FOI Blog

VCOG’s executive director, Megan Rhyne, was a guest on the June 10, 2016, edition of This Week in Richmond, hosted by David Bailey.

This article originally appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Friday, March 18, 2016 Rhyne: FOIA requests shouldn't pit government against the public Here’s a two-question test for you: Question 1: Are government employees and public officials (a) always trying to hide something, or (b) of the purest hearts and noblest of actions? Question 2: Is the “public” (a)…

A slightly edited version of this column originally ran in The Roanoke Times, Sunday, March 13, n2016   Rhyne: Meeting meeting myths head-on By Megan Rhyne Rhyne is executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. When we talk about the Freeom of Information Act, the tendency is to focus on the part of…

UPDATE: All three bills noted below were approved Feb. 8 by the committee. In the process, SB 552, which started off dealing just with law enforcement, has now been changed to prohibit the release of names in connection with salary for all government employees.  FURTHER UPDATE: By the time it passed the House, SB 552…

The Virginia Coalition for Open Government is pleased to announce the winners of its 2015 open government awards. The three winners represent the public, government and media, and all have worked on the same issue: access to court-case information. Dave Ress, a veteran reporter at the Daily Press in Newport News, has been pressing the Office of…

An abbreviated version of this piece appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Sept. 22, the Tidewater News on Sept. 23, the Free Lance-Star on Sept. 27 and The Roanoke Times on Sept. 27. This has been a long time coming. I haven’t wanted to write this column because I am a fairly optimistic person and…

So here's a response given by the Port Authority spokesman when asked for email sent/received by a authority board member during a one-month period: Mr. xxxx: We have completed the search of our email server and found no records responsive to your request. Per normal, members of the Virginia Port Authority Board of Commissioners do…

Let’s clear up this so-called confusion about whether the personnel exemption (or any other exemption) is mandatory.   This “problem” arises in the context of the ABC refusing to release the results of the State Police’s investigation of the ABC officer who arrested UVA student Martese Johnson. The investigation clears the officer, but ABC is…

In Portsmouth they’re up in arms because the city council there voted unanimously to cut public comment speaking times from five minutes per speaker down to three minutes. The problem isn’t so much with the change in the rules as it is with the way that the policy was discssed an implemented: in closed session!…

If you’ve read VCOG’s daily newsletter or VPAP’s VaNews for the day (or the original sources) you’ve seen stories about how the Office of Attorney General said it would cost more than $19,000 to fill a FOIA request for records relating to Sweet Briar’s closing. If you haven’t seen the document, you can view it…

There is a pretty remarkable open government story coming out of Memphis this week. It concerns a report commissioned by the city’s mayor to review the city’s public records system. The Plough Foundation prepared the report after interviewing more than two dozen city employees, news media representatives and open government advocates. The report makes findings…

There’s a bill on offer in the Michigan legislature. As proposed by a Democratic representative from Grand Rapids, the bill would make the state’s Freedom of Information Act applicable to both the governor and the state legislature.       I wish the Michiganders well. Getting state lawmakers and a governor to voluntarily expose themselves…

Last week, the Roanoke Times published a short opinion piece by VCOG’s Chip Woodrum Legislative Intern, Zhina Kamali. It’s republished here on our website. Kamali wrote about her first encounter in a General Assembly committee meeting where bills were killed by an unrecorded voice vote. Among other things, she noted how members fairly shouted their…

The following was written by Zhina Kamali, VCOG's first Chip Woodrum Legislative Internship and was published in The Roanoke Times on Feb. 16, 2015.   By Zhina Kamali Each day I am at the General Assembly Building I think I have seen it all. And each day something new comes up that surprises me even…

IN EARLY December, President Obama announced a series of measures aimed at closing the gap between citizens and law enforcement. One of those measures was a plan to distribute $263 million in funding for agencies to purchase body cameras that can be used during police interactions with citizens. Immediately, there was discussion among my counterparts…

This is a column about conversations.  Usually when I write about conversations, it’s within the context of public officials having conversations when the public isn’t present or privy to them. I take umbrage at the machinations of those who devise ways to exploit loopholes, and frown at those who would value efficiency over accountability. But not…

I went to the book store today. I like browsing, though sometimes I’m looking for something in particular. Like today. I’d heard there might be a book about a Vietnamese artist who painted complicated still lives of cats playing tennis next to the Panama Canal. I just had to have it!

 A beautiful stack of best…

Lately I’ve been seeing some pretty novel reasons why records cannot be provided to requesters. These aren’t in the same category as conflicting interpretations of exemptions, where one says a document is protected by an exemption and another claims the exemption doesn’t apply. No, this is in the way records are delivered or not delivered,…

Talking about public business There’s a phrase that gets bandied about occasionally by public officials when asked by reporters for comment about a particular matter. It’s meant as a conversation stopper; a statement against which no reasonable person could or would argue because it is meant to convey a certainty, as steadfast and unassailable as…

Fifteen years ago, there was a delayed, but nonetheless welcome ground shift in perception of what a public record is. By the turn of the century, just about everyone was already doing most of their reports and spreadsheets in electronic format, and email was well on its way to being the default mode of interoffice…

In April and May, VCOG surveyed its members and supporters about their views of FOIA — what problems they encounter, what works, what doesn’t work.    We received 66 responses, which included 13 government employees and/or public officials. Some of the 66 were incomplete — they answered only the question about how they would identify…

Fees are a never-ending struggle between government and records requesters. Virginia FOIA says: government can “make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in  accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for the requested records.” The Virginia Supreme Court just confirmed that government can charge for the time it takes to review — and, by…

A Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that state legislators cannot witthhold the names and email addresses of constituents who contact them. Unless appealed, the ruling would require Sen. Jon Erpenbach, a Democrat, to turn over constiuent names. He says disclosing people’s names to disclosure would subject them to “McCarthy-like” harassment. However, the judges ruled…