Transparency News 4/9/14
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Note: "Transparency News" will be delivered via MailChimp today through Friday. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
State and Local Stories
A Roanoke County supervisor spoke out on Tuesday against a move by the county board’s chairman to streamline meetings by adhering more stringently to rules and guidelines set by the board. After three months slogging through several controversial issues — some of which have stretched across multiple meeting dates — Chairman Joe McNamara on Tuesday said he felt it was necessary to stick closely to parliamentary rules to keep governing efficient. But Supervisor Butch Church disagreed with the decision, saying he felt it wasn’t a needed change, despite an outcry by three supervisors who have bemoaned the direction and pace the board has taken since new members took their seats at the start of the year. “I don’t call it a problem,” Church said. “If there’s friction, it’s because there have been two or three items that have been controversial.” Specifically, Church said he disagreed with a rule that would limit to 10 minutes the amount of time each supervisor has to comment on issues that come before the board. He brought up a recent controversy over the county clerk position, of which he and Supervisor Al Bedrosian spent more than an hour speaking at the March 25 meeting.
Roanoke Times
To see a person’s priorities, just take a look at his checkbook, some would say. The same rings true states, transparency advocates say. What if, however, the public is blocked from seeing that entire checkbook? A new report by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a good government research group, gives Virginia a B+ for how much spending data it publishes online for the world to see. But, the Old Dominion’s failure to report how much it doles out to companies claiming to create jobs through the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit is dragging down its score.
Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau
A former Amherst County treasurer was sentenced to one year in jail Tuesday for embezzling about $32,500 in county funds. Evelyn Martin, 60, worked 37 years in the county treasurer’s office, and served as treasurer in 2010 and 2011. The lifelong Amherst resident pleaded guilty to two counts of embezzlement by a public official and one count of money laundering. She has admitted to taking the money on numerous occasions in 2004 and from 2008 to 2011.
Register & Bee
A Culpeper jury ordered an ex-town employee in Culpeper County Circuit Court on Monday to pay $5,001 to his former co-worker whose coffee pot he admitted to spiking with his own urine five years ago. James Carroll Butler, who turns 54 next Monday, owned up to urinating in Michael Utz’s coffee pot in March 2009 because of “personal ill will and spite toward him.” Before the incident, Butler had worked for the town’s waste water plant for 17 years until his departure in 2009.
Star-Exponent National Stories
The nonprofit Project on Government Oversight on Friday reported that it was denied the full access to agency credit card records it sought under the Freedom of Information Act. The Office of Management and Budget refused the investigative group’s February request for full access to charge-card management plans from all agencies that OMB oversees, POGO said. The group wanted to see Joint Purchase Reports, Integrated Card Violation Reports, and supporting documents for both reports, including summaries of charge card misuse and any personnel actions taken as a result. POGO cited the stepped up agency reporting requirements under the 2012 Government Credit Card Abuse Prevention Act. OMB, however, said the information was “related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency” and hence qualified as an exception to FOIA rules. The information might be “exploited for criminal purposes,” OMB told POGO.
Government Executive
A conservation group is suing the U.S. Geological Survey for information on threatened grizzly bears in northwestern Montana. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies says the USGS failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for reports and findings on the Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear DNA Project.
San Francisco Chronicle
While campaigning for the office of New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio pledged to "increase transparency with a series of reforms of the Freedom of Information Law," including adding FOIL stats to the annual Mayor's Management report, and "levy fines and penalties against city agencies that regularly duck and delay FOIL requests." Yet it appears that the de Blasioadministration has ducked a litany of FOIL requests related to his handling of the arrest of a friend and political ally.
Gothamist
Voters across the country waited less time in line to cast their ballots in 2012 than in 2008, a sign that states were doing a better job at running elections, says a report released Tuesday by the Pew Charitable Trust's Election Initiatives.
Governing
A federal judge ruled in favor of MoveOn.org, allowing the liberal organization to keep up a billboard in Louisiana that slams Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal for refusing to accept a Medicaid expansion available under Obamacare. Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, whose office is the chief of the state’s tourism industry, filed a suit last month against the group, saying the satirical billboard mocked the state’s trade and tourism branding, according to local reports. However, U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick, citing the group’s freedom of speech, denied the motion for preliminary injunction of the billboard on Monday.
Politico
University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall likely committed impeachable offenses, including abusing his office and possibly breaking state and federal law – in his campaign to oust University of Texas at Austin president Bill Powers, according to a draft report prepared for the Texas House committee investigating Hall. The 176-page draft report, which was made available to committee members Friday and obtained by the San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle, alleges that Hall leaked confidential student information in apparent violation of state and federal law in an attempt to silence his critics in the Texas Legislature. The report also accuses him of manipulating the investigation and coercing witnesses.
