Transparency News 7/24/15

Friday, July 24, 2015

State and Local Stories


The number of state lawmakers who reported receiving gifts worth more than $50 dropped dramatically in the months after former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted of corruption. The McDonnells were convicted in September. Afterward, 91 of the 140 lawmakers in the General Assembly reported receiving at least one gift valued in excess of $50, from November 2014 to April 2015, according to lawmakers’ economic disclosure forms compiled by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. The 65 percent acceptance rate contrasts with the 119 lawmakers (85 percent) who reported taking gifts from December 2012 to December 2013, and the 117 lawmakers (83.6 percent) who reported accepting at least one gift from December 2013 to October 2014.
Times-Dispatch

Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham has commenced an internal affairs investigation of his department’s human resources director after she posted a Facebook message last week that some officers view as offensive, demeaning and “over the top.” Her posting is labeled as an “HR Tip,” presumably to Richmond officers complaining about their wages. It reads: “You accepted your position based upon the information you had during the hiring process — this included the job description, your personal circumstances (expenses) and the salary the organization was offering. Employers offered you the position based upon your knowledge, skills and abilities and within the pre-determined salary range for the position.” “The salary offer on the table doesn’t consider your daycare expenses, car note or mortgage ... or future circumstances, such as weddings, divorce, or death — it’s your responsibility to ensure that the position you accepted provides for those things ... not your employer ... and if through the years, your circumstances change and your employer is no longer able to help you sustain or grow your finances ... guess what? You still have choices just like the choice you made in the beginning!” “Increase your skill set and apply for a promotion; increase your skill set and apply for another job ... in many cases if you make yourself invaluable to your current employer — they will do as much as they can to keep you ... but never forget the choice is always YOURS! Working everyday and complaining about your salary is futile and unproductive ... change begins with you! If you need or want something different — go get it and stop EXPECTING someone to give it!” The note ends with several hashtags, including getityourself, notmyfaultyouboughtmercedesonfordsalary, getasidehustle, wearpayless, stayoutofSaks and shopatSears. The hashtags are what apparently most infuriated the rank-and-file.
Times-Dispatch

National Stories
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The U.S. has a new ombudsman for the Freedom of Information Act. This week, Archivist of the United States David Ferriero announced that James Holzer would be the new director of the Office of Government Information Services at the U.S. National Archives, beginning on August 9. Among other things, he'll be tasked with resolving disputes between people who make FOIA requests and the federal government. "Dr. Holzer’s experience administering FOIA and his demonstrated commitment to transparency will benefit OGIS, the National Archives, and the American public," said Ferriero.  Holzer is currently the senior director of FOIA operations at the Department of Homeland Security, which receives the most FOIA requests in the federal government, with approximately 200,000 filed in 2014. The agency rolled out the federal government's first mobile FOIA app earlier this summer, to negative reviews.  DHS's record on FOIA compliance and transparency over the past few years is not distinguished, no matter how many times government officials say it is. DHS had the highest number of partial responses to FOIA requests in government.
Huffington Post

Attorneys for several victims of the deadly attack on Emanuel AME Church asked a judge Wednesday to block the public release of 911 calls and other materials detailing the shooting last month. Charleston lawyer Andy Savage, who represents five of the 12 victims or their families, called on 9th Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson to continue restricting the release of some information related to the shooting that killed nine downtown churchgoers. It asks for a transcript of the 911 calls to be made public but seeks to seal the recording itself. Savage also asked Nicholson to withhold crime-scene photographs and witnesses’ contact information. Other records should be made public, Savage wrote.
Post and Courier

A state judge has ordered New York City to release a summary of misconduct findings against the police officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in a case that added to the national debate on how police deal with minorities. In an opinion dated on Friday, the one-year anniversary of Garner’s death, and released publicly late Wednesday, State Supreme Court Justice Alice Schlesinger granted a freedom of information request from the Legal Aid Society. The Legal Aid Society had asked for the number of complaints against Pantaleo that had been substantiated by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent watchdog agency, and for any disciplinary recommendations the board made as a result. The request did not include the substance of the complaints themselves. After the board refused, citing state law that protects personnel records from disclosure to avoid backlash against individual officers, the Legal Aid Society sued the city.
Reuters

Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday. The request follows an assessment in a June 29 memo by the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence agencies that Mrs. Clinton’s private account contained “hundreds of potentially classified emails.” The memo was written to Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management.
New York Times

A Freedom of Information Act request regarding Planned Parenthood executive Dr. Deborah Nucatola and her financial ties with the federal government has been denied over a lack of newsworthiness and “general public interest,” The Federalist reported Thursday. Federalist reporter Mary Hasson, who broke the news that federal funds went to Ms. Nucatola for advice on family planning and “healthy baby” births, filed a request for all communications and documents relevant to any payments to or compensation of fees, consultant fees, reimbursements, etc. to Deborah Nucatola, The Federalist reported. Since FOIA requests can take years to fulfill, Ms. Hasson requested that the Health and Human Services FOIA office expedite her request, The Federalist reported. HHS denied her request for expedited information, explaining that “in order to meet second prong of the compelling need standard, the requested information must be the type of information that has a particular value that will be lost if not disseminated quickly, and ordinarily refers to a breaking news story of general public interest,” The Federalist reported.
Washington Times

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he supports dismantling and replacing the state’s independent elections and ethics board, ratcheting up Republicans’ calls for change to a board that helped investigate Walker’s 2012 recall campaign. Walker told reporters Monday he wants to scrap the state’s Government Accountability Board, or GAB, which enforces campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying laws. In its place, Walker said, he supports the creation of “something completely new that is truly accountable to the people of the state of Wisconsin.” Walker left open the possibility that a replacement board could have partisan leadership, compared to the current board, made up of six former judges. The Government Accountability Board’s director and supporters quickly responded. They called the board a national model that’s being targeted by politicians who resent its watchdog role.
Wisconsin State Journal

Lax security left the U.S. Treasury’s computer system for tracking overseas threats to America’s financial system vulnerable to hackers, according to a government audit prepared in late 2014 and obtained by Reuters. The Treasury Foreign Intelligence Network is used by U.S. spy agencies to share top-secret information and to keep tabs on the impact of sanctions against countries such as Iran and Russia, as well as militant groups like Hezbollah.
Reuters

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has launched an interactive, online map charting the policies of more than 100 police departments and laws in nearly every stateregarding public access to police body camera videos. "In the past year, we've seen dramatic growth in the number of police departments implementing bodycam programs. Unfortunately, not all police departments and lawmakers appreciate the importance of ensuring public access to bodycam video and other public records that are generated by those programs," said Reporters Committee Litigation Director Katie Townsend. "Compiling bodycam policies, laws and regulations into one user-friendly database will make it easier to identify best practices to achieve the transparency and accountability these programs are intended to promote," Townsend added. The online map is made possible by a grant from the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz asserted Thursday that the office's central watchdog function has been undermined by a new department legal memorandum that, he said, effectively blocks independent access to sensitive records to complete internal reviews. The 58-page memorandum issued earlier this week by Justice's Office of Legal Counsel limits disclosure of secret grand jury information, the contents of wiretaps and consumer information to inspector general investigators. Although there is no specific evidence to suggest that such information sought by the inspector general has been ultimately denied, the memo effectively affirms long-standing restrictions that have delayed access to sensitive information, for months in some cases, Horowitiz has said previously.
USA TODAY

The public can now watch more than one million minutes of historical footage on YouTube thanks to a release Wednesday from The Associated Press and British Movietone. "The upload to YouTube means that, for the first time, the public can enjoy some of the oldest and most remarkable moments in history," AP's director of international archive Alwyn Lindsey said in a statement. The AP partnered with British Movietone, an organization with one of the world's largest newsreel collections, to create the archive. The hope is that it will serve as a "video encyclopedia" for the public, according to the statement. The archive features more than 550,000 videos dating back to 1895.
USA TODAY


Editorials/Columns

Over the course of the last ten years, FOIA has been my number one activity and focus of government policy research concerning open government and transparency almost exclusively. Every jurisdiction I look at has their problems; this is no exaggeration. Some are more severe than others, but still: this is a law in the Commonwealth waiting for the respect other laws get. Claims of unbelieving administrators that these “mistakes” are just that, fall on my deaf ears. I know better. This law is regularly ignored and worse yet, administrators all over the state try to blame others. The Judiciary plays along, refusing to fine government administrators based on the faulty logic that they know little about what they are doing.
Only Other Shoe