Transparency News 7/9/15
Transparency News is brought to you by the
Virginia Coalition for Open Government
Thursday, July 9, 2015
State and Local Stories
From the Twitterverse:
Virginia Memory
Three Pittsylvania County residents are appealing a judge’s dismissal last month of their Freedom of Information Act case against the Pittsylvania County Agricultural Development Board. In an appeal filed in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court, Deborah Dix, Phillip Lovelace and Karen Maute request that the court find the board’s treatment of Dix and Lovelace was “willful” on a number of allegations, including when members escorted them out of a board meeting and locked them out of the building during a thunderstorm on April 8. The appeal also requests reimbursement of attorney’s fees. County resident Barbara Hudson is representing the three residents.
Register & Bee
The chief architect of a Republican legislative redistricting plan said Wednesday that race was just one of many factors used to redraw boundaries in Virginia's House of Delegates, disputing claims that the redistricting sought at all costs to pack black voters into a dozen districts. Delegate Chris Jones of Suffolk testified in front of a three-judge paneloverseeing the redistricting trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. The GOP-controlled House of Delegates is defending itself against a civil lawsuit alleging that the 2011 redistricting unconstitutionally crowded black voters into 12 districts, limiting their influence in the rest of the state.
Daily Press
More than 70 people attended Danville City Council’s meeting Tuesday, with many speaking out about whether or not the Confederate flag should continue to be flown on the lawn of the city-owned Sutherlin Mansion. The most shocking revelation occurred when Councilman Larry Campbell left his seat and stood at the podium set up for the public to make comments. Campbell told council members he had been called by Danville Police Chief Philip Broadfoot earlier in the day and asked to come in for a meeting. When he arrived, Campbell said, he learned a package had been delivered to the police from the Virginia Fusion Center, warning them that Campbell was being threatened with the release of “damaging” information about him if he spoke out against the flag at the meeting and possible physical threats. Two other Virginia legislators received similar warnings, one in Richmond and one in Fredericksburg.
Register & Bee
Public records reveal Crabtree Buick Pontiac GMC got more business from Bristol Virginia Utilities over a several year period than any other local dealership and a Community Watchdog investigation found out the man in charge of preparing the bids for at least some of those sales is BVU’s new chairman and longtime board member Jim Clifton. Clifton is the general sales manager of the dealership and is also in charge of its new fleet vehicle sales to political subdivisions. BVU records reveal he was directly involved with at least $100,000 of the dealership’s sales to BVU during his time on the public utility’s board. Since 2010, records show Crabtree’s made more than $476,000 worth of transactions with BVU. Clifton was appointed to the board in 2007. Clifton says those sales were all the result of a sealed bid process. He says BVU would send out a proposal, multiple dealerships would respond and the low bidder would win. “I didn’t influence anybody to take our bid,” Clifton said. “Either we’re the low bidder or we’re not.” When Crabtree was involved, a little more than half of the time, records show the dealership was the low bidder. In at least three instances, documents reveal Clifton was directly involved with the sale of vehicles to BVU. Twice he went so far as to actually sign the bid sheets.
WJHL
Virginia Coalition for Open Government
Thursday, July 9, 2015
State and Local Stories
From the Twitterverse:
Story at 6 is BVU-related. Agency tried to suggest charging overhead for FOIA needed for story. Contacted @opengovva and BVU backed down
— Nate Morabito (@WJHL_Nate) July 8, 2015
One of the Library of Virginia’s newest online collections was recently hacked, and we could not be more excited. The Kaine Email Project has caught the attention of a group of civic hackers called Code for Hampton Roads. As the local chapter of the Code for America Brigade, Code for Hampton Roads provides opportunities for people to marry technological skills with a desire to foster open government and improve communities through open-source web solutions. The group’s recent projects include web apps for finding local restaurants’ health inspection results and for searching all of Virginia’s civil court records from a single search page.Virginia Memory
Three Pittsylvania County residents are appealing a judge’s dismissal last month of their Freedom of Information Act case against the Pittsylvania County Agricultural Development Board. In an appeal filed in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court, Deborah Dix, Phillip Lovelace and Karen Maute request that the court find the board’s treatment of Dix and Lovelace was “willful” on a number of allegations, including when members escorted them out of a board meeting and locked them out of the building during a thunderstorm on April 8. The appeal also requests reimbursement of attorney’s fees. County resident Barbara Hudson is representing the three residents.
Register & Bee
The chief architect of a Republican legislative redistricting plan said Wednesday that race was just one of many factors used to redraw boundaries in Virginia's House of Delegates, disputing claims that the redistricting sought at all costs to pack black voters into a dozen districts. Delegate Chris Jones of Suffolk testified in front of a three-judge paneloverseeing the redistricting trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. The GOP-controlled House of Delegates is defending itself against a civil lawsuit alleging that the 2011 redistricting unconstitutionally crowded black voters into 12 districts, limiting their influence in the rest of the state.
Daily Press
More than 70 people attended Danville City Council’s meeting Tuesday, with many speaking out about whether or not the Confederate flag should continue to be flown on the lawn of the city-owned Sutherlin Mansion. The most shocking revelation occurred when Councilman Larry Campbell left his seat and stood at the podium set up for the public to make comments. Campbell told council members he had been called by Danville Police Chief Philip Broadfoot earlier in the day and asked to come in for a meeting. When he arrived, Campbell said, he learned a package had been delivered to the police from the Virginia Fusion Center, warning them that Campbell was being threatened with the release of “damaging” information about him if he spoke out against the flag at the meeting and possible physical threats. Two other Virginia legislators received similar warnings, one in Richmond and one in Fredericksburg.
Register & Bee
Public records reveal Crabtree Buick Pontiac GMC got more business from Bristol Virginia Utilities over a several year period than any other local dealership and a Community Watchdog investigation found out the man in charge of preparing the bids for at least some of those sales is BVU’s new chairman and longtime board member Jim Clifton. Clifton is the general sales manager of the dealership and is also in charge of its new fleet vehicle sales to political subdivisions. BVU records reveal he was directly involved with at least $100,000 of the dealership’s sales to BVU during his time on the public utility’s board. Since 2010, records show Crabtree’s made more than $476,000 worth of transactions with BVU. Clifton was appointed to the board in 2007. Clifton says those sales were all the result of a sealed bid process. He says BVU would send out a proposal, multiple dealerships would respond and the low bidder would win. “I didn’t influence anybody to take our bid,” Clifton said. “Either we’re the low bidder or we’re not.” When Crabtree was involved, a little more than half of the time, records show the dealership was the low bidder. In at least three instances, documents reveal Clifton was directly involved with the sale of vehicles to BVU. Twice he went so far as to actually sign the bid sheets.
WJHL
Categories:
