Transparency News 2/23/15

In the wake of former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s conviction on corruption charges, Virginia lawmakers say they are moving to tighten the ethics laws governing public officials’ behavior. But when two members of the Virginia Senate leadership were asked how much they earned from other state jobs, both refused to disclose how much they earned from those positions. Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment is commissioner of accounts for Williamsburg and James City County. Sen. Ryan McDougle, chairman of the Senate Republican caucus, is assistant commissioner of accounts for Hanover County. Commissioners of accounts and their assistants oversee the disposition of estates. Norment is the chief Senate patron of this year’s ethics overhaul legislation. In discussing it on the Senate floor, he has emphasized the importance of transparency and disclosure.
CBSDC

Call it marketing, communications or public relations, Danville has people on staff to get information out that officials want to share with the news media, citizens and economic development prospects. Three people on city staff — Arnold Hendrix, public information officer; Russell Carter, communications specialist with Danville Parks & Recreation; and Mark Aron, multimedia design manager — are the most visible communications contacts. They all consider themselves communications-focused and all object to being called “public relations” staff, which they feel has a negative connotation. A large part of what Hendrix does is writing news releases and updating the city website and social media sites. But Hendrix is adamant that what he does is different from what people typically think of when they think about public relations. “I don’t do public relations,” Hendrix said. “The PIO’s role is to connect government to citizens by disseminating information. I don’t try to manipulate or influence the information because journalists would see right through that, and citizens would see right through that.” Hendrix admits his work is from the city’s point of view — and he doesn’t apologize for it; he said his work gets the facts out so people can form their own opinions.
Register & Bee

About one in five Virginia legislators list having at least $50,000 in personal debt besides a mortgage, an analysis of financial disclosure forms by The Associated Press has found. But state's ethics laws don't currently require lawmakers to offer much detail about the debts. That means the public wouldn't be able to tell if an elected official has a mountain of credit card bills similar to what prosecutors suggested helped drive former Gov. Bob McDonnell into taking bribes from a smooth-talking vitamin salesman. But more transparency may be coming. Leaders in both the House and the Senate, who are currently working on a final ethics reform package to be approved before the end of the 2015 legislative session, have said they want a new ethics advisory council to come up with new forms that are more transparent about a lawmaker's personal finances.
Times-Dispatch

Virginia's state government spending came in under budget last year, but not by enough to offset the money squeeze caused by state forecasters failing to recognize that a one-time bump in tax collections wasn't going to be repeated. And a just-released, two volume, 575 page review of Virginia's finances for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014, by the Auditor of Public Accounts also reported more than 100 lapses in money-handling, data security and procurementacross state government. The year before, the auditor reported 68.
Daily Press

National Stories

In a victory for freedom of information advocates, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Thursday that the state must release all information — except for patients' names — about documented abuses in long-term care facilities for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. The decision, written by Justice Goodwin Liu, will prevent the state from heavily redacting information when responding to public records' requests about citations issued by the Department of Public Health against government-owned facilities. Efforts to learn about the nature of abuses have been hindered in the past because the agency said it was bound by a patient-confidentiality law to omit most information. Duffy Carolan, who represented California's Center for Investigative Reporting in the case, called the ruling "a complete victory under the Public Records Act." "Now residents at the facilities, and their families and the public are going to be able to hold the facilities and the Department of Public Health accountable," Carolan said.
Los Angeles Times

Oil train records held by the Texas Department of Public Safety are not subject to exemption under state open records law, the state attorney general ruled this week, and must be released in full to McClatchy and other news organizations. One railroad had argued that releasing the information to the public would compromise security and customer confidentiality and enable the railroad’s competitors. In a four-page letter dated Thursday, the attorney general’s office dismissed those arguments and said the state “must release the submitted information.”
McClatchy

Intimate, often painful allegations in lawsuits — intended for the scrutiny of judges and juries — are increasingly drawing in mass online audiences far from the courthouses where they are filed. When a former saleswoman at Zillow sued the real estate website in December, describing X-rated messages from male colleagues, her court filing drew hundreds of thousands of readers, causing an instant public relations crisis for the company. The papers in a sexual harassment suit filed last summer against Tinder, the dating app, circulated in a popular Buzzfeed post. And a lawyer for a fired University of Minnesota-Duluth women’s hockey coach who is planning a lawsuit knows what the initial complaint will need: a clear narrative and damning details. More and more, the first court filings in gender-related suits, often allegations that inspire indignation, are winning wide readerships online before anyone steps foot in a courtroom.
New York Times

Editorials/Columns

Charlottesville’s concern — advanced and reinforced by businesses — was that panhandlers were disturbing patrons. In some cases, the problems were understandable — such as complaints of panhandlers virtually blocking the entrances to businesses. But in other instances, as reported by businesses and by residents alike, the “problems” were merely inconveniences. Complainants used terminology such as being made to feel “uncomfortable” by the presence of panhandlers. Sorry, but there’s no constitutional protection against feeling “uncomfortable.” Indeed, in a city that claims to have a robust respect for free speech and for freedom-loving Thomas Jefferson (consider the vaunted free-speech monument at the upper end of the mall), too many people portray a cowardly attitude toward the actual practice of liberty. They talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. We don’t mean to scoff at the underlying issue raised by some businesses and residents. Who wants to feel uncomfortable? No one. And who wants either the charm or the economic power of the Downtown Mall to be damaged? Not us. But laws and ordinances already are in place to deal with genuine cases of harassment or other problems. Use them. And let freedom ring.
Daily Progress

Judge Pamela Hutchens and her supporters have waged a campaign for weeks to persuade state lawmakers to reappoint her to another six-year term on Virginia Beach's General District Court. They've written letters, made phone calls, enlisted support from powerful advocacy groups, including local chapters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Fraternal Order of Police. The effort, however, is for naught. "It's a done deal," Del. Barry Knight, a Virginia Beach Republican, told me last week. "She will not be reappointed." Hutchens hasn't been sanctioned for misconduct or mistakes, and she hasn't drawn the ire of any special-interest groups. But she has lost the support of the local delegation, a development that dooms any judge's hopes for appointment. Knight said he and other local lawmakers discussed Hutchens' fate for weeks. At one point, 10 to 12 of them met in Knight's office and voted secretly on whether to support her. There was some dissent, but multiple members confirmed a large majority opposed her reappointment, and all agreed to present the outcome as a unanimous decision to the public.  The lawmakers, including Beach Del. Bill DeSteph, who called Hutchens a "very good friend," declined to disclose individual votes.
Shawn Day, Virginian-Pilot

Legislation heading to Terry McAuliffe, who is averse to a repeat of his 2014 veto fight with lawmakers over ethics reform, addresses the most visible vestige of state government’s wink-and-grin culture: gifts, travel and entertainment for elective and appointive officials. The House of Delegates and Virginia Senate are endorsing a $100 cap on anything that passes for a freebie. But more insidious ethics issues are again being overlooked or ignored. That’s a reminder of a constant in statehouse politics: Legislators are reactive, given to minimal remedies and inclined to denial. As Chuck James, a former federal prosecutor, put it, “They’re not going to draw a one-on-one correlation between what they saw transpire at the courthouse and their own conduct.” To wit, the General Assembly is refusing to include an enforcement mechanism in the supposed ethics overhaul.
Jeff Schapiro, Times-Dispatch

Whatever you think about the merits of the Stone Brewing deal, there’s nothing nefarious about Stone wanting to make sure everything is in place before it signs on the dotted line. The company wants to be sure all the land the city has promised will be available — including the land for Stone’s future restaurant, which has proved a more contentious part of the deal than the brewery itself. Getting all the ducks in a row will take some swift City Council action, and the council seems to have been caught off guard by the news. This not-so-minor detail apparently has prevented the city’s Economic Development Authority and the beer company from finalizing the deal. And that lack of finality has been the reason the EDA has repeatedly refused to discuss with the public how it is using public resources. If that’s the only hang-up, then it’s hard to see what all the secrecy has been about. Members of Richmond’s City Council aren’t happy that they weren’t told about the land requirements before, and they have a right to be displeased. It’s better for everyone all around when deals like this are made in the open. That way, elected representatives know what they’re getting into, and nobody feels sandbagged by last-minute surprises.
Times-Dispatch

Charlottesville has a reputation as a liberal town, at least by Virginia standards. Conservatives have been known to refer to it as “the People’s Republic of.” But it certainly showed no concern for the poor and downtrodden when it passed an ordinance banning panhandling around the Downtown Mall. A federal district judge has now tossed out the ordinance, declaring it unconstitutional. The decision follows a string of others that also have found anti-panhandling measures antithetical to the First Amendment. Asking for money is speech, just like asking for a petition signature or asking for the time of day. Charlottesville’s ordinance prohibited one but not the others. That rendered it a government regulation based on the content of speech, which is so blatantly unconstitutional it’s a wonder cities keep trying to get away with it. And yet they do, because panhandlers tend to be homeless and therefore dirty, unkempt and smelly, albeit not by choice. They’re bad for business, in other words, especially around quaint little pedestrian malls occupied by trendy restaurants and eclectic boutiques.
Times-Dispatch

Dealing with debt changes how you operate. Be it student loans, car payments or insurance, that bill takes away money you could use for other things. If you’re in a position of power, be it state or federal, it also can put you in an awkward situation, as people offer to cover your debt in exchange for favors. Here in Virginia, 1 in every 5 members of the General Assembly have at least $50,000 worth of personal debt. The problem is that currently, they don’t have to disclose what those debts are. The difference between Virginia’s current requirements and those used in Washington are like night and day. Federal politicians have to provide multiple details, including the type of debt, the date when it occurred and even the name of each creditor. For officials whose votes determine everything from the federal income tax rate to education requirements for local schools, that’s not being nosy. That’s protecting the public interest. We argue that if there were stronger laws in place, if the specifics of that debt had to be presented as a matter of public record in Virginia, then maybe the McDonnells wouldn’t be in the situation they currently find themselves. If he had to state the specific amount of debt, then if it changes he has to explain how that happened. These would be simple checks and balances that help prevent people like Jonnie Williams from trying to take control.
News Virginian