Houston Chronicle
A former American International Group executive who has spent nearly seven years attempting to obtain Eliot Spitzer's private emails has issued something of a dare to the onetime New York attorney general and governor: If you insist there are no such emails, say so under oath. Howard Smith, AIG's ex-CFO, is challenging Spitzer to swear under oath to what he has repeatedly said publicly—that he never used a personal email account to discuss an ongoing civil fraud case against Smith and AIG's ex-CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg.
But so far, Spitzer is not biting.
New York Law Journal
After decades of litigation and over the strenuous objections of the American Medical Association, the leading U.S. doctors group, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday made public for the first time how much Medicare pays individual doctors. The massive data release, totaling nearly 10 million lines, also includes which medical services each of more than 880,000 physicians and other healthcare providers nationwide billed Medicare for in 2012. "While the data are not perfect, this is a major milestone in healthcare transparency," said cancer surgeon Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, whose 2012 book, "Unaccountable," argues for making public more information on doctors and hospitals.
Reuters
Whistle-blower Edward Snowden has challenged the National Security Agency to explicitly deny that he tried -- before leaking secret documents to journalists -- to use legal, internal means to raise a red flag about the possibly unconstitutional nature of the outfit's surveillance programs. "The NSA at this point not only knows I raised complaints, but that there is evidence that I made my concerns known to the NSA's lawyers, because I did some of it through e-mail. I directly challenge the NSA to deny that I contacted NSA oversight and compliance bodies directly via e-mail and that I specifically expressed concerns about their suspect interpretation of the law, and I welcome members of Congress to request a written answer [from the NSA] to this question," Snowden told Vanity Fair in a feature that's scheduled for publication later this week.
CNET News Editorials/Columns
The most effective legislators not only understand the legalese of bills they read but recognize what's absent. All 140 lawmakers know exactly what's missing from the ethics bill they passed this winter, however. Teeth. That's by design. A bipartisan group huddled before the General Assembly session began and pieced together a measure that tightens conflict of interest rules on themselves just enough to say they did something to clean up Virginia's soiled reputation. The measure breezed through both chambers with virtually no opposition. Gov. Terry McAuliffe could have forced legislators to vote on real reforms had he amended the bill to conform with ethics rules that already apply to executive branch workers. Lawmakers would have been forced to accept the amendments out of embarrassment or to reject them in defiance and hear about it from their constituents. We'll never know what would have happened. The governor allowed legislators to keep their political cover, a snuggly blanket of feel-good fuzzies, instead of handing them a hair shirt.
Roanoke Times
Note: "Transparency News" will be delivered via MailChimp today through Friday. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
State and Local Stories
A Roanoke County supervisor spoke out on Tuesday against a move by the county board’s chairman to streamline meetings by adhering more stringently to rules and guidelines set by the board. After three months slogging through several controversial issues — some of which have stretched across multiple meeting dates — Chairman Joe McNamara on Tuesday said he felt it was necessary to stick closely to parliamentary rules to keep governing efficient. But Supervisor Butch Church disagreed with the decision, saying he felt it wasn’t a needed change, despite an outcry by three supervisors who have bemoaned the direction and pace the board has taken since new members took their seats at the start of the year. “I don’t call it a problem,” Church said. “If there’s friction, it’s because there have been two or three items that have been controversial.” Specifically, Church said he disagreed with a rule that would limit to 10 minutes the amount of time each supervisor has to comment on issues that come before the board. He brought up a recent controversy over the county clerk position, of which he and Supervisor Al Bedrosian spent more than an hour speaking at the March 25 meeting.
Roanoke Times
To see a person’s priorities, just take a look at his checkbook, some would say. The same rings true states, transparency advocates say. What if, however, the public is blocked from seeing that entire checkbook? A new report by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a good government research group, gives Virginia a B+ for how much spending data it publishes online for the world to see. But, the Old Dominion’s failure to report how much it doles out to companies claiming to create jobs through the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit is dragging down its score.
Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau
A former Amherst County treasurer was sentenced to one year in jail Tuesday for embezzling about $32,500 in county funds. Evelyn Martin, 60, worked 37 years in the county treasurer’s office, and served as treasurer in 2010 and 2011. The lifelong Amherst resident pleaded guilty to two counts of embezzlement by a public official and one count of money laundering. She has admitted to taking the money on numerous occasions in 2004 and from 2008 to 2011.
Register & Bee
A Culpeper jury ordered an ex-town employee in Culpeper County Circuit Court on Monday to pay $5,001 to his former co-worker whose coffee pot he admitted to spiking with his own urine five years ago. James Carroll Butler, who turns 54 next Monday, owned up to urinating in Michael Utz’s coffee pot in March 2009 because of “personal ill will and spite toward him.” Before the incident, Butler had worked for the town’s waste water plant for 17 years until his departure in 2009.
