Transparency News 12/3/15

State and Local Stories

The city of Richmond submitted some state-mandated finance information for fiscal year 2015 ahead of a Nov. 30 deadline, officials said, but another report due a year earlier remains outstanding. An accounting of how federal dollars were spent during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014, has yet to be submitted to the state or federal government. City officials turned a draft of that report over to the outside firm hired to perform the annual review of Richmond finances, but the information appears to be incomplete, said Rob Churchman with Cherry Bekaert, the city’s outgoing external auditor.
Richmond Times-Dispatch


Editorials/Columns

What do you think would happen if you refused to file tax returns? Or drove 60 mph in a 35 mph zone? Or ran a day care without submitting a background check? Or held a concert without getting a permit? It’s not hard to guess. The relevant government agencies would jump on you fast, with hobnail boots. And if you complained that following the rules was just too much trouble, they’d laugh in your face. Yet time after time, local governments refuse to hand over public information that they are required by law to release. Required. By law.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

We don’t do things that way here. At least, we shouldn’t.  By “things,” we mean restricting citizens’ right to free speech or denying other constitutional liberties. By “here,” we mean not only the United States, but especially Virginia — whose sons authored such manifestos of freedom as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. The city of Petersburg perhaps now has a better understanding of those rights after facing a legal challenge on free-speech case and agreeing to settle out of court. The story and its outcome are important across Virginia as an example and a warning. Too many local governments fail to respect the First Amendment. Many don’t even know what it means, or how to interpret the laws regulating its implementation.
Daily Progress

Though local governments often are seen as the villains in the transparency clash, the folks who make the laws—members of the Virginia General Assembly—are not without blame. They’ve managed to make about 170 types of records exempt from mandatory disclosure. That doesn’t mean they must be withheld, only that they can be. Government officials usually decide to withhold such records. The General Assembly, of course, does not include itself in many of the FOIA laws. For example, government-related email or other correspondence of a local council member or county supervisor are public records. But not the correspondence of state senators or delegates. While local agencies must adhere to state laws about scheduling meetings and voting on measures in public, state legislators make up their own rules. During legislative sessions, committees and subcommittees often meet with just a few minutes of advance notice. Even more egregious is the practice of killing bills in subcommittees and committees without a recorded vote or any vote at all. It happened in the House of Delegates to 76 percent of bills and resolutions in the legislative session held earlier this year, according to a survey conducted by Transparency Virginia, an informal coalition of nonprofit organizations that regularly lobby the General Assembly.
Dick Hammerstrom, Free Lance-Star

Here's what the Chicago Police Department told the media after 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was killed by a police officer 13 months ago: A drug-addled black kid lunged at a cop with a knife and was then shot in the chest. Six months later, and a week after Chicago's mayoral election, the City Council rushed through approval of a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family, even though no lawsuit had been filed. In addition to the officer who killed him, everybody failed that kid — from his mother, who lost custody of him after her boyfriend savagely beat him; to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which was supposed to protect him and help him as its legal ward; to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who covered up the gruesome manner of McDonald's death by fighting the release of the dashboard video; to the City Council for not demanding answers before approving such a huge settlement; to the mainstream media for not following up on their denied freedom-of-information requests with a lawsuit; to the Cook County state's attorney for her typical slow-walking of investigations of alleged police misconduct; to the Illinois attorney general, who waited until the day before a judge finally ruled to claim that the city had violated the state's freedom of Information law by sitting on the video.
Rich Miller, Chicago Tribune