney, announced their desire to ask for an exemption to FOIA in the upcoming session. (Actually, they asked for two, but only one is relevant here.) PWCS uses a system called the Electronic Visitor Identification…

As reported by the Miami Herald,  The Florida Public Service Commission chairman ordered his agency to disable all text messaging on state-issued Blackberrys as questions continued about whether staff used the devices to skirt public records laws. The commission has been targeted for potential ethics violations. Virginia officials would do well to remember that written electronic…

VCOG is not the only group opposing the rules advisory committee’s proposal to make jurors anonymous in all criminal cases. The ACLU of Virginia issued a press release that includes its legal counsel’s comments filed in opposition. So did the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. So did the Virginia Press Association. Kent Sinclair, chair…

The Texas Attorney General filed a brief today in the federal court appeal of a district court ruling that said parts of Texas’ open meetings law unconstitutionally infringed on the First Amendment rights of elected officials. In a press release, the Texas AG argues that the law furthers, rather than frustrates, fundamental First Amendment values.…

Recent FOIA “end-runs” show why a response of “no” to a request for records doesn’t always put an end to the matter.Most recently, a homeowners’ association for a neighborhood in both York County and Newport News asked both governments for certain records related to a zoning decision affecting the neighborhood. The association got most of…

A Daily Press editorial faults Newport News City Council for its handling of hearing on city manager’s fate. The meeting was open (at the manager’s request), but it was held at a time inconvenient to most citizens (10 a.m. on a Tuesday). Then, after the manager’s lengthy defense of his job and performance, the council…

Check out MapLight.org’s new feature: Money Near Votes It tracks campaign contributions to candidates as certain votes approach and shortly after votes are taken.

VCOG has submitted comments to the Va. Supreme Court’s Advisory Council on Rules in opposition to a proposed rule to refer to all jurors in criminal cases by number. The proposal goes on to say that juror records cannot be copied by the lawyers who receive them, and the records must be returned to the…

Full text of judge’s decision A Roanoke judge reminded local sheriff Octavia Johnson that mug shots are public records that must be released upon request (they can be kept confidential if their release would jeopardize an ongoing investigation, but not after that danger’s passed). Johnson’s policy was to release photos of those still in the…

Podcast on why VCOG’s board of directors is opposed to a rule proposed by a Va. Supreme Court advisory committee that would use numbers instead of names for jurors in all criminal cases.http://web.me.com/meganrhyne/Site_3/Podcast/Podcast.htmlFor a copy of the proposal, click here.And for a recent editorial on more on why the idea’s a bad one, see below.

The Warren County Department of Social Services has not violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as claimed in a pending lawsuit in General District Court, according to the county attorney. “An adage says there are two sides to every story,” Warren County Attorney Blair D. Mitchell says in a response to an argument made…

Loudoun County Chairman Scott K. York (I-At Large) has submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act to try and find the truth about reports that have circulated about the Planning Commission since last week. York confirmed this weekend he has submitted a FOIA request to Commissioner Sandra Chaloux (Dulles) in an attempt to…

Virginia passed a law in 2008 that allows courts to close access to juror lists upon a showing of good cause (http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+19.2-263.3). The bill was originally introduced in 2007, sponsored by Del. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), but was sent to the Crime Commission for study. Del. Bob Marshall (R-Manassas) carried the bill in 2008 and made…