Transparency News 1/5/15
State and Local Stories
Years before an unmanned rocket erupted in a fireball on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in October, NASA officials knew the metal in its 50-year-old Soviet-made engines could crack, causing fuel to leak and ignite, government documents show. As early as 2008, a NASA committee warned about the “substantial” risk of using the decades-old engines, and a fire during a 2011 engine test in Mississippi heightened the agency’s concern.
Virginian-Pilot
State auditors found problems at both the Albemarle County and Charlottesville Circuit Court clerk’s offices this year, but both have plans in place to fix their discrepancies, clerks said. The official audit reports haven’t been released yet, but auditors told city Clerk of Courts Llezelle Dugger and county Clerk of Courts Debra Shipp that they found two issues in each office. In Charlottesville, auditors found that Dugger’s office had not reconciled the court’s bank account for the second year in a row, Dugger said. In Albemarle, auditors found errors in assessing fines and costs, Shipp said. She said she has set up a class through the state’s Office of the Executive Secretary for her, both of her criminal-case clerks and her chief deputy for better training.
Daily Progress
Parents hoping to get a grasp on reports of sexual assault at the University of Virginia will have to look beyond statistics, according to experts. There were 14 “forcible sex offenses” on UVA Grounds and 11 in the surrounding area in 2013, according to information gathered under the Clery Act. The numbers represent an increase from 2012, when there were six on-Grounds assaults and five off-Grounds. University administrators and experts agree that it’s an underreported problem. Allison Kiss, director of the Clery Center in Pennsylvania, said higher numbers might be a good sign because it means victims feel safe reporting sexual assaults. Adding to the confusion, it’s not totally clear when an incident must be counted as “sexual assault.” One parent quoted in the Rolling Stone article complained that her daughter’s case had been marked down in a university police report as “suspicious circumstances.”
Daily Progress
A consistent majority of the Richmond School Board has quietly spent the past two years making big changes to the way the city’s school system operates. While the public perception of the board has been clouded by personal disputes and shortcomings — protective orders, a censure and constant squabbling, particularly in public meetings — a reliable bloc has pushed through measures that could greatly affect city schools for years to come.
Times-Dispatch
By a unanimous vote Friday following a 90 minute closed session, council voted to terminate Culpeper Town Manager Dewey Cashwell for breach of contract, according to a news release from the town. Cashwell had been on the job just about a year after accepting the $127,500 position Dec. 1, 2013. He had been on a leave of absence for the past two months due to an illness in his family. Culpeper Mayor Mike Olinger declined to offer further details Friday about Cashwell's firing, citing a personnel issue. "I don't see this as a reflection of council leadership," Olinger said of turnover in the position. "The town will continue to operate and be as efficient as possible."
Star-Exponent
Members of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board, once criticized by federal officials for lavish trips and business expenses, have largely curtailed their travel and spending, according to an examination of expense receipts from the past year. In 2012, federal officials issued a series of scathing reports questioning board members’ conduct. Members routinely traveled to conferences in Hawaii and Europe, sometimes flying in first class. They ate lobster and foie gras and billed the quasi-public agency for expensive wines. These days, few of the 17 board members take trips, records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show. Those who do largely travel between home and MWAA board meetings. And while board members might still enjoy a steak, they must pay for their own alcohol. The changes are the result of guidelines implemented after the audit.
Washington Post
Culpeper Town Council is considering new rules for itself and town employees regarding travel expense reimbursements. From October 2013 to September 2014, 29 different town credit cardholders spent a total of $162,214 on professional development or business travel, according to documents from the town treasurer's office.
Star-Exponent
Shenandoah County leaders began the new year much like they did 2014, with the newest supervisors protesting the status quo. Supervisors voted 4-2 to adopt a set of rules and procedures by which the board is supposed to follow. Supervisors Cindy Bailey and Marsha Shruntz voted against adopting the rules. After the meeting Friday, Bailey and Shruntz commented on their votes. Bailey and Shruntz cited the specific section that allows supervisors to restrict any member from bringing a topic back up for discussion. Specifically, the section allows a supervisor to make a motion to prevent reintroduction of a defeated motion for six months. At least four members must approve the motion for the restriction to take effect. The preventative motion can be dissolved if at least four members vote to suspend the rules. “We continue to disagree on the rules going from … nine items to 18 pages, to squash, basically, the new board members’ speech,” Bailey said. “It’s about free speech.”
Northern Virginia Daily
The James City County Board of Supervisors passed a revised meeting agenda at their annual organizational meeting Friday aimed at curbing the duration of its lengthy meetings. The board opted to push business meetings a half hour earlier, to a 6:30 p.m. start. Speakers who offer public comments at the beginning of the meeting will now get 5 minutes (up from 3), but only one opportunity to talk. Compared to the former rules, speakers have one less minute to speak their mind. Several supervisors, among them John McGlennon, said they were concerned about the impact that would have on groups who select one individual to speak on their behalf. "I think its important for citizens and public applicants to be able to consolidate their presentation into a longer presentation, which may turn into a shorter amount of time being consumed by advocates for particular projects."
