Transparency News 8/19/16

 

Transparency advocatees from D.C., Maryland and Virginia jointly urged legislators to ensure the public and news media have access to meetings and documents of the Metrorail Safety Commission proposed to oversee the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (“WMATA”). The D.C. Open Government Coalition; the Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association; and Virginia Coalition for Open Government sent letters Aug. 18 to key lawmakers in the three jurisdictions seeking amendments to a proposed interstate compact to establish the safety commission.
DC Open Government Coalition
Read the letter on VCOG’s website

A small committee going line-by-line through Virginia's open records laws decided to punt Thursday on a months-long effort to rein in one of the laws vaguest sets of rules. These are the parts of Virginia Freedom of Information's Act that deal with proprietary records and trade secrets – the things government keeps secret on behalf of private companies it works with. State Supreme Court Justice William C. Mims wrote in a 2014 opinion that the current law is too confusing to be consistently applied, but an effort to rework things foundered on the objections of state agencies and private sector lobbyists fighting for the status quo. The review group also heard Thursday from Gov. Terry McAuliffe's homeland security director, and he indicated an administration desire to keep building plans and other basic information on infrastructure a secret after a fire or other disaster. Current law generally allows state and local governments to keep important structural information under lock and key, but requires some of it to be released in the aftermath of a disaster to help the public understand what went wrong.
Daily Press

The city of Charlottesville has filed to dismiss a federal freedom of speech lawsuit that’s challenging City Council meeting rules that officials adopted earlier this year in an attempt to prevent disruptive behavior and improve time management during its meetings. After being removed by authorities at a June 20 council meeting, Albemarle County resident Joe Draego sued the city last month alleging that his First Amendment rights were violated. Officials voted to remove him from the meeting after he referred to Muslims as “monstrous maniacs,” a characterization that councilors believed was a defamatory attack.
Daily Progress

When the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority fired its executive director with cause this month, it took more than $350,000 away from him, according to a document obtained by The Virginian-Pilot. The board fired Hal Short on Aug. 2 after 44 years of service. According to Short’s employment contract, if he were fired without cause, his severance pay would “not be less than an amount equal to two (2) times Employee’s then current annual salary.” His salary as of 2016 was $176,410 annually, according to the authority’s documents.
Virginian-Pilot



Editorials/Columns

A handful of Democratic and Republican legislators in both the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates are calling for hearings their respective chambers’ money committees — the Senate Finance Committee and the House Appropriations Committee — to hold hearings into appropriateness of UVA’s $2.2 billion Strategic Investment Fund. The staff of the state’s Freedom of Information Advisory (FOIA) Council says there’s a possibility the meeting at which the fund was officially created violated the state’s open meetings law. First, we need to say this right up front: The university’s leadership — Rector William Goodwin and President Sullivan — need to address the questions and concerns about the investment fund much sooner rather than later. Second, the concerns raised by the state FOIA Council must be cleared up immediately. 
News & Advance

Just 20 years ago, we wrote an article that called the fact that “at least ten states have begun to post legislative or consumer information on the Internet” a “dramatic development.” Today, even the tiniest communities -- like Union, Ct., which boasts a population of less than 1,000 -- are expected to have their own websites. But even with all these open electronic doors, users who walk through can be easily disappointed and misinformed. Look at Albuquerque, N.M. Last year, the city's auditor reviewed 594 pages of its website. The auditor praised the city for adhering to best practices, but it still found hundreds of flaws, including 145 broken links, 76 pages with outdated content and another 20 with wrong information. Contact information was provided for employees who didn’t work there anymore. The link to forms and permits led to a list of frequently asked questions. A map that was supposed to show directions to a community center navigated somewhere else. Based on personal experiences as well as conversations with government researchers, these are five of the biggest problems with dot-govs. Number 3: Empty meeting minutes.
Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene, Governing