Transparency News 5/20/15
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
State and Local Stories
The Chesapeake City Attorney’s Office routinely denies public-records requests for police officers’ body-camera videos, and then sends a bill for the staff time spent researching and denying the request. The city sends the bills even when there was no video recorded, according to more than 200 public-records responses from the Chesapeake City Attorney’s Office. An assistant city attorney said the agency always denies requests when the video is part of a criminal investigation, might invade someone’s privacy, or involves a juvenile. The city uses FOIA’s criminal-investigation exemption to withhold video even when prosecutors drop charges, like in the case of Ruth Davenport.
WTKR (video)
True to his word, Halifax County resident David Smith on Monday announced he is launching a recall of four members of the Halifax County Supervisors after they have failed “to show evidence of a willingness to work together for the benefit of the county citizens.” Smith, who has attended four of the board’s five meetings this year, promised supervisors at their May meeting if they failed to elect a chairman and vice chairman by May 15, he planned to start the process to ask voters to seek a recall of ED-5 Supervisor Barry Bank, ED-8 Supervisor W. Bryant Claiborne, ED-7 Supervisor Lottie Nunn and newly elected ED-3 Supervisor Hubert Pannell. On Monday, Smith said concerned citizens are joining him in his recall effort. In a media release, Smith said, “Since January 2015 county supervisors Mr. Bank, Mr. Claiborne, Ms. Nunn and Mr. Pannell, by word and action during board meetings, have refused appeals from board members and numerous citizens to meet and resolve differences.
Gazette-Virginian
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy dealt a speedy setback Monday to conservative advocacy groups that had sought to shield the names of their major donors in California. Without waiting to consult the full court, Kennedy turned down for now an emergency appeal from the Virginia-based Center for Competitive Politics, which has refused to reveal its donors to California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The center has been a leading voice in arguing for free speech and free spending in politics. It does not fund candidates or campaigns, but challenges regulations that restrict political advocacy groups. They said their donors could be harassed if their names were revealed. Harris' office said the list would be kept as a "confidential record" to be used only in investigations. A federal judge in Sacramento and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to block the disclosures.
Governing
National Stories
Hillary Clinton took a rare few minutes to answers some questions Tuesday after a roundtable with small business owners, urging the State Department to release her emails soon and again defending her family’s foundation. The comments came after a federal judge rejected the State Department’s plan to release most of Clinton’s emails as secretary of state in January 2016 and instead told the agency to open them to the public in small batched over time. “I have said repeatedly I want those emails out. Nobody has a bigger interest in getting them released than I do,” she told reporters. “I respect the State Department. They have their process that they use for everybody, not just me. But anything they might do to expedite that process I heartily support.”
McClatchy
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Monday that he's been using a private cellphone and private e-mail accounts for official communications since he was a member of the U.S. Senate. The Eagle reported Sunday that Brownback uses a private e-mail address to communicate with staff members on official state business. Brownback defended the practice during a bill-signing ceremony Monday. "Most of the time I call people or I just go over to their office. That's how I do most of my communication," Brownback said Monday. "And if I communicate in e-mail, it's directly to their state accounts, I mean, that I know of. There may be some that are different. But that's how most of the communication's done. Most of the communication's done orally or over the phone." Attorney General Derek Schmidt recently issued an opinion that says private e-mails from public employees concerning public business are not public records because of a loophole in the Kansas Open Records Act. That issue came to light after The Eagle reported in January that Brownback's budget director, Shawn Sullivan, used a private e-mail address to send a draft of the state's budget to two lobbyists with ties to Brownback.
Governing
A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday barred the release of a video that allegedly shows a Hummelstown police officer shooting a traffic-stop suspect to death earlier this year as the man lay face down on the ground. Judge Deborah Curcillo of Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas said making the video public before trial was "highly unusual" and would jeopardize the ability of Officer Lisa Mearkle to receive a fair trial for criminal homicide. "This ruling only prevents the public from viewing the video and forming opinions about it prior to a constitutionally protected proceeding," Curcillo wrote in her 11-page ruling. "The limitation this Court now places upon release is merely that the video shall not be released prior to trial."
