Transparency News 7/15/15

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

State and Local Stories


In the months before the vote to shut down, Sweet Briar College’s previous administration sought to become part of the University of Virginia as a way of dealing with declining enrollments and dire finances, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.Sources told The Times-Dispatch in June that a U.Va. board member earlier had toured the Sweet Briar campus, which is on U.S. Route 29 in Amherst County about an hour south of the U.Va. campus in Charlottesville. But on June 18, days before the mediation agreement was reached, then-U.Va. Rector George Keith Martin denied to The Times-Dispatch that the board had discussed Sweet Briar “at any of our meetings.” He added that “we do not have any current plans to create any satellite campuses anywhere.” Martin sought to quash an earlier no-comment statement from a university spokesman. Asked why Martin was not more forthcoming, David W. Breneman, a U.Va. professor emeritus who late last year was serving on the Sweet Briar board, said that U.Va. “swore those from SBC to secrecy and said if the story leaked out, that would be a deal-killer. I guess the rector internalized that instruction to cover U.Va. as well, in perpetuity.” U.Va., a public institution covered by the Freedom of Information Act, declined to turn over to The Chronicle a letter James Jones, Sweet Briar’s president at the time, wrote to Martin, because it included personal family information.
Times-Dispatch

A self-styled police watchdog who got a $75 ticket from a Virginia state trooper in 2012 is now facing a $1.3 million lawsuit -- after he posted the encounter on the Internet and accused the cop of molesting him. On May 26, 2012, Memorial Day weekend, Nathan Cox of Mechanicsville, Va., was driving in the southbound lane of Interstate 295 just after 3 p.m. when Officer Melanie McKenney of the Virginia State Police pulled him over for failing to display his front license plate. The events that transpired next -- including Cox's posting of the ordeal to his blog "Virginia Cop Block" -- would result in a $1.35 million lawsuit against him. Through the Freedom of Information Act, Cox obtained the 28-minute dash cam video as well as radio transmissions and text messages sent between McKenney and her colleagues and posted it all to his blog. While sitting inside her police cruiser after the confrontation, McKenney can be heard in one radio transmission telling another officer, "I don't want myself on any Youtube or whatever," when the colleague informs her about Cox's blog. She can also be heard defending her orders to have Cox step outside his vehicle. McKenney first filed her lawsuit in May 2013 in small claims court for $5,000. She then re-filed in March 2014 in circuit court for $1.35 million -- an amount set by her attorney, D. Hayden Fisher.
Fox News


National Stories
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The South Carolina Press Association is challenging a judge's order sealing court documents concerning Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old man charged with murdering nine worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston last month, the group said. Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association, said legal motions were being filed on Tuesday and a hearing is scheduled for Thursday. "The public has a need and a right to know about this case and the judge's order is overly broad," he said. Ninth Circuit Court Judge J.C. Nicholson issued a gag order on Friday covering "all potential trial participants" as well as the ban on the release of documents in the case, including 911 police dispatch calls, coroner's reports and statements of witnesses in the case, according to court records.
Reuters

A federal judge has ordered the release of a video showing three Los Angeles-area police officers fatally shooting an unarmed man in 2013, saying the public had the right to review the footage. U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson said he saw no reason not to release the video after the city of Gardena, 15 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, paid victim Ricardo Diaz Zeferino's family what local media reported was a $4.7 million settlement. As taxpayers were footing the bill they had a right to see the footage, Wilson said on Tuesday. 
Reuters

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails are now a big enough issue that they merit an official 3,600-word fact sheet. The campaign put up its own gigantic explainer, covering why the former secretary of state stored mail on a private server instead of an official State Department account, whether that server violated government transparency policies, and how she decided what to hand over for public release.
The Verge

The five cities of the City Accelerator's second cohort -- Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans and Seattle -- are spending the summer doing the detailed work of turning their winning proposals into practical, results-producing models of civic engagement. During the next 18 months, we will learn from the cohort as a whole and from each city individually because civic engagement, like most anything that matters, is deeply contextualized -- informed by a unique sense of place. The personality of each of these places is shaped by the mixture of people, politics, economics and histories that make that city what it is. And so it is in Chattanooga, the city I know best. Our sense of place and that place's people shaped how we approached an ambitious revitalization campaign. They were heady times. It had a startup sensibility to it, and its success relied on our ability to meaningfully engage with the people who lived and worked there. Spoiler alert: We worked hard and made it fun, on purpose.
Governing


Editorials/Columns

There are two ways to look at ethics in Virginia. Only one is correct. One comes from citizens, who believe that clear laws governing conduct by elected officials help ensure that the people's business is conducted in a fair and forthright manner. The other comes from officials themselves, who protest that such laws are insulting and claim they cannot work under such intrusive rules. Now, Mr. McDonnell was well liked and such an outpouring isn't entirely self-serving. For instance, a group of 44 former state attorneys general, including six from the commonwealth, filed an amicus brief arguing that federalizing a corruption case like this risks upsetting the delicate federal-state balance on such matters. But from other corners, the arguments being made are outlandish. From the General Assembly, where Mr. McDonnell once represented Virginia Beach, came the support of current and former senators and delegates. Some supported a brief that argued, "Virginia's legislators may be forced to scale back constituent services and other socially beneficial efforts, such as encouraging business development in their districts." Let that argument sink in for a moment: They're saying they cannot execute the responsibilities of their offices if, like the former governor, they are punished for taking gifts or loans from donors.
Daily Press

Norfolk's School Board, thankfully the only one in the region that restricts members' speech, is reconsidering its "one voice" policy. As The Pilot's Cherise M. Newsome reported Monday, board members said at their weekend retreat that they would revise the policy that designates the chairman to speak for all seven members. The policy discouraged school officials from speaking out about the myriad problems that have plagued the division recently: In 2014, the division forfeited $1.6 million in federal money that was supposed to go to impoverished schools. In March, less than nine months after extending Superintendent Samuel King's contract by two years, the School Board voted to terminate him - and pay him $246,750, plus a year's worth of family medical and dental insurance. Both cried out for explanation and accountability. The School Board provided neither. Rather than encourage a culture of openness and accountability, where board members work through issues publicly and explain their votes directly, the School Board's gag stifled communication with citizens and promoted misunderstandings and mistrust.
Virginian-Pilot