Transparency News 10/27/16
Thursday, October 27, 2016
State and Local Stories
An anti-discrimination organization said Wednesday it is asking both the Virginia and U.S. attorneys general to investigate Augusta County Commissioner of the Revenue Jean Shrewsbury, Harrisonburg Commissioner of the Revenue Karen Rose and G. Ray Ergenbright, an employee of both offices. Representatives of ARMED (Americans Resisting Minority and Ethnic Discrimination) point to Ergenbright's use of Hitler emojis in emails and a social media post. ARMED said in a letter to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch that an investigation is needed to determine whether the emojis and the separate social media post are "part of a larger culture of hate that targets minority taxpayers and taxpayers of color." Ergenbright sent the Hitler emoji emails in question to another Augusta County revenue employee in March. The emails were discovered during a Freedom of Information request from Nexus Services, based in Verona.
News Virginian
The final City Council meeting in a dramatic election season devolved into a flurry of political sniping Tuesday night, drawing howls and jeers from observers. The evening was tame until Barry Randall, a mayoral candidate and pastor, criticized the council for its response to public housing tenants who have gone without heat or hot water since Hurricane Matthew. Residents then took turns skewering council members before the elected officials lashed out at each other. TV cameras at Tuesday’s meeting sparked tension between Wright and council members who had spoken to the stations and criticized the housing board. As Wright told the audience that the authority planned to place tenants in hotel rooms Wednesday, Councilwoman Elizabeth Psimas interrupted: “You think you could have told us that before?” “You’ve got your media and your grandstanding,” Wright snapped back, drawing shouts and boos. “I’m trying to tell you.” The bickering got the best of some residents who stepped out as the meeting dragged into its third hour. “It’s too much,” one man muttered as he made for the door.
Virginian-Pilot
Ray Williams received a letter from Virginia Department of Transportation informing him that the agency would be assessing his Hampton home — taking soil samples, locating power lines and other routine work. The December 2015 letter didn't say why, but Williams didn't think too much of it — until nearly a year later when he got a call from a Daily Press reporter asking him how he felt about his property being flagged for potential relocation to make way for I-664 widening. "I had no idea about that," Williams said. It was a similar reaction that took place as the Daily Press spoke to property owners included on a VDOT list of properties that would be partially acquired or relocated for a proposed I-64 and I-664 widening as part of the water-crossing project. Hampton Roads residents and an eminent domain expert leveled criticism at VDOT for its minimal notification to home and business owners that the state agency may be acquiring their property to widen the region's congested interstates.
Daily Press
A lawsuit against the chairman of the Prince William County School Board and a Gainesville businessman is going forward, albeit with some slight alteration in charges. Prince William Circuit Court Judge Tracy Hudson ruled Wednesday that the bulk of Patriot High School Principal Michael Bishop’s multi-million dollar suit against At-Large Chairman Ryan Sawyers and Guy Morgan can move ahead. The suit stems from a dispute over a pair of Prince William youth baseball leagues — Bishop heads up the Gainesville Haymarket Baseball League, while Sawyers leads the Bull Run Little League. Bishop alleges that Sawyers and Morgan sent a series of defamatory emails to school board members and posted on a now-defunct website detailing his alleged conduct running the league, all as part of a conspiracy to ruin his reputation and get him fired.
Inside NOVA
Three whistleblowers in the Office of the State Inspector General described on Wednesday potential conflicts of interest between their bosses and the state’s mental health system, which the office is in charge of investigating. Cathy Hill, Ann White and William Thomas, the whistleblowers, also said key information about overworked employees at the mental hospital where Jamycheal Mitchell was supposed to be transferred was intentionally removed from reports.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Editorials/Columns
There’s something wrong in Virginia when parents of a deceased young adult cannot obtain copies of the investigation into his death. It speaks to a larger problem in the commonwealth’s apprehension about allowing the public to access to law enforcement records. Hope for altering that approach, even in some small but meaningful way, was all but snuffed out last week when the state commission reviewing the Virginia Freedom of Information Act rejected a modest proposal to tweak a provision of the statute. Far from surprising, the decision instead represents the latest disappointment in a three-year review of the commonwealth’s most important open government law, a process that began with promise but will likely fail to deliver greater transparency or accountability.
Virginian-Pilot
Decorum matters, but there’s a line between decorum and pearl-clutching. State election officials crossed it this week when they suspended a registrar from an email list. Elizabeth Howard, a deputy commissioner for the Virginia Department of Elections, suspended his posting privileges over his “unprofessional” and “discourteous” communication. After the story broke Tuesday evening, Commissioner of Elections Edgar Cortés said Sasnett would be reinstated Wednesday morning. Instead of being upset over a mild oath, election officials should be shocked and embarrassed that some citizens might have been denied the right to vote because of a clerical foul-up. Pardon our French.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
News Virginian
The final City Council meeting in a dramatic election season devolved into a flurry of political sniping Tuesday night, drawing howls and jeers from observers. The evening was tame until Barry Randall, a mayoral candidate and pastor, criticized the council for its response to public housing tenants who have gone without heat or hot water since Hurricane Matthew. Residents then took turns skewering council members before the elected officials lashed out at each other. TV cameras at Tuesday’s meeting sparked tension between Wright and council members who had spoken to the stations and criticized the housing board. As Wright told the audience that the authority planned to place tenants in hotel rooms Wednesday, Councilwoman Elizabeth Psimas interrupted: “You think you could have told us that before?” “You’ve got your media and your grandstanding,” Wright snapped back, drawing shouts and boos. “I’m trying to tell you.” The bickering got the best of some residents who stepped out as the meeting dragged into its third hour. “It’s too much,” one man muttered as he made for the door.
Virginian-Pilot
Ray Williams received a letter from Virginia Department of Transportation informing him that the agency would be assessing his Hampton home — taking soil samples, locating power lines and other routine work. The December 2015 letter didn't say why, but Williams didn't think too much of it — until nearly a year later when he got a call from a Daily Press reporter asking him how he felt about his property being flagged for potential relocation to make way for I-664 widening. "I had no idea about that," Williams said. It was a similar reaction that took place as the Daily Press spoke to property owners included on a VDOT list of properties that would be partially acquired or relocated for a proposed I-64 and I-664 widening as part of the water-crossing project. Hampton Roads residents and an eminent domain expert leveled criticism at VDOT for its minimal notification to home and business owners that the state agency may be acquiring their property to widen the region's congested interstates.
Daily Press
A lawsuit against the chairman of the Prince William County School Board and a Gainesville businessman is going forward, albeit with some slight alteration in charges. Prince William Circuit Court Judge Tracy Hudson ruled Wednesday that the bulk of Patriot High School Principal Michael Bishop’s multi-million dollar suit against At-Large Chairman Ryan Sawyers and Guy Morgan can move ahead. The suit stems from a dispute over a pair of Prince William youth baseball leagues — Bishop heads up the Gainesville Haymarket Baseball League, while Sawyers leads the Bull Run Little League. Bishop alleges that Sawyers and Morgan sent a series of defamatory emails to school board members and posted on a now-defunct website detailing his alleged conduct running the league, all as part of a conspiracy to ruin his reputation and get him fired.
Inside NOVA
Three whistleblowers in the Office of the State Inspector General described on Wednesday potential conflicts of interest between their bosses and the state’s mental health system, which the office is in charge of investigating. Cathy Hill, Ann White and William Thomas, the whistleblowers, also said key information about overworked employees at the mental hospital where Jamycheal Mitchell was supposed to be transferred was intentionally removed from reports.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Editorials/Columns
There’s something wrong in Virginia when parents of a deceased young adult cannot obtain copies of the investigation into his death. It speaks to a larger problem in the commonwealth’s apprehension about allowing the public to access to law enforcement records. Hope for altering that approach, even in some small but meaningful way, was all but snuffed out last week when the state commission reviewing the Virginia Freedom of Information Act rejected a modest proposal to tweak a provision of the statute. Far from surprising, the decision instead represents the latest disappointment in a three-year review of the commonwealth’s most important open government law, a process that began with promise but will likely fail to deliver greater transparency or accountability.
Virginian-Pilot
Decorum matters, but there’s a line between decorum and pearl-clutching. State election officials crossed it this week when they suspended a registrar from an email list. Elizabeth Howard, a deputy commissioner for the Virginia Department of Elections, suspended his posting privileges over his “unprofessional” and “discourteous” communication. After the story broke Tuesday evening, Commissioner of Elections Edgar Cortés said Sasnett would be reinstated Wednesday morning. Instead of being upset over a mild oath, election officials should be shocked and embarrassed that some citizens might have been denied the right to vote because of a clerical foul-up. Pardon our French.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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