Transparency News 2/29/16

State and Local Stories

A Williamsburg man filed an affidavit against the Williamsburg-James City County School Board Chairman for allegedly violating his right to observe the election of newly-chosen board member Mary Minor. Michael Loy, 46, filed the affidavit against Board Chair Jim Kelly in James City County General District Court on Friday. In it, Loy states that the agenda for Feb. 19 indicated the meeting was a closed-session meeting, which the public is not allowed to observe. Loy said the wording of the agenda led him to believe the entire meeting was a closed session, and therefore the board had failed to give public notice. Megan Rhyne, the executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said the Freedom of Information Act requires a public body to give notice at least three days in advance of a meeting, but there are no laws dictating what a public body must put on an agenda. Rhyne also said all posted meetings are presumed to be open, even if the first item on the agenda is a closed session.
Virginia Gazette

Portsmouth Councilman Danny Meeks has obtained a lawyer to fight a $1,500 fine from the City Council and says he regrets agreeing to fine Councilman Bill Moody last month. “We fined Mr. Moody unlawfully, so yeah, I do have regrets,” Meeks said Friday. Moody was fined last month for a Facebook post that mentioned what the council would be discussing in a closed session. The council on Tuesday fined Meeks because he allegedly spoke publicly about information relayed during a closed session “that was not otherwise publicly known,” according to the letter sent to him from the council.
Virginian-Pilot

A local judge reinstated to the bench Feb. 2 after a 10-week suspension wrote letters to four clerks in the localities where he presided to apologize for his “offensive conduct and statements” and described his behavior over the past year as “inexcusable.” General District Judge Robert B. Beasley Jr. of Virginia’s 11th Judicial District wrote the letters dated Jan. 12 to clerks in the counties of Amelia, Powhatan and Dinwiddie, where he sat as a judge beginning Dec. 1, 2014, according to sources familiar with the letters and copies of two of the letters obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The judge’s apology letters were made available less than two weeks after general district courts in Powhatan, Amelia and Dinwiddie denied a Times-Dispatch Freedom of Information Act request for the letters. Without acknowledging the existence of the letters, the courts’ response cited several exemptions under FOIA that would preclude their disclosure. “By law, I cannot address or comment on the matters which you have reported in your newspaper articles related to Judge Beasley,” the courts said. “To the extent that any such ‘apology’ letter was to exist, it would not be subject to disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, because ‘records that are not prepared for or used in the transaction of public business are not public records.’ “ “Moreover, speaking hypothetically, if such a letter was issued under the circumstances that you have reported, and if such a document was found to be a public record, it would be confidential under Virginia Code 2.2-3705.7(24) and 17.1-913,” the court said. “My response should not be construed as a confirmation of any of your newspaper reports regarding Judge Beasley.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The College of William and Mary says the 12-day delay in reporting a lost set of master keys to police was the result of a lapse “in adherence to best practices” but not in security. W&M’s student newspaper The Flat Hat obtained a police report through a Freedom of Information Act request that showed nearly two weeks went by before students were notified that keys opening residence hall doors were lost. The Flat Hat questioned whether the delay was in violation of the Clery Act, a federal law requiring timely notification of threats on campus.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Richmond Times-Dispatch obtained local school and government employees’ names, job titles and salaries using the state’s Freedom of Information statute. As required by law, the governments and school systems provided information for more than 42,000 employees. The FOI request for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2014, and ended June 30, 2015, is part of The Times-Dispatch’s ongoing effort to report to you findings about government spending and the use of taxpayer money. The newspaper used the data to create this searchable database. The Times-Dispatch removed those reported as less than $10,000 a year before calculating the median salary of $44,847. The names of employees who fall below that median are not included in the online database.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

A stoic Stacey Pomrenke stared straight ahead Friday night, leaning on the courtroom table as Judge James P. Jones read the verdict in her corruption case — guilty on 14 of 15 federal felony charges. She was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit tax fraud, three counts of making false statements to the IRS, one count of program fraud, two counts of extortion, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and six counts of wire fraud. The jury found her not guilty on count six, an extortion charge that involved BVU officials pressuring former vendor Edwards Telecommunications of South Carolina to pay the bar tab for a BVU employee party.
Herald Courier

