Transparency News 4/20/16
State and Local Stories
Nearly 95 percent of bills defeated in the Virginia House of Delegates this session went down without a recorded vote, according to a new analysis from the coalition Transparency Virginia. That means the bills were killed for the year – through one of several procedural motions – without clerks taking note of who voted one way or another. Some bills went down without a vote, some went down on voice votes that aren't recorded and can be hard to sort out, even for people in the room. The legislature doesn't record usually record these meetings, either. This is a big shift from a decade ago, when the state Senate was more likely to kill bills without recorded votes and the House shot down just 3 percent of bills without recording the vote. This year the Senate had recorded votes on 90 percent of the bills it killed, the report states.
Daily Press
Read the report here
Virginia would not run afoul of federal law or violate death row inmates’ constitutional rights by passing a law allowing the state to obtain lethal injection drugs from secret sources, according to an opinion released late Tuesday by Attorney General Mark R. Herring. In a 13-page document, Herring responded to a series of Republican and Democratic lawmakers’ questions about a pending death penalty bill that will be a major focus when the General Assembly reconvenes today to take up Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s vetoes and amendments. Herring’s opinion states that the governor’s amendments to House Bill 815 would not violate the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act or the Controlled Substances Act, federal statutes meant to control the manufacture and distribution of drugs. Herring said courts would likely find the compounding of lethal drugs falls outside the scope of both laws. The secrecy provision, which would exempt the identities of drug providers from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, is perhaps the most controversial element of the governor’s plan. McAuliffe has said it’s necessary to induce businesses to partner with the Department of Corrections. Herring said the governor’s amendments would allow prisoners’ defense teams to gather evidence pertaining to the names of the drugs and the injection protocol. The provision would not violate constitutional protections, Herring wrote, adding that it’s up to the General Assembly “to decide whether such limitations on disclosure are in the public interest.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Roughly 50 supporters packed Virginia Beach School Board chambers Tuesday night in support of Landstown High Principal Brian Matney, who was abruptly put on leave Friday. Superintendent Aaron Spence remained silent and held the same expressionless pose as people took turns asking why.
Virginian-Pilot
In the 1960s, colleges were at the center of a debate on freedom of expression as students conducted sit-ins to protest university policies against political speech on campus. Today, free speech on campus is again a national issue, but the roles have reversed, as some students picket for the right to silence their opponents. This transformation caught the attention of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Freedom of Expression, which has dedicated its annual Jefferson Muzzle Awards to higher education. Earning a Muzzle is a dubious honor, like winning a Golden Raspberry Award in film. Each year, the center gives them out to people and institutions that attempted to suppress free speech and expression. There are usually a few college administrators on the list, Hansen said, but this year’s award list includes 50 colleges and universities nationwide.
Daily Progress
Judge Alex Iden ruled Monday in favor of town resident George Archibald in his lawsuit claiming Town Manager Keith Dalton denied his Freedom of Information Act requests, and ordered the records be released. In addition to awarding Archibald access to the requested documents, an agreement between the two parties reduced filing fees from $625 to $52.50, which Archibald said he paid by check immediately following Monday’s hearing. Iden also ordered the parties to return to court for a conference May 18. “It’s been a very difficult process to get to this point,” Archibald said Tuesday. “Dalton has been a complete dictator.” The conflict traces back to a $4,500 request from John H. Enders Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company to Town Council in 2009 for drainage improvements on the fire company’s property along Town Run. Archibald was seeking information about a possible conflict of interest regarding Councillor Harry Lee “Jay” Arnold Jr., the town’s recorder and a member of the fire company. Arnold also owns a business adjoining the fire company’s property.
Winchester Star
National Stories
Kentucky will pay the state's two largest newspapers nearly $700,000 to settle a long-running dispute over access to records of child abuse deaths and serious injuries. The agreement ends seven years of litigation that resulted in far-reaching public access to state social service records in cases where children die or are seriously injured by abuse or neglect. The lawsuit, dating to 2009, originated under the administration of former Gov. Steve Beshear. Under Monday's agreement, the state will pay legal costs of $339,000 to the Courier-Journal and $110,000 to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Kentucky also will pay $125,000 each to the newspapers in fines for violating the state open records act by refusing to release the records.
Courier-Journal
The Wisconsin Public Records Board used contradictory messages to describe its decision last summer to expand what kinds of records could be destroyed immediately. To the public and news organizations, the message was: The board made a routine clarification that was not "substantive." That was the explanation given by Matthew Blessing, the board's chairman, in downplaying why the board did not even give advance public notice by putting the matter on its Aug. 24 agenda. But to state employees, the message was: The board made "significant changes" to which records are considered to have only temporary usefulness and can be destroyed. That was the update issued by Georgia Thompson, the board's executive secretary, to alert state records officers that the definition of so-called "transitory records" had been expanded. Thompson's email was among hundreds of pages of documents released to the Journal Sentinel in response to a request under the state's open records law. In her email, sent Sept. 28, Thompson also urged records officers to share the update with other employees and agencies throughout state government.
Journal Sentinel
A trio of Illinois appellate court judges on Monday sided with the (Peoria) Journal Star, saying the city of Peoria hadn’t shown why it should be able to withhold a police report requested by a reporter more than two years ago. The ruling means the city has lost three times in its efforts to deny the paper’s Freedom of Information Act request. City Manager Patrick Urich said the city will review its options in deciding what its next step will be.
Journal Star
Editorials/Columns
At today’s General Assembly veto session, our lawmakers must decide whether to accept a flawed government-secrecy proposal floated by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. To date, McAuliffe has successfully diverted attention from his proposal’s rejection of government transparency by framing the vote as a referendum on the death penalty. Lawmakers should reject this diversionary tactic and vote down McAuliffe’s death-drug secrecy proposal, just as they nixed similar legislation last year. If our government can execute people only by keeping secrets about its partners and its processes, what does that say about our government?
Kevin Walsh, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Pharmaceutical companies will supply the raw materials for the compounds [used in lethal injection], but only on condition of anonymity. They want the state to shield their identity from open government laws as a condition of providing the drugs to pharmacists, who would also work in secret. Those compounding pharmacists would also have to agree to violate the ethics of their profession by providing a medicine designed to kill. Transparency advocates have rightly howled. Not only would capitulation to this demand set a worrisome precedent on a government procurement, but it would effectively inhibit oversight of this most serious action carried out by the state.
Virginian-Pilot
Though Governor McAuliffe has proposed the legislation in the hopes of providing a “humane way to carry out capital punishment,” laws allowing compounding pharmacies to manufacture lethal drugs in secret pose an unacceptable risk that inmates will face a cruel and unusual death in violation of the Eighth Amendment. First, because compounding pharmacies are not federally regulated, there is a substantial concern about the sterility and the efficacy of the drugs they produce. For example, in 2012, tainted injectable drugs from a compounding pharmacy caused a meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people across the country. Second, in light of the several recent botched executions nationwide, the lack of government transparency regarding execution protocols undermines the public’s faith in the integrity of the justice system, because it conceals information about the lawfulness of the drugs used in the state’s lethal injection procedures. Furthermore, such secrecy laws prevent inmates from receiving any information on how the drugs being used for their execution are produced and used, thereby depriving them of their due process rights to ensure the legality of the state’s lethal injection protocol.
Ginny Sloan, Huffington Post
By hiding behind the usual it's-a-personnel-matter-we-can't-talk-about-it excuse, school honchos have left Landstown High School principal Brian Matney dangling – placed on administrative leave without explanation, he says – and parents, students and teachers wondering what happened to their principal.
Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot
