Transparency News 3/22/16

State and Local Stories

Upcoming FOIA Council Subcommittee meetings

March 24 at 10 a.m. — The Proprietary Records Work Group (this group is studying the various FOIA exemptions related to proprietary records and trade secrets)
April 11 at 10 a.m. — The Meetings Subcommittee (this group is studying the procedural portions of FOIA’s meeting provisions
April 11 at 1:30 p.m. — The Records Subcommittee (this group continues to study the records exemptions and will probably be covering those found in 2.2-3705.4 and 2.2-3705.5

All meetings are held at the General Assembly Building in Richmond in the 6th Floor Speaker's Conference Room.

The public is encouraged to attend! 

Supreme Court justices vigorously questioned all sides Monday morning as they delved into the legislative intent behind Hampton Roads' congressional lines and wondered how much right elected officials have to pick their voters. The court heard 70 minutes of arguments in this long-running case over Virginia's 3rd Congressional District. A lower court in Richmond twice found the districting unconstitutional, determining that the Virginia General Assembly's GOP majority illegally packed black voters into U.S. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott's district.
Daily Press
Transcript of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the Virginia redistricting case.

At the Hopewell City Council meeting last week, council voted 6-1 to appropriate $14,872 as a final order for the payment of Hopewell citizen Janice Denton’s attorney in the case of Denton V. City Council. Councilor Tony Zevgolis was the one ‘no’ vote. “I know it’s going to pass but I’m going to vote no simply because I believe by voting for it that that places an association that I did something wrong when I had two city attorneys and a commonwealth’s attorney saying what we did was right,” Zevgolis said before the vote. Hopewell Mayor Brenda Pelham said that one reason she was reluctant to say yes was because she upholds the laws of the land. “The other reason I was reluctant to say yes, and I wasn’t going to vote no, is because a few of my haters would love to get me hung up on something that’s contempt of court even though it’s not a contempt of court,” Pelham said. “You never can control what people would do so I try my best to not give my non-supporters or haters an opportunity to put me back in court.”
Progress-Index

Roanoke writer Valerie Garner has settled a copyright infringement lawsuit she filed against the Republican Party of Virginia over the unauthorized use of a photo. The settlement, reached last week, is for $9,000. It marks the second legal victory for Garner, publisher of www.roanokefreepress.com, on this issue. She previously sued a political blogger and settled that case for $6,000, according to her attorney. Both lawsuits stemmed from the use of a photo that Garner took of now-Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, and posted to her website. The photo was later used without her permission on a blog and in campaign mailers sent out in support of Republican candidate Octavia Johnson, according to the suits.
Roanoke Times

The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors is considering possible changes to its bylaws that would get rid of penalties against board members — and those on board-appointed commissions — who violate the county’s ethical standards. The revision would also eliminate a requirement that elected and appointed officials sign a statement — a “Model of Excellence” — stating they would uphold the county’s standards of conduct. The board narrowly approved bylaws outlining standards of conduct for supervisors’ behavior during a 4-3 vote on Jan. 7, 2013. The standards require that board members act in the public interest, comply with the law, refrain from “abusive conduct” including verbal attacks on the character or motives of other board members and avoid conflict of interest, among other codes of behavior. They also instruct supervisors not to accept gifts and favors for themselves or family members that could be interpreted as influencing the performance of their duties.
Register & Bee

Petersburg now has an interim city manager, and the challenges she faces were brought into sharp focus on Monday by the cancellation of a scheduled community meeting. City Council voted Monday morning to appoint Dironna Moore Belton as interim city manager, just over two weeks after she was named interim chief operating officer for the city at the same meeting where council members voted to fire former City Manager William E. Johnson III. Johnson's termination came after mounting public criticism fueled by an unexpected deterioration in the city's finances and widespread problems with residents' water and sewer bills. A movement that emerged to pressure City Council into firing Johnson has continued to be active following his termination in criticizing the city government. Officials cited what they described as excessively harsh statements by some of the critics as their reason for cancelling a "community empowerment" meeting that Mayor W. Howard Myers and Ward 5 School Board member Lois A. Long had scheduled for Monday night at Peabody Middle School.
Progress-Index


National Stories
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Did Ohio Sen. Larry Obhof really vote to fund Obamacare in Ohio? Did his Republican primary opponent, anti-abortion activist Janet Folger Porter, refuse to support personhood status for unborn crime victims? Each candidate accused the other of lying. But unlike in past elections, neither could take such complaints before the Ohio Elections Commission for a determination of whether the ads were false -- a ruling that could have gained media attention and been used in subsequent advertising. The federal courts have struck down Ohio's law prohibiting lying in campaigns. Now, Ohioans who were already accustomed to negative campaigning can brace themselves for what comes next, now that the reins are off.
Governing

