Transparency News 1/22/16

State and Local Stories

HB 1318 (Del. Fowler)
Clarifies that the FOIA exclusion for noncriminal incidents and reports applies to any public body that engages in criminal law-enforcement activities and does not rely on the definition of "noncriminal incidents records" in § 15.2-1722 of the Code of Virginia. The bill addresses a decision of the Virginia Supreme Court in Fitzgerald v. Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB1318

SB 706 (Sen. Chafin)
Excludes from the mandatory disclosure provisions of FOIA trade secrets, as defined in the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (§ 59.1-336 et seq.), submitted to the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy as part of the required permit or permit modification to commence ground-disturbing activities. The bill provides that in order for such trade secrets to be excluded, the submitting party shall (i) invoke this exclusion upon submission of the data or materials for which protection from disclosure is sought, (ii) identify the data or materials for which protection is sought, and (iii) state the reasons why protection is necessary.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+SB706

Legislation to ensure the public release of resumes for gubernatorial appointees, which Gov. Terry McAuliffe's administration refused last year after questions arose about a Democratic state Senate candidate, moved forward here Thursday. House Bill 220 would forbid governors from using their working papers exemption to the state's Freedom of Information Act, or the act's exemption for personnel records, to protect appointee applications. The change, proposed by Del. Scott Taylor, R-Virginia Beach, would only affect information on successful appointees, not applicants.
Daily Press

The Hampton City Council held a day-long session Wednesday to discuss strategic priorities and how the city communicates internally and with citizens, though much of the conversation was held out of public view. About three and a half hours of the six-hour meeting were spent in closed session discussing the city's strategic priorities as they relate to the purchase or sale of property, business development that has not been publicly announced and the roles and expectations of City Council appointees – the city manager, city attorney and council clerk. At 3:47 p.m., the council reconvened their open meeting for about two minutes before adjourning – just long enough to approve the body's closed session and allow a brief statement from City Manager Mary Bunting.
Daily Press

A three and a half hour closed door meeting to discuss "roles and expectations" for top Hampton officials and prioritize a list of city projects did not include any subjects that should have been done in public, city attorney Vanessa Valldejuli said Thursday. "Public officials ought to understand that there is a cost for going into closed meeting, a cost they pay in the currency of public trust. If the public does not trust the official, nothing but pure transparency will restore that trust," FOIA attorney Andrew Bodoh said. "Even the appearance of violating FOIA has the same effect on public trust as an actual violation. Public officials should use the exemptions sparingly and only when necessary, or they will incur the public's distrust."
Daily Press


National Stories
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The Department of Education said on Wednesday that it would create a searchable database that reveals the names of colleges and universities that have received exemptions on religious grounds from federal civil rights protections. The move followed an outcry from lawmakers and activists over the waivers from parts of Title IX that they said enabled discrimination against gay and transgender students and employees. Dozens of religiously affiliated institutions in 26 states have requested the waivers since 2013, arguing that the law is inconsistent with their religious beliefs.
New York Times

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's staffers worried in September that the issue of lead in Flint's drinking water was being politicized and that the state's responsibility for the crisis was being exaggerated. The E-mails were included in 274 pages of Snyder's e-mails released Thursday in the wake of the water crisis that has led protesters to call for the governor to resign. House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, said he was very disappointed with redactions in the e-mails and the fact Snyder only released what he said were his own e-mails, instead of all Flint-related e-mails to and from officials in the executive office. The first e-mail in the file released by Snyder is from Michael Gadola, then Snyder's legal counsel, and includes 2 1/2 pages of blacked-out text. Most of the other redactions are of e-mail addresses.
Governing

Editorials/Columns

Transparency within state government has taken a bit of a beating this year, but a group of legislators in Richmond has organized an effort to open the door on the inner workings of the General Assembly, and Virginia citizens can at least have hope that the elected officials’ exemplary effort will prove to be the first swelling of a wave of change. Or not. Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, whose 3rd Senatorial District includes a portion of Suffolk, famously and fatuously ejected the media from the floor of the Senate chamber in one of his first actions as leader of the Senate this year. He’s not been forthcoming about his reasons for doing so, but Norment’s disdain for the media is widely known, and the symbolism of the action is clear: The media is entitled to nothing more than the average citizen of the commonwealth, and it can join those citizens up in the cheap seats, out of the way (and often out of earshot) of the important work legislators are trying to do down there on the floor. There is, of course, nothing special about members of the media at the General Assembly, except for the fact that they do something that most Virginians cannot do: They cover the legislature, report on it and let the rest of the commonwealth know what’s happening in state government, what the men and women they’ve elected to office are doing in those elected offices.
Suffolk News-Herald

Nothing is more fundamental to the public's right to know than keeping track of how government money is spent — and who is gaining from it. But that right is threatened by legislation in the General Assembly that would severely limit public access to salaries paid to public workers in Virginia. It would do so in two ways. First, the bill, by Sen. Richard H. Stuart, R-Montross, would raise the salary threshold for deeming a government employee's salary an open record. Just as worrisome, Stuart's Senate Bill 202 would declare that "publicly available databases of public employees' salaries shall not include the name of any public officer, appointee or employee." It's also not voyeurism for citizens to want to monitor who is making what on the taxpayers' dime. Lists of names and salaries can prevent fraud and abuse. They can raise questions, for example, on whether someone is getting paid not to come to work, or drawing a salary that seems disproportionate to their job. The salary list can also shed light on disparities within a government agency by race, gender or other forms of favoritism.
Daily Press

By all outward appearances, the Stafford County schools administration is tone deaf. Officials have a public relations mess on their hands, but have been handling the matter as if the public didn’t care, or was blissfully ignorant. That’s the conclusion we draw from the administration’s and the School Board’s handling of the inquiry into how they lost track of $8.3 million in recent years. This mystery money went unspent; it could have paid for a lot of teachers’ wages. Instead, the county has larger average class sizes than anyone wants; school officials are now working to change that. Given the public angst over school staff’s handling of these funds and subsequent criticism from the Board of Supervisors, you’d think that Superintendent Bruce Benson and his team would announce—in the loudest, most clear-cut way—developments with the forensic audit it ordered into the money a financial staffer uncovered at the end of fiscal 2015. But not until Supervisor Gary Snellings asked a question about the investigation, during his board’s public session Tuesday, did word of the auditor having been hired hit the skyline.
Free Lance-Star