Reuters
Editorials/Columns
Public money supporting a private body. It has an onerous ring to it, a tone that should not fall on deaf ears. Local governments have voted to dissolve the Regional Issues Committee, instead turning over the work of regional collaboration to a private body known as the Historic Triangle Collaborative. Membership is by invitation only, and it meets in private, out of public view. It's not that we believe anything truly nefarious is taking place. The collaborative members are some of the area's best-known citizens: an elected official and the top administrator from each jurisdiction; and the heads of our major institutions: Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, the College of William and Mary, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance. It's run by Sandy Wanner, the venerable former administrator for James City County. The collaborative goes so far as to post its minutes online. That's not enough. The collaborative's meetings should be held in the open. We don't know what took place or who attended the most recent meeting of the collaborative. That's because you'd have to scour April's minutes to find out that the May meeting would take place at Colonial Williamsburg. Two days ago.
Virginia Gazette
When George Washington left the presidency in 1797, he loaded up all his papers into carts and had them hauled back to Mount Vernon, to keep them “safe from the prying eyes” of those who might besmirch his legacy. There was no National Archives then and certainly no Freedom of Information Act. Washington was foresightful, though, in many ways. He warned against “foreign entanglements.” And he had a vision of building a library to house his papers (at least the ones he thought fit for the public). He died before his wish could be carried out and his heirs wound up giving away many documents as mere souvenirs. The official papers of subsequent presidents suffered even worse fates. Zachary Taylor’s papers were lost when Union soldiers sacked his son’s home in Louisiana during the Civil War. John Tyler’s were burned when Union troops put the torch to Richmond. Chester Arthur took matters into his own hands, and burned three trash bins full of his papers the day before he died.
Roanoke Times
State and Local Stories
The Chesapeake City Attorney’s Office routinely denies public-records requests for police officers’ body-camera videos, and then sends a bill for the staff time spent researching and denying the request. The city sends the bills even when there was no video recorded, according to more than 200 public-records responses from the Chesapeake City Attorney’s Office. An assistant city attorney said the agency always denies requests when the video is part of a criminal investigation, might invade someone’s privacy, or involves a juvenile. The city uses FOIA’s criminal-investigation exemption to withhold video even when prosecutors drop charges, like in the case of Ruth Davenport.
WTKR (video)
True to his word, Halifax County resident David Smith on Monday announced he is launching a recall of four members of the Halifax County Supervisors after they have failed “to show evidence of a willingness to work together for the benefit of the county citizens.” Smith, who has attended four of the board’s five meetings this year, promised supervisors at their May meeting if they failed to elect a chairman and vice chairman by May 15, he planned to start the process to ask voters to seek a recall of ED-5 Supervisor Barry Bank, ED-8 Supervisor W. Bryant Claiborne, ED-7 Supervisor Lottie Nunn and newly elected ED-3 Supervisor Hubert Pannell. On Monday, Smith said concerned citizens are joining him in his recall effort. In a media release, Smith said, “Since January 2015 county supervisors Mr. Bank, Mr. Claiborne, Ms. Nunn and Mr. Pannell, by word and action during board meetings, have refused appeals from board members and numerous citizens to meet and resolve differences.
Gazette-Virginian
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy dealt a speedy setback Monday to conservative advocacy groups that had sought to shield the names of their major donors in California. Without waiting to consult the full court, Kennedy turned down for now an emergency appeal from the Virginia-based Center for Competitive Politics, which has refused to reveal its donors to California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The center has been a leading voice in arguing for free speech and free spending in politics. It does not fund candidates or campaigns, but challenges regulations that restrict political advocacy groups. They said their donors could be harassed if their names were revealed. Harris' office said the list would be kept as a "confidential record" to be used only in investigations. A federal judge in Sacramento and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to block the disclosures.
