Transparency News 5/29/15

Friday, May 29, 2015

State and Local Stories


There are two new articles on the VCOG Blog. They both address the responses to FOIA requests from the Attorney General’s office. For this one, I discuss the problems with the way the fee estimate is calculated and in this one I talk about the office’s troubling delay in receiving the request. The actual response letters are included in both posts.

Sealed documents containing information about an undercover investigation mounted by the Shenandoah County’s Sheriff’s Office into cigarette smuggling will be made public under a ruling by a Circuit Court judge Thursday. Circuit Judge Dennis L. Hupp ordered the documents unsealed in a victory for defense attorney David Downes, who has filed several motions seeking to pry information from the prosecution and the Sheriff’s Office. “I’m ordering these matters no longer remain under seal,” Hupp said about documents that were the subject of a Freedom of Information Act request that Downes filed early last year. Downes wanted the documents unsealed as possible evidence that could be introduced on behalf of his clients at their jury trials.
Northern Virginia Daily

Arlington County has set up a hotline and Web site that will allow its 3,500 employees to anonymously report and suspected financial fraud, waste or abuse in county government. County manager Barbara Donnellan announced the new security measures on Thursday. She said the county also has developed an administrative whistleblower policy to protect employees who choose to identify themselves when making a report.
Washington Post

Warning that criminals will go free and unpunished, victims won’t receive justice and law enforcement personnel in Culpeper County are being harmed, the Culpeper Town Council fired off a letter this month blasting Commonwealth’s Attorney Megan Revis Frederick for her refusal to prosecute cases involving Officer Matt Haymaker. The May 15 letter called Frederick’s actions “unacceptable.” The letter spelled out a chilling scenario that would allow a suspect charged with a serious crime to go free. The town’s letter, obtained by the Times, through a Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, noted that on May 12 Town Attorney Martin Crim had notified Frederick that Haymaker had undergone additional training and had been reassigned to patrol.  Again, on May 12, according to the town’s letter, Frederick was unmoved and told town officials that she and her staff will not prosecute any cases involving Haymaker. “”We do not find that an acceptable explanation, much less a compelling one, for declining to prosecute all cases where he is a witness,” the council members wrote. “Your position is contrary to the Commonwealth’s goal of protecting citizens from criminal activity. In addition, your position is harmful to the entire town police force, as well as other law enforcement agencies serving our community.” The letter admitted that Frederick legally possesses discretion about which cases to prosecute.
Culpeper Times

The Virginia Department of Social Services will be moving forward with a review of the local agency starting in the next two weeks. Susan Reese, the Virginia Piedmont Region's director, said the quality management review sought by the local board has been approved. "We are working on the scheduling and timeline now," she said. "The process will begin within the next two weeks." A state review of the Shenandoah Valley Social Services office, from top to bottom, was requested May 15 by a local agency board vote. It follows The News Leader investigative report about more than 200 ignored, deleted voice mails on a child abuse intake line. But this review is usually done when a director leaves, officials said.
News Leader


National Stories
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The Washington Supreme Court struck down the state’s anti-SLAPP law in its entirety, holding that it violates the right to trial by jury under the Washington Constitution. The decision marks the first time an anti-SLAPP law has been held unconstitutional. The Washington law, RCW 4.24.525, required judges to weigh the disputed facts of cases and dismiss them if they determined that the plaintiff could not show by clear and convincing evidence a probability of prevailing on the claim. The Washington Supreme Court held that it must be juries, not judges, who make those determinations of fact. The law’s invalidation removes a key protection in the state for members of the media and other speakers who are often targeted by plaintiffs who bring meritless suits with the intention of silencing valuable speech and public participation. By allowing such defendants to quickly dismiss these suits, the law protected their ability to speak without fear of harassing litigation.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

While the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision last week that private colleges’ police forces must make their records available to the public upon request, ESPN is appealing an Indiana court's ruling that the sports cable channel was not entitled to obtain police records from the University of Notre Dame. St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Steven Hostetler wrote that a state Public Access Counselor was incorrect in determining that ESPN was entitled to records from Notre Dame’s police department. “ESPN’s position assumes that the Indiana Legislature has the constitutional authority to require a private person or entity that is not funded to produce its records under [the Access to Public Records Act],” Hostetler wrote. “Such a requirement would certainly give rise to grave concerns about the right to privacy and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.”
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

For the second time in two months, Gov. Rick Scott's administration has acknowledged it inadvertently released confidential personal data of private citizens, prompting the state to offer free credit monitoring services to protect people from being victims of identity theft. The Department of State said it released names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of about 13,000 people who were on waiting lists for services for the developmentally disabled in 2003, when Jeb Bush was governor. The information was included in emails that the state released last year to Bush, who's exploring a run for president in 2016.
Governing

Kirby Delauter vaulted to viral superstardom in January when he briefly threatened to sue his local newspaper if it used his name. The Frederick County Council member has now talked himself into another flap, albeit lower-profile, this time for crude comments about a council colleague and County Executive Jan Gardner (D). Last week Delauter, a Republican. called into a radio show to denounce Gardner and Council President Bud Otis (R) for sponsoring a bill — to be introduced on Tuesday — that would bar his family-owned general contracting company from bidding on county jobs. It seems that in addition to forgetting sometimes about a newspaper’s First Amendment right to publish the names of public officials, Delauter can be sketchy on what civic teachers call the appearance of conflict of interest, or the importance of ethics and squeaky clean government.
Washington Post


Editorials/Columns

With increasing frequency, especially on college campuses, speakers presenting unpopular views—or views unpopular with a vocal minority of the audience—are being disrupted or “shouted down” until they leave the stage. This has happened at my own campus and many others. Such incidents are an embarrassment, an insult to higher education’s time-honored commitment to free and open debate, and they speak volumes about the decline of civility in society. But while they violate the spirit of the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee, if force isn’t involved it’s not clear that a constitutional violation has taken place.
Donald A. Downs, Free Lance-Star