Transparency News 4/14/16

State and Local Stories

VCOG is happy to announce the return of its records management and FOIA workshop:
Thursday, May 19, from 9:30 to 12:30 at the Library of Virginia.

This three-hour course will provide government employees who manage state and local public records updates and insights by professionals at the Library, the FOIA Council and the City of Alexandria.

The cost is $15 and is open to anyone, though most useful to government employees. A certification of completion will be offered.

Details & registration
 

Olga Hernandez was honored at the 2016 Fairfax County Federation of Citizens' annual awards banquet with the 2015 Fairfax County Citizen of the Year recognizing her for her volunteer efforts, including making Fairfax and Virginia residents informed voters. Citations of Merit honorees were Douglas Sanderson, Jim Hart, Phil Rosenthal, and Shirley Ginwright. Sally Sibley received a Special Gratitude Award.Hernandez has been involved with the League of Women Voters in Virginia for over 20 years. She became a board member of the LWV of the Fairfax Area in 1996 and served as its president from 2000 to 2005. From 2005 to 2007, she served as the vice president and director of the League of Women Voters of Virginia, and in 2007, she was elected president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia. In addition to the presidency, she moderated the Women's Roundtable meetings during the General Assembly sessions. She served as LWV of Virginia president for four years, and is currently on the state board. She has organized statewide televised Gubernatorial and US Senate debates. She is an officer of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government and the LWV of the National Capital Areas. 
Centre View


National Stories
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Government spending transparency is improving, but many states still lag far behind, according to “Following the Money 2016: How the 50 States Rate in Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data,” the sixth annual report of its kind by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund. Some states have improved their spending transparency web portals significantly, earning perfect scores in this year’s report, while others are still barely achieving the minimum standards. “As tax day approaches, millions of Americans will write checks to their state governments. Citizens deserve to be able to follow their tax dollars, from the most minor state expenditures to the most major development subsidies,” said Michelle Surka, program associate with U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund. “This year, it’s clear that several states made a commitment to meeting the high national standards for spending transparency. Other states continue to lag behind, unable to overcome some of the barriers that prevent comprehensive spending disclosures.”
U.S. Public Interest Research Group

Documents seized from the home of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter will remain secret, according to The Hartford Courant. Judge Carl J. Schuman overturned a ruling by the state Freedom of Information Commission ordering the shooter's personal documents to be released to The Hartford Courant after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the report stated.
Newtown Patch

Lawyers for the State Department and a conservative group are in talks about the scope of a fact-finding process a federal judge has authorized in a lawsuit relating to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server, according to a new court filing. Attorneys for the watchdog group Judicial Watch revealed the discussions as part of a request to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan for more time to sort out the discovery issue, which includes potential limits on questioning of former Clinton aides and other State Department officials at depositions expected to take place in the coming months.
Politico

Legislation introduced Wednesday in the House would allow the public to request National Security Council records under the Freedom of Information Act, restoring the status quo that existed until a court ruling two decades ago effectively put the council beyond the reach of the federal government's pre-eminent transparency law. Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) filed the bill, citing reports of major growth in the National Security Council's size, as well as accusations from former officials that the National Security Council micromanaged military commanders in the field. In recent years, such complaints have been aired publicly by former Defense secretaries Bob Gates, Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta. The trio's objections were also prominently featured in a Fox News special broadcast earlier this month.
Politico

A key House panel voted Wednesday to pass an email privacy bill that would stop the government from being able to read Americans' old emails without a warrant. The House Judiciary Committee voted 28-0 to approve the Email Privacy Act, a bipartisan bill that would replace a 1986 law that allows government investigators to peruse emails at will if the communications are at least six months old. The bill would require federal officials to obtain a warrant before they can read or view emails, texts, photos or instant messages — regardless of when the data was sent.
USA Today


Editorials/Columns

PRESENTED WITH legislation that would expand use of the electric chair in Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has offered an alternative that he called “a reasonable middle ground.” In fact, the governor’s proposal would replace a barbaric practice (the electric chair) with a constitutionally suspect one (a veil of secrecy over executions). Mr. McAuliffe’s reluctance to sign a measure approved by lawmakers — to require the use of the electric chair when the state can’t obtain lethal drugs — is admirable. His suggested amendment is not. If accepted by lawmakers, it would empower state officials to order the necessary drugs from compounding pharmacies, whose identities would be kept secret to shield them from the possibility of adverse publicity, even in the event of botched executions. The effect would be to drape a shroud of secrecy over such pharmacies, exempting them from the state’s Freedom of Information Act or even the normal process of fact-finding and evidence-gathering in civil suits, unless plaintiffs could show good cause. It’s hard to think of a good reason that these particular government contractors — suppliers of a drug that might otherwise be unavailable owing to an embargo imposed on European drugmakers — deserve what amounts to a gag order. The secrecy would muzzle public debate over capital punishment and negate government transparency.
Washington Post 

Smoke filled rooms still exist in Capitol Square in Richmond – not necessarily from the tobacco that once enriched Virginia but instead from the fog politicians put out to hide themselves from their constituents. They do it by killing legislation without taking a recorded vote, and Del. Marcus Simon, D-Falls Church, thinks it is well past time to put an end to the practice. “Legislation dealing with non-partisan redistricting, raising the minimum wage and paid family leave never see the light of day because they're killed on non-recorded votes,” he said in an email blast, asking Virginians to sign a petition calling for an end to this practice. Whether or not any voter wants to do away with Virginia’s gerrymandered legislative districts or raise the minimum wage is beside the point. We have a right to know where our legislators stand on this issues, and the right to know if what they say they believe is what they do in Richmond.
Dave Ress, Daily Press

A concern in Virginia over who was financing campaigns in the Commonwealth led the state’s largest newspapers in 1997 to create the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP). The idea was simply to make public information on campaign finance documents as to who was funding political campaigns. Virginia does not limit contributions to campaigns but requires that the names and addresses of contributors and the amount of contributions be filed periodically with the state on designated forms. The advent of VPAP as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization put that information on the Internet for the public to see. Visit vpap.org to see who contributes to me and to all the other elected officials in the state.
Del. Ken Plum, Connection Newspapers

Two important lessons jump out from the recent case of a survey produced by the Seattle area's Sound Transit that appears to have violated state law by attempting to gauge what elements of a proposed $50 billion expansion plan voters would approve, rather than just assessing needs. The first is the importance of maintaining a divide between government agencies and advocates. The second is the equally important attribute of taking responsibility for mistakes and acting to correct them.
Charles Chieppo, Governing