Governing
National Stories
Hillary Clinton took a rare few minutes to answers some questions Tuesday after a roundtable with small business owners, urging the State Department to release her emails soon and again defending her family’s foundation. The comments came after a federal judge rejected the State Department’s plan to release most of Clinton’s emails as secretary of state in January 2016 and instead told the agency to open them to the public in small batched over time. “I have said repeatedly I want those emails out. Nobody has a bigger interest in getting them released than I do,” she told reporters. “I respect the State Department. They have their process that they use for everybody, not just me. But anything they might do to expedite that process I heartily support.”
McClatchy
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Monday that he's been using a private cellphone and private e-mail accounts for official communications since he was a member of the U.S. Senate. The Eagle reported Sunday that Brownback uses a private e-mail address to communicate with staff members on official state business. Brownback defended the practice during a bill-signing ceremony Monday. "Most of the time I call people or I just go over to their office. That's how I do most of my communication," Brownback said Monday. "And if I communicate in e-mail, it's directly to their state accounts, I mean, that I know of. There may be some that are different. But that's how most of the communication's done. Most of the communication's done orally or over the phone." Attorney General Derek Schmidt recently issued an opinion that says private e-mails from public employees concerning public business are not public records because of a loophole in the Kansas Open Records Act. That issue came to light after The Eagle reported in January that Brownback's budget director, Shawn Sullivan, used a private e-mail address to send a draft of the state's budget to two lobbyists with ties to Brownback.
Governing
A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday barred the release of a video that allegedly shows a Hummelstown police officer shooting a traffic-stop suspect to death earlier this year as the man lay face down on the ground. Judge Deborah Curcillo of Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas said making the video public before trial was "highly unusual" and would jeopardize the ability of Officer Lisa Mearkle to receive a fair trial for criminal homicide. "This ruling only prevents the public from viewing the video and forming opinions about it prior to a constitutionally protected proceeding," Curcillo wrote in her 11-page ruling. "The limitation this Court now places upon release is merely that the video shall not be released prior to trial."
Reuters
Editorials/Columns
Public money supporting a private body. It has an onerous ring to it, a tone that should not fall on deaf ears. Local governments have voted to dissolve the Regional Issues Committee, instead turning over the work of regional collaboration to a private body known as the Historic Triangle Collaborative. Membership is by invitation only, and it meets in private, out of public view. It's not that we believe anything truly nefarious is taking place. The collaborative members are some of the area's best-known citizens: an elected official and the top administrator from each jurisdiction; and the heads of our major institutions: Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, the College of William and Mary, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance. It's run by Sandy Wanner, the venerable former administrator for James City County. The collaborative goes so far as to post its minutes online. That's not enough. The collaborative's meetings should be held in the open. We don't know what took place or who attended the most recent meeting of the collaborative. That's because you'd have to scour April's minutes to find out that the May meeting would take place at Colonial Williamsburg. Two days ago.
Virginia Gazette
When George Washington left the presidency in 1797, he loaded up all his papers into carts and had them hauled back to Mount Vernon, to keep them “safe from the prying eyes” of those who might besmirch his legacy. There was no National Archives then and certainly no Freedom of Information Act. Washington was foresightful, though, in many ways. He warned against “foreign entanglements.” And he had a vision of building a library to house his papers (at least the ones he thought fit for the public). He died before his wish could be carried out and his heirs wound up giving away many documents as mere souvenirs. The official papers of subsequent presidents suffered even worse fates. Zachary Taylor’s papers were lost when Union soldiers sacked his son’s home in Louisiana during the Civil War. John Tyler’s were burned when Union troops put the torch to Richmond. Chester Arthur took matters into his own hands, and burned three trash bins full of his papers the day before he died.
Roanoke Times
Categories:
