Transparency News 5/26/15

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

State and Local Stories


Gov. Terry McAuliffe has named the former information technology chief of the U.S. House of Representatives to run the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. Nelson Moe, former chief information officer for the House, takes over as Virginia’s CIO at a crucial time. The state is looking to restructure its contracts for technology services to make them more cost-effective, incorporate the rapidly advancing technology needs, and meet cybersecurity concerns of the 86 state agencies served by VITA. Virginia’s vast technology infrastructure includes nearly 60,000 personal computers and email accounts; 55,000 desk phones; 11,000 cellphones; 6,000 hand-held devices; 27,000 printers; 3,500 servers; 2,200 locations; 2,000 networks; two mainframe computers; and two data centers.
Times-Dispatch

A Haymarket official who is thought to author a local blog called “The Derecho” was questioned by police last week for a post critical of Prince William County Executive Melissa Peacor featuring an Internet “meme” of an actor pointing a gun. Bob Weir, chairman of Haymarket’s Planning Commission, won’t say whether he wrote the post, which appeared on The Derecho website April 15. But Weir confirmed Tuesday he was questioned by a county police detective May 12 about the post, which Peacor reported to Police Chief Stephan Hudson both because of the picture of the gun and because of two sharply-worded closing lines: “Thanks Missy for wasting more of our time, but bear in mind Karma is a bitch,” the post reads. “You may not like how this ultimately ends.” The post suggests that Peacor made a last-minute change to the agenda for the county board of supervisors’ April 14 meeting to remove a budget presentation by Supervisors Pete Candland, R-Gainesville, and Jeanine Lawson, R-Brentsville. Weir serves on Candland and Lawson’s joint citizens’ budget committee.
Prince William Today

Virginia taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $309,000 in legal fees racked up by Republican lawmakers in lawsuits over the makeup of the state’s congressional and House of Delegates districts. Two lawsuits funded by a national Democratic group argue that the maps must be redrawn because they illegally concentrate African-American voters into some districts to reduce their influence elsewhere. One lawsuit could go to trial this summer; the other is awaiting court action. House Speaker William Howell, Republican, hired E. Mark Braden, a former chief counsel to the Republican National Committee who is now with the firm BakerHostetler, to represent the House of Delegates in the state case. So far, the firm has billed the House $84,000 in the state case and $225,000 in the congressional case.
News Virginian


National Stories
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Bipartisan leaders on the Senate Judiciary Committee want to know how much money the government wastes during litigation to withhold government documents from public disclosure.  Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.) on Friday asked the Government Accountability Office to determine how much money the government spends on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits in which it substantially lost or voluntarily relented.  "Withholding information from the public unless sued undermines the very spirit of FOIA and wastes significant taxpayer money in the process," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Gene Dodaro, the U.S. comptroller general. 
The Hill

A divided federal appeals court gave New York wide authority to regulate the content of custom license plates, and reversed a lower court ruling ordering the state to let an adoption advocacy group put the words "Choose Life" on its own plates. By a 2-1 vote, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles had "broad discretion" to decide which plates to permit, and did not violate the First Amendment free speech rights of the Children First Foundation in rejecting the "Choose Life" plates. Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Rosemary Pooler said the content of custom plates was "private speech" and the plates themselves a "nonpublic forum."
Reuters

Finding data on federal grants and contracts awarded to states and congressional districts, local governments, nonprofit organizations, contractors, and other eligible entities may present challenges. The official website, USAspending.gov, at http://www.usaspending.gov, collects data on grants, loans, insurance, assistance, and contracts, and it presents various searching and downloading options to Congress and the public. Because of continued data quality problems identified by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), researchers need to be aware that search results may be incomplete or have inaccuracies.
Federation of American Scientists

The Alabama Legislature's email was hacked Thursday morning by an outside entity, causing lawmakers to briefly avoid using their accounts while the issue was addressed. Secretary of the Senate Pat Harris said Thursday afternoon the virus appeared to come from a server in India. The Legislature's IT department shut down the server, and Harris said the virus was contained within 30 minutes of discovery.  The scope of the breach was not initially known, but Brunson White, the state Secretary of Information Technology, said other state agencies did not appear affected.
Governing


Editorials/Columns

If you've read VCOG's daily newsletter or VPAP's VaNews for the day (or the original sources) you've seen stories about how the Office of Attorney General said it would cost more than $19,000 to fill a FOIA request for records relating to Sweet Briar's closing. If you haven't seen the document, you can view it below. Two things caught my eye about this response: (1) the lack of detail for the average salary of the attorneys, as well as the quoted 1,950 hours number, and (2) the faulty logic underlying the third bullet point on page 2. It's easy for me to cast stones without knowing the inner workings of the AG's office. But this estimate just emanates waves upon waves of red flags. It doesn't help that a spokesman for AG Mark Herring said to the Washington Post, "The cost was estimated only after [the requester] resisted advice to more narrowly tailor her records requests." That makes it sound like the estimate was prepared as a punishment. Could the request be even narrower? You bet. Citizens do not have a duty to narrow their requests, but it could help in this case to narrow the time frame. Still, charges should never be used to leverage a narrower request.
Megan Rhyne, VCOG Blog

Newspapers have an obvious self-interest regarding governmental disclosure of information. But their self-interest neatly aligns with the public interest. Democratic governance — rule by the people — is impaired when the people lack the information needed for informed opinions.Virginia has seen several developments in the field lately.
Times-Dispatch

Decorum in city council chambers lately has reflected poorly on this region's citizens. Perhaps when people speak to elected officials, they take a cue from online forums, where rants and attacks are de rigueur. Perhaps they see nothing wrong with booing, berating, hounding, even threatening those with different opinions. In Norfolk, a resident regularly heckles Councilman Paul Riddick during the public comment portion of council meetings. Riddick last month lost his temper and told the man not to come within 5 feet. Sadly, in Portsmouth, the attacks come from the dais as often as from the audience. Councilmembers have hurled insults and profanities as they criticized each other's ideas. Most of the time, their comments, however obnoxious, are protected by the First Amendment. Federal courts have ruled that comments sharply critical, even personal, about a city council or school board member are allowed under the Constitution. Protected status doesn't make such speech persuasive, however; often, it's simply an embarrassment and a distraction that garners attention on TV and online.
Virginian-Pilot

To be sure, such private texting during a public meeting is not illegal. But it certainly runs afoul of the entire concept of open government. Most public bodies in Virginia require public hearings before decisions are made on matters of substance, such as rezoning or special-use permits. That’s when lobbyists should speak their piece. Though the practice of texting elected officials during meetings is not a violation of the law, the text messages themselves are public records and subject to disclosure. That means that the officials who receive text messages about public business must preserve the messages (and any message in response) and relinquish them if requested. Of course, by then, the public body may have already voted on the issue. At least one member of Chesapeake’s City Council wants to have a discussion on the ethics of texting at public meetings. We hope that will take place in a public setting.
Free Lance-Star

Reform of the newly renamed Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission has finally come, but will the scandal-plagued but economically important agency be able to rise above its past? After 15 years of scandals, big and small, the Assembly, with a big push from Gov. Terry McAuliffe and the state’s news media, passed a series of reforms designed to rein in the commission. The size of the board of directors has been cut. Thirteen of the 28 directors must have experience in business, finance or education. Localities requesting funding of projects must have dollar-for-dollar matches in place. There must be follow up of grant recipients’ promises of job creation numbers and economic impact. Written procedures and policy manuals must now be in place; shockingly, they were not before. Will the reforms yield a more transparent, more effective agency? For Southside and Southwest Virginia, we hope so.
News & Advance

Before it’s all said and done, Virginia taxpayers could be covering the bill for nearly half a million dollars in legal fees, as a result of fights over redistricting. National Democratic groups are suing, arguing that the districts, as drawn by Republicans, were designed to reduce African American influence in some areas. The Republicans meanwhile can’t point fingers, as they’ve done the same in the past, when the Democrats were in charge. It just makes clear once again why we need to take the redistricting process out of the hands of politicians. What if a nonpartisan group, made up not of politicians, but of appointees, was responsible for redrawing the maps each time? Democratic and Republican politicians will attack each other’s plans for no other reason than to try and get an edge for the next election. But an appointed group, made up of a normal, diverse group of citizens, seems like it would have a better chance of getting things done without legal or political fights. The idea has been proposed multiple times and shot down without consideration. Now however, after spending yet more money to pay for lawsuits as one party sues the other, it’s time to revisit the concept and take a fresh look at how we do things. That is, unless you enjoy seeing your tax dollars go to pay the state’s legal bills.
News Virginian