Transparency News 4/25/14
State and Local Stories
As you’ve previously read in this space, the FOIA Council has launched a 2.5-year study of FOIA’s exemptions, procedures and policies. This is the first comprehensive review of the 46-year-old law in 15 years.
To help us get a better understanding of what our members and supporters care about, please take a moment to take this brief (10 questions) survey. We want to know your biggest problems using FOIA, whether you are a citizen, journalist or business requester, or whether you’re a government employee or official.
And watch this space for information about upcoming meetings of the council’s records and meetings subcommittees.
Click here to take the survey
(Note, we are limited to 100 responses, so make your voice heard soon!)
A new training video is available to help Virginia’s more than 4,000 public board and commission members understand the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The eight-minute video was put together by the State Council of Higher Education, the Attorney General’s Office and the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council. The council’s Maria Everett says professionals in the private sector aren’t always familiar with laws about open meetings and open records when they become public servants. The video gives those board members basic information about the law and explains where to go for additional guidance.
Washington Post
K. Lorraine Lord has been named new chief staff attorney for the Virginia Supreme Court by the justices, effective May 5. Lord is senior counsel in the Complex Commercial Litigation Practice Group at McGuireWoods LLP. Her experience includes preparing briefs and presenting argument to the justices and representing indigent defendants in appeals before the high court. The chief staff attorney directs the work of a dozen staff attorneys and law clerks who support the justices by reviewing petitions, preparing memoranda, drafting orders for the court and other tasks.
Times-Dispatch
A judge has dismissed a $1.3 million defamation lawsuit against Chesterfield County school officials filed by the mother of a young student who died in 2012 from a severe allergic reaction after ingesting a peanut at Hopkins Road Elementary School. After initially ruling in October that the lawsuit could proceed to trial, Richmond Circuit Judge Gregory P. Rupe reversed himself after noting that the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in January that a Chesapeake judge erred in allowing a similar suit to proceed against The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk. Rupe entered his final order Wednesday after a hearing on the plaintiff’s amended lawsuit.
Times-Dispatch
Chris Dovi still remembers the phone call he received in April 2004 while working in the public relations department for Henrico County. It was from a member of the Pace family, the ones who owned the Herald-Progress newspaper at the time. But the news wasn’t good. Joseph Malcolm “Jay” Pace III, the paper’s editor and publisher, had an illness that started in his early 50s but quickly worsened. The Monday after Easter, Pace had a cerebral hemorrhage and stroke. He died April 12. Almost immediately, Dovi, a former H-P reporter, took off from work and returned to the newspaper to fulfill a promise. Long before Pace died, he had requested that Dovi write his obituary because of Dovi’s stint writing obituaries for the Richmond Times-Dispatch several years prior. So, Dovi held up his part of the deal. He and another reporter teamed up to write the obituary and several other front-page stories in honor of their editor, publisher, mentor and friend. “It was the hardest thing I ever did,” Dovi said. That was 10 years ago. But many, like Dovi, remember Pace and the day he left the “Center of the Universe,” like it was yesterday. Because he was more than just the editor and publisher of the H-P, but someone whose memory will live on through the lives he touched and the news pages he filled.
Herald-Progress
(Note: Pace was one of VCOG’s founding board members)
Personal financial disclosures for the GOP candidates looking to secure a Northern Virginia congressional seat in this weekend’s firehouse primary have revealed more in some cases and less in others, with one candidate claiming tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt and no indication that others have even turned in the required paperwork.
Washington Times
Prosecutors pursuing a federal corruption case against the former Virginia governor and his wife argued in court filings Thursday that although Robert F. McDonnell might not have done anything particularly “substantial” for a businessman who lavished gifts and loans on his family, McDonnell did take official actions in exchange for the gifts, making his conduct clearly criminal. Responding to a defense effort to have the charges thrown out, the prosecutors alleged that McDonnell (R) acted in an official capacity when he and his wife, Maureen, arranged meetings for Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams and contacted other officials on his behalf.
Washington Post
Editorials/Columns
Like most matters involving deadlines, there are consequences for failing to meet them. The State Board of Elections has the responsibility to enforce the rules. But the board has recently shown a proclivity for bending its own rules in deference to candidates and campaigns. On Wednesday, members voted to strike the 5 p.m. e-filing deadline and set it instead at 11:59 p.m. It effectively pushes the news back by a day; the 5 p.m. deadline provided the public access to campaign finance information online almost immediately, through broadcast news in the evenings and in print in the morning.Virginian-Pilot
For years, a different name was in the masthead on this page. Actually, there were a lot of the same name – Pace. The name was synonymous with this community newspaper, and still is to Ashlanders and Hanoverians who read this paper while it was under the tutelage of legendary publisher and editor, J. Malcolm “Jay” Pace III. Pace was a giant in community journalism in Virginia. At the latest Virginia Press Association awards ceremony, his name came up while the emcee gave the blessing, “in the tradition of Jay Pace.” It has been 10 years since Pace’s passing and we thought it appropriate to look back at the newspaperman’s legacy. We are happy to report Pace continues to live on in local journalism. Many Herald-Progress alumni have gone on to enjoy successful careers in journalism or related enterprises. Many credit where they are today to Pace’s mentorship in the early stages of their careers.
Herald-Progress
