Transparency News 3/30/16

State and Local Stories

Both the Martinsville and Henry County governments have procedures in place to try and ensure that employees do not abuse their credit card privileges. As a result of the city’s procedures, an alleged credit card abuse incident that prompted a former employee to enter into a plea agreement in court was discovered, according to officials. About 150 of Martinsville’s more than 300 employees have city-issued credit cards, said Finance Director Linda Conover. They include department heads who sometimes travel out of town on business, administrative assistants who have to buy supplies for their departments and certain members of utility crews so, for instance, when parts break on equipment they are using, they can easily buy replacement parts so projects are not stalled, she said.
Martinsville Bulletin

Petersburg’s former city attorney will continue to receive his salary for a total of three months following his resignation, even after starting his new job as an attorney in Richmond next week. Brian K. Telfair resigned March 3, the same day City Council fired City Manager William E. Johnson III after residents pushed for his removal for weeks, blaming him for the dismal state of the city’s finances. Although not required by Telfair’s employment contract with Petersburg, City Council signed off on a severance payment totaling $33,750 for the former city attorney, payable over the normal pay cycle, according to information provided through a Freedom of Information Act request. On March 18 — the day after his last workday for the city — Telfair was also paid $22,325.60 in vacation leave and sick leave pay.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

National Stories
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Years of FOIA requests taught Max Galka that there was no easy way to determine which organization had the information he wanted. What format was the information stored in? What language should he use to ensure his request actually got fulfilled? Over time, he realized there were ways, including requesting FOIA logs, to get a sense of the hidden landscape. "There exists an enormous body of information sitting out there, not documented," he said. "So in theory, everyone has access to it, but practically speaking, it's hard." On Tuesday, Galka launched FOIA Mapper, an open-source tool he built as a project with the Knight Prototype Fund to help other people discover what FOIA can do. Through the Protoype Fund and other foundation projects, Knight has already funded several FOIA projects, including FOIA Machine, said Chris Barr, director of media innovation at the Knight Foundation. Basically, Galka FOIA'd FOIAs. He requested FOIA logs, pulled information out of scanned PDFs and looked into how systems are documented.
Poynter

The lawyer who represented the D.C. Madam is asking the Supreme Court to lift a restraining order that prevents him from releasing phone records from his former client’s escort service, saying the records could influence the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. A restraining order in place since 2007 has prevented Montgomery Blair Sibley from releasing the records — including names, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers — related to so-called “D.C. Madam” Deborah Palfrey’s escort business.
Washington Times

Citing indications of wrongdoing and bad faith, a federal judge has overruled government objections by declaring that a conservative group is entitled to more details about how Hillary Clinton's private email account was integrated into the State Department recordkeeping systemand why it was not searched in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth entered an order Tuesday agreeing that Judicial Watch can pursue legal discovery — which often includes depositions of relevant individuals — as the group pursues legal claims that State did not respond completely to a FOIA request filed in May 2014 seeking records about talking points then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice used for TV appearances discussing the deadly attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi in September 2012.
Politico

The Kentucky attorney general's office on Monday sided with a man seeking a former police detective's personnel records, saying the questionable motives raised by a police department were "legally irrelevant." The opinion written by Assistant Attorney General Michelle D. Harrison said the police department in Jeffersontown, a Louisville suburb, violated the state's open records law by denying the request. AG's opinions are legally binding in disputes involving Kentucky's open records law but can be appealed to circuit court. In denying Anthony C. Clyburn's records request, the police department cited the private nature of the records sought and the "highly questionable veracity" of his claims to be a reporter. 
The Gleaner

Editorials/Columns

Four advocacy organizations have asked Gov. Terry McAuliffe to order the release of a report on the death of Jamycheal Mitchell. The governor says no. We can see the advocates’ point — and the IG’s. Few institutions know better the competing tension between getting the facts right and getting to press quickly than newspapers do. It’s a tough balancing act. But we also know quite well that releasing information does not have to be an all-or-nothing proposition.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

In the furor over the fate of a prisoner who died while awaiting transfer to a mental health facility, questions are emerging not only about the death itself but about how long it’s taken the state to fully investigate the incident and then to release the results. In another twist, Gov. Terry McAuliffe earlier this week refused to order release of the IG report at the behest of four powerful and respected mental health advocacy groups. He said it would be inappropriate to interfere in the inspector general’s work. The governor has a point. A key factor in the trustworthiness of the inspector general’s office — which has an excellent record to date — is its independence.
Daily Progress