FOI Blog

The FOIA Council has a subcommittee studying fees charged for records under FOIA. It’s coming about because of a bill — HB 2000 — that was introduced in the January 2021 legislative session and then sent to the council. Watch the FOIA Council subcommittee June 14, 2021, at 1 p.m. The exact language of the…

When facing a crisis, the front door is the best approach This piece originally appeared in the Virginia Mercuy on March 9, 2021.   Where should the proposed landfill be located?   Who is the most qualified candidate to be the new school superintendent? How much did it cost to implement that program? Politic me…

Not so much ‘outright awful’: A round-up FOIA legislation in the 2021 session This piece originally ran in the Jan. 22, 2021, edition of the Virginia Mercury. If there is a silver lining to a clunky yet frenetic mostly-virtual General Assembly session, it is that there are fewer bills to sift through: 1,098 bills and…

This piece originally ran in the Virginia Mercury, Aug. 17, 2020   I’m no expert on the art of policing. Beyond my personal opinions, I couldn’t tell you when the use of force is or isn’t appropriate, or to what extent police officers should be immune from lawsuits for their actions. I wouldn’t know how much…

“In the midst of a pandemic, it is reasonable to expect delays in processing public records requests and even incomplete responses, especially where public entities may not have access to physical files or other resources. But work-from-home orders have demonstrated that government can carry on remotely. New data, contracts and communications are being created digitally…

Amid the honking horns, fainting leaders, plexiglass boxes and face mask fashion, it was easy to miss the governor’s amendments to the budget bills that were approved Wednesday, unanimously by the House and with minimal dissent in the Senate, that allow public bodies to meet electronically during the time of a declared emergency “when it is…

Time for transparency on COVID-19 hotbeds by Steve Stewart, Publisher of The Smithfield Times. Originally published in The Smithfield Times During a global pandemic, we tread lightly with criticism of pubic health professionals, who’ve served admirably and, in many cases, heroically while guiding society through the challenge of our lifetimes. Yet, we can’t leave unchecked a…

NOTE: This column, by one of VCOG’s founding board members, John Edwards, was originally published by The Smithfield Times. Edwards, the former editor of the Times, still writes a column for the paper, called In the Short Rows. Edwards was instrumental in setting up the FOIA Council and served on the council for his first…

Read the original editorial as it appeared in The Daily Progress, April 5, 2020. Megan’s note: I wish I had written this. It’s perfect. Opinion/Editorial: Democracy’s health also must be shielded Local governments are charting new territory in their move to electronic meeting forums. It’s important that they get this right. They are making changes that go…

FOIA requests by elected officials prompt backlash from fellow board members.

We are at a tipping point now because more and more requesters are seeing larger and larger bills. Without an understanding of the complexity of an email search, these charges appear not only arbitrary, but also punitive, a tool for discouraging requests.

OK, this story makes me tetchy. At a Pulaski County Board of Supervisors meeting, a supervisor and the county administrator engaged in an exchange over a projected slide showing the number of FOIA requests filed each year for the past nine years.  The total was 361, which equals 35.4/year, which equals fewer than 3/month. (A story from…

Public bodies often use secretive processes to hire a chief administrator, also known as a manager, executive or superintendent. It doesn’t have to be that way.

How the record was created, how it was delivered, how it was sent, whose equipment was used (and even whether it was a final report or a draft one), none of that matters when it comes to determining what a public record is.