Transparency News 1/8/16
State and Local Stories
HB 432 (Del. Villanueva)
Limits the application of the exemption for criminal investigative files to active criminal investigative files. As a result, closed or inactive criminal investigative files would be subject to mandatory disclosure, if requested.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB432
Here is a calendar showing the meeting times for the House and Senate standing committees. I will try to add subcommittee information, too, though there were more than 75 of those in 2015. Still, this might help to give you an overview of when committees meet and overlap so you can plan accordingly. And please note that meetings are always subject to change. The Legislative Information System daily calendar is the most up-to-date.
Follow the bills VCOG is following
While reviewing about a year's worth of a North Carolina cabinet official's schedule, a reporter there happened across a fascinating entry, and it led to this story: ... on June 1, while in the midst of pressing legal action against and issuing news releases critical of the nation's largest utility, top state officials met for a private dinner at the Executive Mansion with Duke executives, according to calendar entries and other records reviewed by WRAL News. (Gov. Pat) McCrory, his top environmental regulator, his chief of staff and his general counsel attended, as did Duke Chief Executive Lynn Good, the company's general counsel and the president of the company's North Carolina operations. Duke Energy was responsible for a large coal ash spill in 2014, and before he was governor, McCrory worked for Duke Energy. In Virginia, this story would have been much more difficult to do because of the "working papers" exemption in the state's Freedom of Information Act.
Daily Press
A federal court ordered a congressional redistricting Thursday that reassigned millions of voters and changed the racial and political makeup of districts served by Reps. Bobby Scott and Randy Forbes. Federal judges in Richmond ordered state officials to use the new boundaries for this fall’s congressional elections.
Virginian-Pilot
Richmond City Council President and mayoral hopeful Michelle R. Mosby used the word “retarded” to describe the ideas of Councilman Charles R. Samuels during a closed meeting this week, according to council emails and sources. The word, formerly used as a clinical description and now widely considered offensive, is described as “hate speech” by numerous groups that work with people with intellectual disabilities. n an interview, Mosby declined to say whether she used the word during the meeting. “Whatever is discussed in those closed meetings — it’s not to be discussed,” she said. “It’s closed session. And I’m sticking to (that).” Samuels, who represents the 2nd District, declined to comment on the exchange. “I believe it’s important for council members to feel like they can have frank, open dialogue,” he said. “It’s always my policy not to discuss publicly what was said in closed sessions.” The comments are documented in emails between Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, and Samuels after the meeting, which dealt with the job performance of a city employee. Mosby’s use of the word was first reported by WTVR.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Shenandoah County leaders received a primer on the state’s Freedom of Information Act and Conflict of Interest Act Thursday. County Attorney Jason Ham gave a presentation to the Board of Supervisors during a work session primarily because changes in the regulations took effect Jan. 1. Recent changes include the creation of the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council. Changes reduced the monetary threshold for personal interest from $10,000 to $5,000, and for prohibited gifts from $250 to $100, which also applies to food, beverages and entertainment. The changes included additional prohibited conduct. “Obviously the vast majority of this is common sense, you know, don’t take bribes is what it really boils down to,” Ham said. Pertaining to meeting rules, Ham advised members against engaging in discussing public business when attending a social function. District 5 Supervisor Marsha Shruntz noted that the Farm Bureau holds an event and invites supervisors. Shruntz asked how this situation would differ from a meeting or closed session. Ham said an event is presumably not organized for the discussion of public business. “You are allowed to go as a group to social functions like that,” Ham said. “It makes your lawyer nervous because you make a good point and one of my jobs is to keep everybody out of trouble and it’s easy to (say) hey, we’re all together, let’s start talking about things that you really shouldn’t.”
Northern Virginia Daily
National Stories
President Bill Clinton’s library released transcripts of phone conversations with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, offering a revealing look at Mr. Clinton. Here is selection of documents pulled from the full 532 page release.
New York Times
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill Wednesday afternoon that has local officials worried that they won't be able to inform the public about upcoming ballot issues. Snyder said in a signing letter that he interprets the bill's language differently than local officials, but also asked the Legislature to enact a new bill that will address those concerns, "And clarify that the new language does not impact the expression of personal views by a public official, the use of resources or facilities in the ordinary course of business and that it is intended only to prohibit the use of targeted, advertisement style mass communications that are reasonably interpreted as an attempt to influence the electorate using tax dollars," he wrote explaining why he signed the controversial bill. The legislation was the last bill to pass the Legislature in December, growing at the last minute from a non-controversial bill that had passed the Senate unanimously at 13 pages, into a totally revamped 53 pages that was passed with no public hearings and with only Republican votes. The bill prohibits local officials from publicly discussing ballot proposals or millage issues in the 60 days leading up to an election. It has been blasted by municipal and school district officials as an official state "gag order" and a violation of free speech.
Governing
Editorials/Columns
It clear that Virginia’s state legislature has no real commitment to transparency when the vice-chairman of the Freedom of Information Act Council puts forth a bill to weaken the state’s already woeful open-government standards. State Sen. Richard Stuart (R-Fredericksburg) has proposed a bill that would mean the salaries of state employees making less than $30,320 per year would not be made public. The bill also says that the names of any public officer, appointee or employee could be excluded from any database of public salaries. Currently, only employees who make less than $10,000 per year do not have to have their names and salaries in the public record. This is a clear step backward from a state that is already far behind others in the level of transparency in state government. It is also a tone-deaf move from a legislature that just watched a sitting governor and his wife convicted of federal crimes in an ethics scandal.
News Leader
In Montgomery County, the recently re-elected clerk of court – a Democrat – told five employees they weren’t being reappointed. Technically, they weren’t fired, but it surely felt much the same way. In Roanoke County, the new sheriff – a Republican – replaced four high-ranking officers. In both cases, there were allegations that the employees were let go for political reasons – i.e., they didn’t support the “right” candidate in November’s election. We’d like to be sympathetic, but that sympathy does run up against a cold, hard fact: These are political offices, not civil service positions. They may not feel as political as, say, a president or a governor, but they are elected offices just the same. And yes, that means the winner is entitled to install his or her own team to carry out the policies presumably voters just approved, just as a president or governor is entitled to name his or her own Cabinet.
Roanoke Times