Shortly after calling the meeting to order at 6 p.m., Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Phyllis Randall (D-At Large) asked Vice Chairman Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn) to read the board into closed session, which he did and the board obliged. County spokesman Glen Barbour had this to say: "While tonight's board meeting is listed on the county's calendar because we are required to notify the public, the entirety of the meeting this evening is a closed session in board room. In accordance with Virginia code, the meeting is closed to the public. The purpose of the meeting is simply to train the new board on security procedures in the board room and in the government center. There is no business being conducted tonight."
Loudoun Times-Mirror


National Stories
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Former Attorney General Eric Holder used the birth name of basketball icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as an alias for his official Justice Department email account, according to new documents revealed Thursday. The Justice Department said in response to a Vice News request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that Holder used the name “Lew Alcindor” in email conversations with his staffers. His own name does not appear in the emails.  The disclosure raises new questions about Obama administration officials’ email practices, following controversy over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unconventional email setup. Former Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon had claimed last year that the nation’s former top lawyer used three different aliases while in office, one of which was undisclosed but based on the name of an athlete. The other two, Fallon said, were “Henry Yearwood” — a combination of names of Holder’s family members — and “David Kendricks” — from two members of the musical legends the Temptations.
The Hill

The IRS announced that during a 9-month review of last year’s cyber attack, it discovered that an additional 390,000 taxpayer accounts were potentially accessed during the breach. Those accounts are in addition to the confirmed access of and initial 114,000 last May and the subsequent 220,000 that were added in August. For those keeping track at home, today’s announcement brings the total to over 700,000 affected taxpayers.
Engadget

Donald Trump promised Friday that the media would have major problems if he wins the presidency. “If I become president, oh, do they have problems,’’ Trump said at a campaign rally in Fort Worth, Texas. Trump, a candidate for the Republican nomination who is leading in the polls, threatened to “open up our libel laws’’ under his administration and make the media pay a hefty price for writing “hit’’ pieces. “This is only going to make it tougher for me, and I’ve never said this before,’’ Trump told the crowd. “I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles we can sue them and win lots of money.’’ Under libel laws, public officials who sue must show there was malicious intent when the media outlet published false information. Freedom of the press is protected under the First Amendment. Gregg Leslie, legal defense director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Associated Press Trump’s comments show “why we need libel protections.”
USA TODAY

Editorials/Columns

Pray this is the bottom, Portsmouth. Hope upon hope that the dysfunctional embarrassment that calls itself your City Council will sink no lower. Its latest affront came Tuesday when Mayor Kenny Wright joined with three council members to impose a $1,500 fine against Councilman Danny Meeks for speaking to a Pilot reporter about the future of trash collection in the region. It’s troubling to see this council sully the city’s reputation as a great place to live and work.It’s frightening to see that the important issues of the day — fighting crime, improving education and expanding economic opportunity — ignored because the City Council would rather settle the score of petty jealousies. This will continue — it may even worsen — until citizens put a stop to it.
Virginian-Pilot

In response to The Pilot’s pursuit of [police training records], state Sen. John Cosgrove, a Chesapeake Republican, introduced SB552, which would exempt the names of police officers and other state law enforcement officers from Freedom of Information Act requirements. Cosgrove says the bill — which was tabled Thursday — would protect police officers and their families. “Our culture has changed,” he said, in a Feb. 15 Pilot story. “Many times, police officers are considered fair game.”Our Feb. 24 editorial on the subject, Roger Chesley’s Feb. 19 column and our news coverage has angered some readers. Letters and emails have demonstrated that, to some readers, The Pilot is determined to send convicted felons straight to officers’ front doors. Other readers have demanded a supposed even exchange, calling for the publication of “names/addresses/mobile numbers/names of children and spouses and what schools they attend and where they work” for all Pilot employees. Much of that info is available at PilotOnline.com. Most reporters have pictures, too. But this isn’t about tit for tat. This is about public accountability. It’s about making sure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and to protect all Virginians, officers and civilians.
Heather Tierney, Virginian-Pilot