Star-Exponent National Stories
The nonprofit Project on Government Oversight on Friday reported that it was denied the full access to agency credit card records it sought under the Freedom of Information Act. The Office of Management and Budget refused the investigative group’s February request for full access to charge-card management plans from all agencies that OMB oversees, POGO said. The group wanted to see Joint Purchase Reports, Integrated Card Violation Reports, and supporting documents for both reports, including summaries of charge card misuse and any personnel actions taken as a result. POGO cited the stepped up agency reporting requirements under the 2012 Government Credit Card Abuse Prevention Act. OMB, however, said the information was “related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency” and hence qualified as an exception to FOIA rules. The information might be “exploited for criminal purposes,” OMB told POGO.
Government Executive
A conservation group is suing the U.S. Geological Survey for information on threatened grizzly bears in northwestern Montana. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies says the USGS failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for reports and findings on the Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear DNA Project.
San Francisco Chronicle
While campaigning for the office of New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio pledged to "increase transparency with a series of reforms of the Freedom of Information Law," including adding FOIL stats to the annual Mayor's Management report, and "levy fines and penalties against city agencies that regularly duck and delay FOIL requests." Yet it appears that the de Blasioadministration has ducked a litany of FOIL requests related to his handling of the arrest of a friend and political ally.
Gothamist
Voters across the country waited less time in line to cast their ballots in 2012 than in 2008, a sign that states were doing a better job at running elections, says a report released Tuesday by the Pew Charitable Trust's Election Initiatives.
Governing
A federal judge ruled in favor of MoveOn.org, allowing the liberal organization to keep up a billboard in Louisiana that slams Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal for refusing to accept a Medicaid expansion available under Obamacare. Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, whose office is the chief of the state’s tourism industry, filed a suit last month against the group, saying the satirical billboard mocked the state’s trade and tourism branding, according to local reports. However, U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick, citing the group’s freedom of speech, denied the motion for preliminary injunction of the billboard on Monday.
Politico
University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall likely committed impeachable offenses, including abusing his office and possibly breaking state and federal law – in his campaign to oust University of Texas at Austin president Bill Powers, according to a draft report prepared for the Texas House committee investigating Hall. The 176-page draft report, which was made available to committee members Friday and obtained by the San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle, alleges that Hall leaked confidential student information in apparent violation of state and federal law in an attempt to silence his critics in the Texas Legislature. The report also accuses him of manipulating the investigation and coercing witnesses.
Houston Chronicle
A former American International Group executive who has spent nearly seven years attempting to obtain Eliot Spitzer's private emails has issued something of a dare to the onetime New York attorney general and governor: If you insist there are no such emails, say so under oath. Howard Smith, AIG's ex-CFO, is challenging Spitzer to swear under oath to what he has repeatedly said publicly—that he never used a personal email account to discuss an ongoing civil fraud case against Smith and AIG's ex-CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg.
But so far, Spitzer is not biting.
New York Law Journal
After decades of litigation and over the strenuous objections of the American Medical Association, the leading U.S. doctors group, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday made public for the first time how much Medicare pays individual doctors. The massive data release, totaling nearly 10 million lines, also includes which medical services each of more than 880,000 physicians and other healthcare providers nationwide billed Medicare for in 2012. "While the data are not perfect, this is a major milestone in healthcare transparency," said cancer surgeon Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, whose 2012 book, "Unaccountable," argues for making public more information on doctors and hospitals.
Reuters
Whistle-blower Edward Snowden has challenged the National Security Agency to explicitly deny that he tried -- before leaking secret documents to journalists -- to use legal, internal means to raise a red flag about the possibly unconstitutional nature of the outfit's surveillance programs. "The NSA at this point not only knows I raised complaints, but that there is evidence that I made my concerns known to the NSA's lawyers, because I did some of it through e-mail. I directly challenge the NSA to deny that I contacted NSA oversight and compliance bodies directly via e-mail and that I specifically expressed concerns about their suspect interpretation of the law, and I welcome members of Congress to request a written answer [from the NSA] to this question," Snowden told Vanity Fair in a feature that's scheduled for publication later this week.
CNET News Editorials/Columns
The most effective legislators not only understand the legalese of bills they read but recognize what's absent. All 140 lawmakers know exactly what's missing from the ethics bill they passed this winter, however. Teeth. That's by design. A bipartisan group huddled before the General Assembly session began and pieced together a measure that tightens conflict of interest rules on themselves just enough to say they did something to clean up Virginia's soiled reputation. The measure breezed through both chambers with virtually no opposition. Gov. Terry McAuliffe could have forced legislators to vote on real reforms had he amended the bill to conform with ethics rules that already apply to executive branch workers. Lawmakers would have been forced to accept the amendments out of embarrassment or to reject them in defiance and hear about it from their constituents. We'll never know what would have happened. The governor allowed legislators to keep their political cover, a snuggly blanket of feel-good fuzzies, instead of handing them a hair shirt.
Roanoke Times
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