Transparency News 9/25/15

Friday, September 25, 2015
 

State and Local Stories
 

A Churchland High teacher chastised the Portsmouth School Board for religious aspects of the division's citywide convocation last month. Nicole Ambrose spoke during the public comments section of Thursday's board meeting and raised concerns about what she called a disregard for the separation of church and state. "The School Board neglected to uphold this key principle in its citywide convocation," she said.
Virginian-Pilot

After spending an hour in closed session, the Rocky Mount Town Council affirmed the town manager’s decision to dismiss Town Clerk Stacey Sink. The decision was made during a specially called meeting on Thursday night. Mayor Steve Angle said a majority of the council affirmed the decision, but did not specify a vote count. Sink, who has worked for the town in various positions for eight years, served as both the town clerk and the executive assistant to the town manager, James Ervin. The decision to dismiss Sink was first made by Ervin. Sink said Ervin does not have the authority to dismiss her as town clerk, because the position is appointed by the council. She maintains that his actions violated the town charter and code.
Roanoke Times

Virginia State Police continue to investigate the disappearance of seized drug money from the evidence room of the Augusta County Sheriff's Department in Verona, a report from the Commonwealth's Attorney confirmed. Rumors have been circulating that Lee Ervin's office was sitting on a report containing the results of the investigation until after the Augusta County sheriff's election. "Not true. I want to put the rumors to rest," Commonwealth's Attorney Ervin said.
News Leader

The Culpeper Commonwealth’s Murder by Mob case against Tonie Jones, who is charged in the November 2014 death of Corey Clanagan, continues to remain hidden from public scrutiny through the use of closed courtrooms and sealed files. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Angela Catlett represented the Commonwealth during the Sept. 22 hearing, Commonwealth’s Attorney Megan Frederick being absent. Catlett requested copies of the same transcripts as Berger and asked that anything filed during one of those closed hearings be sealed “so they won’t be discoverable by the public.” She also asked that the transcripts be sealed so as prevent public review of the documents.
Culpeper Times

National Stories
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Illinois Times today sued Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner after Attorney General Lisa Madigan ruled that the governor must turn over his appointment calendar in response to the paper’s request made under the state Freedom of Information Act.  The newspaper asked for Rauner’s appointment calendar last spring after the governor walked out of a Holocaust remembrance ceremony. The newspaper’s request came after the governor’s press office ignored an emailed query asking where the governor had gone while a Holocaust survivor spoke at the annual ceremony held at the Old State Capitol. Rauner gave the newspaper a redacted version of his appointment calendar showing that he had attended a meeting in the governor’s office while the ceremony continued. The governor redacted the names of the person, or people, with whom he met. The newspaper subsequently appealed to the attorney general, who ruled that Rauner must disclose the names of the people who attend meetings memorialized in his appointment calendar, which is prepared by public employees on public time using public equipment. Rauner had claimed that the calendar was maintained for the governor’s convenience, but the attorney general determined that the calendar is the public’s business.
Illinois Times

The Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit against Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday over claims he violated open records laws by failing to disclose personal emails and text messages used to conduct official city business. The complaint, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, asks a judge for an injunction to force the former White House chief of staff to produce documents, as well as having him declared in violation of the Illinois Local Records Act. The newspaper, which filed a lawsuit over email chains in June, argued that its Freedom of Information Act requests to Emanuel's administration have been "met with a pattern of non-compliance, partial compliance, delay and obfuscation," according to the lawsuit. "We are seeking the release of public records on matters of great interest to citizens, but the city refuses to divulge them," Tribune Editor Gerould Kern said in a statement. "Regrettably, the city's denial is part of a pattern of resistance to releasing public documents covered by the Illinois Freedom of Information Act."
Fox News

The email described a deteriorating situation in Libya, with snipers shooting people in the streets as rebels tried to unseat President Muammar el-Qaddafi and worried American diplomats in the midst of a “phased checkout” from Benghazi. It arrived in the private email account of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, one Sunday morning in April 2011, with unforeseen consequences. That email, which included an update from the Africa Command of the Department of Defense detailing Libyan military movements, is part of the evidence that law enforcement officials say the F.B.I. is now examining as it tries to determine whether aides to Mrs. Clinton mishandled delicate national security information when they communicated with their boss. There is no evidence that any of the emails — a small portion of some 60,000 that Mrs. Clinton sent or received as secretary of state — were hacked or caused any harm to American interests, and law enforcement officials have said she is not a target of their investigation. But one of the questions they are seeking to answer is whether her aides or other State Department officials broke federal rules or laws when they sent her information. And arriving at an answer will not be simple, given the complex and often conflicting views of just how diplomatically fragile the information conveyed in the emails actually was.
New York Times

You can almost hear it: In mayoral cabinets nationwide, new chairs are being pulled up to the table. Chief resiliency officers are joining their ranks, along with data and innovation chiefs. And yet room hasn't been made for a critical seat: chief research officer. In cash-strapped cities drowning in data and searching for evidence-based interventions that have real impact, a chief research officer would be a master stroke. A definition is in order. A CRO would have three responsibilities: setting a citywide research agenda, marshalling resources to carry it out and providing a politically durable hub for knowledge of what works -- from programs to policies to methods of citizen engagement. Equal parts researcher, ringmaster and grants administrator, the CRO's office would provide external collaborators with a single point of entry and internal colleagues with a single convener. In the process, a CRO could make substantial progress on a few things about local government that need fixing:
Governing

The Associated Press, First Look Media and the Tampa Bay Times are among several media organizations that jointly filed a motion Thursday asking a Florida court for public access to records in the ongoing legal battle between Hulk Hogan and Gawker Media. The motion is the latest twist in long-fought litigation between Gawker Media and Hogan, who is suing the Manhattan-based news company for invasion of privacy after staffers there published an excerpt of a sex tape showing the former wrestler having sex with the wife of shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. That trial was set to kick off this summer before a higher court intervened at the last moment, delaying the proceeding on a legal technicality.
Poynter

The Central Intelligence Agency has improperly classified and withheld from release at least five categories of information related to its post-9/11 rendition, detention and interrogation program, according to a detailed complaint filed by Openthegovernment.org with the Information Security Oversight Office. Classification of this information has impeded government accountability for the controversial CIA programs and derailed a full public reckoning over abuses that occurred, the complaint said. "Secrecy regarding 'black sites' and torture has played a major role in ensuring that no CIA personnel could be prosecuted for torture, war crimes, destruction of evidence, or other relevant federal crimes. It has ensured that civil courts were closed to victims of torture, indefinitely delayed trials of the accused perpetrators of the September 11 attacks, and put the United States in breach of its obligations under the Convention Against Torture," wrote Katherine Hawkins, National Security Fellow at Openthegovernment.org, who authored the complaint.
Secrecy News


Editorials/Columns

There was a time not long ago when open-government advocates could safely rely on the wisdom of the Virginia Supreme Court in overruling lower court judges who seemed to struggle with transparency statutes. But the faces have changed on the Supreme Court in recent years and apparently so have attitudes toward government secrecy. Two recent opinions handed down by the court this year are examples. Both rulings seem to expand the likelihood that government will withhold more information.
Free Lance-Star