Transparency News 4/22/15

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

State and Local Stories


A report from a group of nonprofit lobbying organizations has criticized the 2015 General Assembly for what it describes as shortcomings in giving notice of meetings, debating all bills and recording votes. Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, bristled at its findings and conclusions. Gilbert, who is deputy majority leader, called the report an attack on Republican legislative leadership and challenged Transparency Virginia to conduct a review of Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s governing practices in areas such as compliance with freedom of information requests. “This notion that there are things being done in secret is a lie, pure and simple,” Gilbert said. “It’s just a political hit piece by a left wing group . . .and it’s not accurate.”
Northern Virginia Daily

Starting July 1, school boards across the state will have to make their budgets public line by line. State law already required that Virginia school divisions make their budgets available online and in hard copy for inspection on request. But it didn’t specify how the budget had to be presented, and that led to some school divisions including only broad categories, rather than specific expenses, said state Sen. Ryan T. McDougle, R-Hanover, who sponsored the bill that changes the requirement. The change was prompted by a suggestion from Mark Hile, a Henrico County Tea Party member. He heard the idea in conversation, and decided to raise it to two senators, including McDougle, who ran with it.
Times-Dispatch

Six months after being censured for attempting to share access to the private records of some of the city’s most vulnerable students, a Richmond School Board member is being allowed to resume committee assignments. On a 5-4 vote late in its meeting Monday, the board voted to end the committee ban placed on Tichi Pinkney Eppes of the 9th District in October after she was caught trying to share confidential records of 20 students with discipline issues with a vendor. The motion came from Derik Jones, 8th District, who said he believed in the power of redemption and that the time had come to end the ban. The item was not on the night’s agenda. Jones brought it up during a part of the night set aside for “other business.” Members typically use that time to discuss community meetings and events.
Times-Dispatch

Virginia's local governments are tied to state government through these tentacles of funding and mandate. The cities and counties are creatures of the state, with only the powers granted by the state. The biggest local sum in the state budget flows to schools. That ranges from about $10 million for Poquoson this year to $174 million for Newport News. The total statewide is about $6.26 billion. Generally, state aid covers somewhere between 65 and 75 cents out of every dollar local school boards spend, except in wealthier areas, such as James City County and Williamsburg, where the state only picks up about half the school bill. State support for schools is hovering at pre-recession levels, despite a rise since then in overall state government revenues. That has meant staff cuts for a number of Peninsula systems, and as many as four more students more on average in secondary-school classrooms.
Daily Press

The $1.75 million libel suit brought by Culpeper County's longest serving elected supervisor against the county's top prosecutor is now in the hands of an all female, seven-member jury. The case heard Tuesday in circuit court took less than five hours to argue, measuring an individual's reputation versus an individual's right to free speech with only two witnesses taking the stand - plaintiff Bill Chase, a county supervisor for almost 34 years, and defendant Megan Frederick, Culpeper County Commonwealth's Attorney, elected in 2012. The plaintiff sued Frederick in 2013 over an email she sent to her political supporters in which she referred to "incompetent and corrupt members of the board." Even though not specifically named, Chase was deeply offended by the implication. "At this point in my life, my reputation is everything to me," said the West Point graduate who served two tours of duty in Vietnam. "I want to be known as an honest person. The word 'corrupt' just sent me through the roof." Chase said he read about the email in a local newspaper the same day his wife died. He didn't read the actual email central to his lawsuit until earlier this year, saying he does not know how to email and is not interested in learning. In the email, Frederick singled out former supervisor Larry Aylor and supervisor Brad Rosenberger as two on the seven-member board she was supporting for re-election. On the stand Tuesday, Frederick stood by her email. "It's political rhetoric. I was speaking against a government action and was not naming anyone specifically," she said. "I don't have any problem speaking my mind. I'm not backing off what I said."
Star-Exponent

Fairfax County on Tuesday agreed to pay $2.95 million to the family of John Geer, settling a wrongful death lawsuit over the August 2013 shooting of the unarmed Springfield man by a county police officer. But nearly 20 months after Geer’s death, no decision has been made on whether to charge the officer, Adam D. Torres, with a crime. While federal and county prosecutors continue to consider the case, Torres remains on paid administrative duty.
Washington Post


