Transparency News 1/14/16

State and Local Stories

HB 1016    (Del. MASSIE)
Adds the Title IX coordinator; representatives from the office of student affairs, human resources, and counseling services; and a representative of campus security of any institution of higher education in the jurisdiction to the list of persons invited to participate in the annual meeting of a sexual assault response team. The bill also excludes the records of a sexual assault response team from mandatory disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.    
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB1016

HB1064    (Del. JONES)
Reorganizes VITA & recodifies some sections. Includes two FOIA provisions.        
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB1064

HB 1113    (Del. HUGO)
In a bill described as fostering prescription drug price transparency, an exemption for "any information" other than what is required to be published that is deemed "proprietary" will be exempt under FOIA.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB1113
        
HB 1143    (Del. LINDSEY)
Says that before using body-worn cameras, law enforcement entities must adopt polices that include, among other things, provisions on access to and storage of video footage.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB1143

Full text of the governor’s State of the Commonwealth Address
Southwest Times

Virginia Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City — whose disdain for the media has roots in the political and personal — on the first day of the 2016 General Assembly used a newly affirmed GOP majority to ban reporters from the Senate floor, where they have covered the chamber for decades. Norment instructed Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar to have press tables removed from the chamber as part of a change to the Senate rules approved Wednesday that effectively revokes media privileges from the floor of the Senate when it is in session. The move stands in stark contrast to changes implemented by Norment’s House of Delegates counterpart, Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford. In recent days Howell has implemented reforms to make House procedures more transparent — from implementing a 48-hour review period before the final budget vote, to doing away with unannounced committee meetings at delegates’ desks.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Chesterfield County’s Board of Supervisors elected its leaders for the coming year and extended a prayer policy at its first meeting of 2016 on Wednesday. The policy, which was instituted a year ago, calls for supervisors to deliver a prayer or moment of silence themselves — rather than religious leaders — at the start of their meetings. The county’s administration recommend the policy be approved for the 2016 through 2019 term. The board voted to approve the measure without comment.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The University of Virginia Medical Center will make some patient outcome statistics public as part of an effort to improve transparency. Dr. Richard Shannon, UVa’s executive vice president for health affairs, shared the details of the plan at a talk at the Senior Center on Wednesday. Shannon said the hospital is part of many professional organizations nationwide that track patient outcomes. The American College of Cardiology, for instance, tracks heart attack patient mortality rates in hospitals — the nationwide average last year was 4.6 percent, while UVa’s mortality rate was 3.4 percent. The Medical Center is working to gather many of these statistics, covering a wide variety of conditions, so people can compare UVa’s outcomes with the reported national averages, Shannon said. The hospital will begin rolling out the data this spring, he said.
Daily Progress


National Stories
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The Department of State recently discovered “thousands” of previously unreviewed documents that relate to Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi attack, according to a watchdog group that has been suing the department to release public records from Clinton’s tenure. The watchdog group Judicial Watch has been suing the State Department for years to turn over public records related to Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, the Clinton Foundation, the employment arrangements of Clinton’s top aides, and her response to the Benghazi attack. According to the State Department, the newly found records are likely to include information relevant to Judicial Watch’s requests. Officials said they would need until at least Feb. 1 to review the documents.
Fox News

After a public outcry, the Wisconsin Public Records Board voted unanimously on Monday to rescind actions it took on August 24 that were apparently used by the Walker administration to deny a pending public records request. The actions of the formerly obscure board came to public attention when the Walker administration denied access to public records using a "transitory records" justification. In August, the board had made changes to the definition of transitory records, and the next day the Wisconsin State Journal was denied access to text messages related to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) scandal it had been tracking.
PR Watch

The Federal Communications Commission might be deliberately withholding public records, according to a Republican-led report released this week.  The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report concluded that the FCC's is either incompetent or intentionally misused redactions under the Freedom of Information Act to withhold internal communication about its controversial Internet regulations.  "The agency either misunderstands how to use redactions, raising concerns of competency, or the agency intentionally misuses redactions, raising concerns of integrity," according to the report. "Given the numerous examples in which the FCC improperly redacts information, this may be a deliberate tactic to withhold information from the public."
The Hill

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser pledged to make the nation’s capital a model for government transparency on Tuesday, publishing a far-reaching new open-data policy and appointing a new chief technology officer to help oversee a transformation in how the city shares data with the public.
Washington Post

Editorials/Columns

In recent months, Portsmouth Mayor Kenny Wright has treated every slight leveled against municipal government as a personal affront. He rejects the notion that he played a role in the mass exodus of prominent city staff, or that the departures have been harmful or disruptive. Inquire about these issues or others and Wright refuses to answer. The mayor took to Facebook on New Year’s Day to explain his reasoning for closing the door on the media, saying that organizations such as this newspaper are relentlessly negative and ignore the many accomplishments recorded on his watch. Not only is that demonstrably false, it overlooks the responsibility every public official has to be open and transparent in the execution of the people’s business.
Virginian-Pilot