Virginia Gazette
State and local governments in Maryland, Virginia and the District spent $7.82 billion more than they collected in revenue between 2007 and 2012, during the throes of the economic downturn, according to data released from the U.S. Census Bureau last month. The trend mirrors national data in which state and local government expenditures largely outpaced revenue during that period, forcing some to take on extra debt. Many governments have since changed course in the aftermath of the recession, clamping down on spending and taking in more in tax revenue. But economists say the picture in the Washington area, where economic growth has been lagging behind that of the rest of the nation, continues to be marked by millions of dollars in shortfalls.
Washington Post
National Stories
Located off the east coast of the Bronx, a brief boat ride from Manhattan takes gravediggers to Hart Island. A mile-long atoll and former Civil War prison, camp Hart Island remains a mysterious mass grave. Over one million mostly unidentified people have been buried at the site. There is an average of 1,500 fresh corpses arriving annually. Inmates from the nearby Rikers Island jail complex bury the dead. Stillborn babies, dismembered bodies and homeless people are interred there. Many several lawsuits from families of the deceased claim they should be allowed access to the cemetery, which is closed to public. Now, the stories of those buried on Hart Island are able to accessed by a new interactive Web site. The work of activists, the Hart Island Project used freedom of information requests to map locations of 62,000 people buried at the site since 1980.Catholic Online
"But enough about me. What do you think about me?" once joked Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce character, fishing for compliments from an Army nurse on the classic TV show "M*A*S*H." The remark speaks to how hard it is for government and other entities to seek and get useful public input on important issues. How do you harvest what the broader public really thinks? "Let's hold a public meeting!" is the traditional approach, and a well facilitated gathering is effective ... up to a point. Low turnouts or meetings hijacked by organized naysayers can skew the range and depth of public feedback. The good news: The use of online engagement tools is increasing among those trying to involve more people in shaping public policy, service delivery and infrastructure projects. While it can be tempting to rely too heavily on them -- "There's still no substitute for good, face-to-face meetings to really read and understand the mood and opinions of the public," says Jamie Greene of the consulting firm Planning NEXT -- these apps have an important place in the toolbox. A few examples:
Governing
Editorials/Columns
An independent watchdog is essential for the public accountability necessary to guard against a sense of entitlement that so easily takes root and thrives if the powerful are allowed to operate in a closed environment, temperature controlled against heated public opinion. That will be true whether the General Assembly adopts the interim recommendations in whole or in part, or ignores them in favor of reforms lawmakers cobble together on their own. The element crucial to meaningful change is an independent watchdog — not only empowered to investigate complaints received, but to initiate investigations, issue civil penalties when warranted or refer criminal cases to law enforcement. And issue advisory opinions, when asked, so as not to snare unsuspecting government officials in complexities and legalistic language that even the lawmakers evidently find incomprehensible at times.Roanoke Times
The important effort to combat sexual assault on campuses is colliding head-on with the First Amendment right of free speech. So suggests the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in its latest report on campus free speech.
Daily Progress
While we have advocated barring any gifts of any value to elected and appointed government leaders, a strictly enforced cap coupled with a powerful enforcement mechanism would go a long way toward restoring the public’s faith in its leaders. Two other areas of reform, though, are likely to be the source of much more contention between the Republican-controlled Assembly and the Democratic governor: redistricting reform and reform of the judicial selection process.
News & Advance
In 2014, a number of big thinkers made the surprising claim that government openness and transparency are to blame for today’s gridlock. They have it backward: Not only is there no relationship between openness and dysfunction, but more secrecy can only add to that dysfunction. We are not transparency absolutists. Not everything government and Congress do should occur in a fishbowl; that said, there is already plenty of room today for private deliberations. The problem isn’t transparency. It is that the political landscape punishes those who try to work together. And if various accountability measures create procedural challenges, let’s fix them. When it comes to holding government accountable, it is in the nation’s best interest to allow the media, nonprofit groups and the public full access to decision-making.
Gary Bass, Danielle Brian and Norman Eisen, Washington Post
A little over 10 years ago, I began writing a column on state politics. It wasn’t a new pursuit; I’d covered state politics here and there as a reporter for National Journal and for political analyst Charlie Cook. But starting a regular column -- initially weekly, then every other week -- was still a leap for me. Now that I’ve been writing the column for a while, though, I've learned a few things. Indulge me, butI've pulled together a list of 10 things I've discovered while doing it. In time for the New Year, here they are:
Louis Jacobson, Governing