National Stories
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Government reformers and advocates believe that two contemporary phenomena hold the potential to change how people engage with governments at all levels. The first is data. There is more of it than ever before and there are more effective tools for sharing it. This creates new service-delivery possibilities for government through use of data that government agencies themselves collect and generate. The second is public desire to make government more responsive, transparent and effective in serving citizens — an impulse driven by tight budgets and declining citizens’ trust in government. The upshot has been the appearance of a variety of “open data” and “open government” initiatives throughout the United States that try to use data as a lever to improve government performance and encourage warmer citizens’ attitudes toward government. This report is based on the first national survey that seeks to benchmark public sentiment about the government initiatives that use data to cultivate the public square. The survey, conducted by Pew Research Center in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, captures public views at the emergent moment when new technology tools and techniques are being used to disseminate and capitalize on government data.
Pew Research Center

Federal agencies cannot avoid their obligation to disclose public records in modern electronic formats merely by invoking budgetary constraints, a judge has ruled in a rare decision exploring the scope of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (“E-FOIA”). United States District Judge William H. Orrick of the Northern District of California ordered on January 29, 2015, that the IRS had to produce a set of records to plaintiff Public.Resource.Org in the machine-readable format that the organization specified in its FOIA request. Public.Resource.Org v. IRS, 2015 WL 393736 (N.D. Cal. 2015). The court rejected the IRS’ argument that complying with the request would be unduly burdensome in light of its limited resources, explaining that the “fact that an agency may be under significant financial distress because it is underfunded does not excuse an agency’s duty to comply with the FOIA.”
JD Supra

Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., is introducing legislation in the House on Wednesday that would bar inspectors general in the federal government from keeping from the public the findings of their investigations. The bill is co-sponsored by every other House member from Wisconsin, a rare bipartisan feat in a typically polarized delegation that could help the bill's chances for passage. Kind said he is angry the inspector general at the Veterans Affairs Department failed to release findings last year of an investigation into opiate prescriptions at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wisconsin.
USA Today

As Congress considers whether to extend the life of a program that sweeps up American phone records, privacy advocates and civil liberties groups say they fear too much about government surveillance still remains hidden from view to allow for a fully comprehensive public understanding. The disclosure two years ago of the National Security Agency's surveillance efforts prodded the federal government to declassify reams of once-secret documents, including opinions from a secretive intelligence court laying out the program's origins and legal underpinnings. But critics say key language from the disclosed documents remains censored, the release of information has been selective, and the ongoing trickle of once-secret memos has raised concerns about how many other potentially illuminating documents might yet remain outside the public's reach.
News & Advance

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to display on its buses a controversial ad that refers to Muslims killing Jews, rejecting the argument that the ad could incite terrorism or imminent violence. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan said the ad from the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which had previously run in Chicago and San Francisco, was protected speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The ad portrays a menacing man wearing a scarf around his head and face, includes a quotation "Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah" attributed to "Hamas MTV," and then states, "That's His Jihad. What's yours?" Koeltl said he was "sensitive" to the security concerns, but noted that the MTA and Chairman Thomas Prendergast "underestimate the tolerant quality of New Yorkers and overestimate the potential impact of these fleeting advertisements. It strains credulity to believe that New Yorkers would be incited to violence by ads that did not incite residents of Chicago and San Francisco." MTA buses and subways are often forums for policy debates. The agency has accepted other ads from the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which is characterized as an anti-Muslim group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Koeltl delayed enforcing his preliminary injunction by 30 days so the MTA could decide whether to appeal.
Reuters

A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday considered publicly releasing a graphic video that may shed light on the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a police officer during an attempted traffic stop in February. Officer Lisa Mearkle, 36, a veteran of the Hummelstown Police Department, is charged with criminal homicide in the death of David Kassick, 59, on February 2. At a hearing before Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Deborah Curcillo, all sides noted the likelihood of intense interest in the video after a series of fatal shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers in the United States. Both Mearkle and Kassick are white. Mearkle's lawyers argued against releasing the video, saying the surrounding publicity would make it difficult to select an impartial jury at trial.
Reuters