FOI Blog

The policy flaw in the judge’s decision is that it allows a major category of public employees to remain anonymous. Specifically, it gives individuals who have the power of life or death over their fellow citizens to be paid from taxpayer funds without any accountability.

The FOIA Council should return to its roots and proceed collaboratively  

It’s become predictable. Some tragedy, some catastrophe, some breakdown, something’s gone terribly wrong. Everyone’s reeling. Questions are multiplying. Rumors are flying. So it is understandable that in their zeal to Do Something, many public bodies most closely impacted by the event rush to launch an investigation. Please. Someone. Tell us what went wrong. Then, weeks…

Rocking chair quarterbacking the past week  

An Arkansas state senate committee hearing warmed my heart. Pig Sooie!  

The optics of this fee estimate are not good.  

Please stop making up reasons to redact names form public records so I can stop using all-caps.

A controversy over meeting recordings in Augusta County could use a bit of clarity  

In an era marked by political polarization and heightened mistrust in public institutions, it is crucial to identify areas of agreement that outstrip party lines. One such area lies in government transparency.

A Virginia Supreme Court ruling on what constitutes “public business” continues a string of pro-access cases in the past few years.

In a brief podcast posted on Substack, Megan tells a story on herself and reminds us that mistakes should be met with grace when possible.

A deep dive into requests made through MuckRock      

Retreats may be more informal for members of the public body, but they still require notice and minutes like other public meetings.

Between bad actors and dismissive attitudes, our FOIA law is being crushed

The Virginia Supreme Court weighs in on pandemic-era electronic meeting and potentially upends the apple cart

Meh The General Assembly adjourned with many opportunities left on the table The 2023 General Assembly adjourned Feb. 26 without a complete budget and without taking full advantage of legislation offered to make citizen access to records and meetings easier or better. There’s nothing super egregious, but there’s also not as much to get excited…

It’s Crossover Day at the General Assembly. Surviving House bills make their last bid to cross over to the Senate, where they’ll meet Senate bills headed in the opposite direction. Quite a winnowing has taken place until now. Of the nearly 70 bills that VCOG started tracking at the opening of the session, barely half…

Recently, a coach on my kid’s sports team was let go. It came as a shock to my kid (and to me), and my kid was very disappointed. This coach had been a real inspiration to my wee one and was consistently enthusiastic, upbeat and encouraging. Because I am like I am, I sent a…

Over the past several years — heck, most of the 2000s — I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to celebrate a pro-public win on FOIA issues in the Virginia Supreme Court. Much less two. In one day. Unanimously. So, pardon me if I bask in the glow of yesterday’s rulings in Hawkins v. Town of…

This post original appeared on VCOG’s Substack Newsletter, September 13, 2022   This isn’t a criticism, more of an observation: Our public institutions of higher education are technically state agencies, but they should act more like local public bodies. School districts. State agencies tend to be topic-specific. They attract the attention of specific interests because…

This post originally appeared on VCOG’s Substack newsletter, Aug. 31, 2022.   It’s not uncommon in our fractious political discourse for someone to hurl admonishments at foes that they must learn from history lest they be doomed to repeat it. But how can we know history if we can’t even agree on what history is?…

Yeah, hi, so, um, I pretty much just want to vent. Hope you’re OK with that.  There’s a lot going on in the world today and I might be processing some subconscious feelings. But it might be that yesterday I had the pleasure of doing two presentations to the constituents of Pat O’Bannon, current chair…

April 2022 was a full month of FOIA cases that were filed or decided

The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press weigh in on why the Virginia Senate should reject an attempt to roll back access law passed last year

We don’t get the chance to respond to things said in committee, so……   The Senate General Laws Committee today [Feb. 23] took testimony on a bill (HB 734) that rolls back most of what was accomplished last year in the area of allowing access to some files, or parts of files, in criminal investigative records that…