Transparency News 6/4/15

Thursday, June 4, 2015

State and Local Stories


Virginia's highest court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that could change the state's open records laws. The case, brought by Del. Scott Surovell, stems from his push to access state execution records, including manuals that detail execution protocols and technical details behind the state's electric chair. But once Supreme Court justices hash out the Virginia Department of Corrections' refusal to release a number of records over security concerns the case may set a broader precedent. Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons added extra time to oral arguments Wednesday, citing the "great public interest" in this case. He also boiled down the issue at hand: What duty do state agencies have to redact, but still release, records, as opposed to refusing their release altogether? Assistant Attorney General Margaret O'Shea, who argued the department's case Wednesday, said "common sense" dictates that the state shouldn't release information about shift changes or floor plans for its executions facility at Greensville Correctional Facility. She told Supreme Court justices that the department acted in good faith when it withheld documents that Surovell requested. Justice William C. Mims told her that's not the underlying issue. "We're not writing only for this case," he said. "We're writing for the future."
Daily Press
The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case challenging the state for keeping information about executions secret. Lawyers arguing for the commonwealth want to keep materials such as execution manuals and a schematic of the L-Unit at the Greensville Correctional Center exempt under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act - citing security reasons. "This case is not about Virginia trying to keep its execution protocols secret," Assistant Attorney General Margaret Hoehl O’Shea told the justices. "But the Department of Corrections has no control over what happens to these documents once they are made public. These documents should not be publicly scrutinized," O'Shea said. O'Shea also said that the state's Freedom of Information Act Advisory Council, a 12-member panel charged with encouraging and facilitating compliance with the act, does not have the same experience in security issues as the corrections department. "These manuals contain very specific information about how the electric chair is set up. These are very technical specifications," she said. But O'Shea did not want to speculate over what would happen if these documents were released. "We can’t do that, we can’t predict the future," she said.
Times-Dispatch

Virginia’s part-time lawmakers need a raise, members of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s ethics commission said Wednesday. The $18,000 annual salary plus per diem for legislators isn’t enough to recruit good people and doesn’t begin to cover all the time lawmakers put in, members of the governor’s Commission on Integrity and Public Confidence in State Government said. “The current legislative compensation is nowhere near adequate,” said former Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who is co-chairman of the panel. “It’s just not.” Although some lawmakers may privately agree, history suggests they are unlikely to vote to give themselves raises. Through a spokesman, House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, said a legislative pay bump is “not something that would be considered moving forward.” Bolling said some lawmakers supplement their take-home pay with an office allowance and payments for attending conferences. With any raise, Bolling said, those kinds of income add-ons should go away.
Roanoke Times
A former lieutenant governor - whose second term coincided with a governor convicted of public corruption - is especially perturbed that an ethics advisory council devised to guide lawmakers on ethical issues includes, well, lawmakers. Bill Bolling, one of the leaders of a group recommending ways to improve ethics regulations, is especially critical of the ethics council that could begin meeting next month.
Virginian-Pilot

Strasburg town officials have a new sewer line camera system that will help it monitor the town lines for potential leaks and fixes. At a council work session on Monday, Jay McKinley, acting town manager and director of public works, showcased some findings that the new tethered camera system picked up. McKinley said the video evidence showed leaks the town did not know about as well as grease build-up in certain portions of the lines. “We actually found a water line that was leaking into the sewer line,” McKinley said. “If we hadn’t of found that with the camera, that’s an extra 400,000 gallons of water that was being lost in the water plant.”
Northern Virginia Daily

Attorneys for the man accused of killing Hannah Graham want to bar the media from a hearing in a separate Fairfax County sexual assault case in which his alleged victim is expected to testify for the first time. Deputy Public Defender Dawn Butorac wrote in a motion that media coverage of the pre-trial hearing Thursday would “annihilate” Jesse L. Matthew Jr.’s right to a fair trial, since many of the questions to the witness and arguments made by the defense will be repeated at the trial. It is slated to begin on Monday. “There will be absolutely no way to select an impartial jury,” Butorac wrote. The move comes after the defense unsuccessfully sought to limit media access to the court file in the case, citing a similar rationale.
Washington Post

Since Virginia passed a law 20 years ago authorizing public-private partnerships in the state, it’s been a model for other states interested in tapping private businesses to help deliver state services. Virginia officials frequently testify on Capitol Hill or at international conferences about their efforts. Both Democratic and Republican governors have used the partnerships in Virginia. The most well-known examples are toll roads and tolled lanes on highways in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. So it was significant when Aubrey Layne, Virginia’s transportation secretary, suggested recently that Virginia may be able to save taxpayer money by financing a $2.1 billion interstate widening project itself, rather than relying on a public-private partnership (P3) to finance, design and build the project. Robert Chase, the executive director of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, supported the administration’s cost-conscious approach, but he said the state should release its full analysis on the projected costs, rather than just the conclusions of that analysis. Chase said that the state needs to be more transparent. The McAuliffe administration wants vendors to disclose more about their deals, but the vendors should also know how the state is planning on structuring its own finance deal, so they can offer a suitable alternative.
Governing




Editorials/Columns

The FREEDOM Act includes several improvements over the PATRIOT Act. It focuses telephone data collection on specific individuals for whom authorities can articulate an actual suspicion of some terrorist connection. There is also an emergency clause that gives authorities broad discretion to track a suspect for three days after he enters the U.S. without a new surveillance order. It reforms the FISA Court’s proceedings, so that the judges hear from an advocate for the public, rather than only the government’s side. And it brings needed sunshine to the secretive court by declassifying major opinions that change how surveillance laws are interpreted. It won’t end all domestic surveillance, however.
Times-Dispatch