During a presidential election — particularly one as compelling and unpredictable as this one — it can be easy to lose track of elections happening at the state level. It can be even easier to forget about state-level campaign finance, given the truly massive amounts spent at the federal level. But millions of dollars will be spent on state and local elections this year, too, and it’s just as important to track where this money comes from. It’s not always easy to do this, and your ability to track the sources of your elected officials’ campaign dollars can depend on where you live. Now, you can see how your state compares to the rest: The National Institute on Money in State Politics (NIMSP) released a scorecard grading state disclosure of campaign contributions. The scores were based on the amount of contributors’ information disclosed; the timeliness and quality of the data, including availability and completeness of electronic data; and the availability of a searchable, downloadable dataset.
Sunlight Foundation
Scorecard

A Los Angeles judge tentatively ruled on Friday that certain documents can be made public in a lawsuit that challenges the mental competency of 92-year-old media mogul Sumner Redstone. Medical records will remain sealed to protect Redstone's privacy, Judge David Cowan said. But he said 15 documents should be unsealed, including emails written by Redstone's nurses and a December letter from Redstone to his daughter. Redstone's attorneys had asked the court to seal certain information in the case in order to protect the billionaire' s privacy. The Los Angeles Times, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter argued the information should be released in the public interest, given Redstone's role as controlling shareholder of Viacom Inc and CBS Corp.
Reuters

Less than a month after taking office, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller flew to Oklahoma City with a top aide, billing the taxpayers at least $1,120 for flights and a rental car, budget records show. At the time, Miller said he made the trip to tour the Oklahoma National Stockyards and meet with Oklahoma lawmakers as well as the state's top agriculture official. His office posted a picture on Facebook of him with three lawmakers who his office said had invited him to the Sooner State's Capitol. Recent interviews have cast doubt on that description, however. All of the lawmakers in the photograph, or their aides, said they did not invite Miller or even expect him in their state that day in February 2015. The president of the stockyards said it did not give him a tour. And Miller himself now acknowledges that he requested the meeting with the Oklahoma agriculture official -- and then did not show up. A rental car receipt shows Miller and his aide drove 128 miles on the trip. The interviews suggest a possible explanation: One of the lawmakers and another person with direct knowledge of the trip both said Miller told them that he got a medical procedure while in Oklahoma. Miller, a former rodeo cowboy who suffers from chronic pain, told the Houston Chronicle earlier this year he has received the "Jesus Shot," a controversial but legal medication administered only by a single Oklahoma City-area doctor who claims that it takes away all pain for life.
Governing

As the presidential election approaches in November, Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin is pushing a proposal that would allow victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking to register to vote without making their addresses public in voter rolls. “They shouldn’t have to give up the right to vote to be safe,” Galvin said last Wednesday in a telephone interview. “We’ve had many inquiries, especially this year as the presidential elections have been ramping up.” The plan, which is pending before state lawmakers, would make it illegal for election officials to disclose the names and addresses of voters who qualify for confidentiality. That information would also be kept out of street listings or annual registers, according to the legislation. Galvin, the state’s top election official, cosponsored the bill.
Boston Globe

A top House lawmaker who led the charge to require politically active nonprofits to reveal their donors, a lightning rod issue opposed by Gov. Greg Abbott, says he wants Texas voters to decide the issue at the ballot box. State Rep. Byron Cook, a Republican from Corsicana who narrowly won re-election earlier this month, said he is planning to propose next legislative session an amendment to the state constitution on the issue of disclosing so-called "dark money" donors.
Express-News


Editorials/Columns

Like many industries, the folks in the media use jargon – a special vocabulary not well-known to outsiders – to describe skills, movements and initiatives. One of those terms is “Sunshine Week,” which sounds like a meteorological term for good beach weather. It isn’t really that at all. But the jargon, motives and self-promotion sometimes used by the news media create an aura in which the messenger appears more important than the message, and building hype appears more important than simply serving the public. Further, how newspapers use public information can help or infuriate a community, or both. At a time in which confidence in the news media is low, journalists should be able to explain and contextualize why a battle for certain government records is important to communities. And they should walk away from printing less-important, out-of-context dumps of information that infuriate the public, rather than serving it. It is not enough to advocate for open government records during Sunshine Week. More than ever, the media should work to compile, report and explain the government records it seeks and receives. The community impact conveyed by the story should be self-evident.
Delmarva Daily Times