Transparency News 11/28/16
Monday, November 28, 2016
Time's a-ticking! Buy tickets this week for our conference Dec. 8
State and Local Stories
Two city officials – one current and one former – told a jury last week that Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot never asked for special treatment while helping a developer with a plot of land off Hancock Avenue. But while cross-examining the men, prosecutors seized the opportunity to delve into the former vice mayor’s relationship with the developer – a relationship he once denied but that eventually earned him at least $50,000.
Virginian-Pilot
Virginia's General Assembly floats on a sea of special interest money, with legislators spending millions of dollars from their campaign funds on themselves, their offices and their staff in years when they are not seeking re-election in their generally uncompetitive districts. A Daily Press review of more than 200,000 items from a decade's worth of legislators' campaign reports found: •$1.1 million in campaign funds that lawmakers paid directly to themselves, family members or their businesses, including $734,000 spent in months between their elections and the close of the following year's General Assembly session, when they can again start accepting donations. "Lawmakers don't want to bill taxpayers for the full costs of running a state government and if lobbyists are willing to cover some of the bills, lawmakers are glad to let them," said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington.
Daily Press
In the eight years since he took over Your Time Fitness, Ryan Mosher has put up hundreds, if not thousands, of signs around the city advertising his business. When city officials started summoning him to court last year for violating their sign ordinance, he paid the fines. To him, it’s just the cost of doing business. But to the city, the signs pose a safety hazard and impede daily operations. Now Chesapeake is taking legal action against Mosher and his company for repeatedly putting up signs in public spaces.The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 2015 that content-based restrictions violate the First Amendment, forcing city officials to rewrite their rule book to comply. King said they’re still working on proposed changes and will try to get public input soon.
Virginian-Pilot
Charlottesville Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy published several tweets between 2009 and 2014 using gay slurs, comments against white people, lewd slang for female genitalia and other profanities. Many of the old tweets show a stark contrast between his more recent posts lauding women’s and LGBTQ rights. Bellamy made his Twitter account private this Saturday. The tweets surfaced on social media after local blogger Jason Kessler posted criticism of the tweets on Nov. 24. The post led some members of the community to call on Bellamy to leave office.
Cavalier Daily
National Stories
As challenging as public records can be, it’s an incredibly important part of the democratic process that often provides a unique opportunity for oversight and engagement. That opportunity wouldn’t be possible without government officials doing their job, and often going above and beyond in the name of transparency. This holiday, we once again want to ask you to take a moment and say thanks to a public records officer who has gone above and beyond in helping process a request. Maybe it was for waiving a fee, or helping you better phrase your request to get what you wanted.
Muck Rock
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday vetoed a bill that would have put statewide restrictions on when police departments can release the names of officers involved in shootings or other uses of force that cause injury. The bill was meant to create a 30-day window for police departments and prosecutors to conduct investigations of police use of force without bending to the will of angry citizens demanding immediate information. But the bill appeared to go much further than that. The bill states officers' names would only be released if they were charged with a crime. But the bill's language could be interpreted to apply to criminal cases as well.
Governing
After months of wrangling with reporters and in court over the disclosure of emails, the administration of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday released a third batch of its correspondence with outside advisers that it has designated as “agents of the city.” The emails, released in response to a Freedom of Information Law request, totaled more than 1,550 pages and date to the first days of Mr. de Blasio’s tenure, in early 2014, through April 2015. They reveal a City Hall in regular contact with public relations firms over the minutia of press strategy: whether to remove a fence to make a better backdrop for an event in Harlem; a lengthy discussion of how to discredit rival cities in a bid to host the Democratic National Convention in Brooklyn; whether to solicit a politician to speak with a reporter.
New York Times
The Daily Tar Heel filed a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina last week for access to public records regarding sexual assault cases on campus. The Daily Tar Heel requested the records Sept. 30 and set a deadline of Oct. 28 which the University did not meet. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of The Daily Tar Heel, the Capital Broadcasting Company, the Charlotte Observer Publishing Company and The Durham Herald Company against Chancellor Carol Folt as the custodian of the records and Gavin Young, senior director for public records at UNC. The lawsuit requested the University appear in court and present the records, declared the records public in accordance with Chapter 132 of the North Carolina General Statutes, solicited the inspection and copying of the records permitted under Chapter 132 and asked for compensation for attorney fees.
Daily Tar Heel
The Missouri Department of Corrections knowingly violated the state’s Sunshine Law when it refused to provide records about applicants who sought to witness Missouri executions, an appeals court ruled last week. The ACLU had sued to obtain the information to determine if the department was choosing witnesses impartially. In response, the corrections department produced heavily redacted records, even though many witness applicants had agreed to produce the information. The trial judge, Cole County Circuit Judge Jon E. Beetem, found the department committed a “knowing violation of the Sunshine Law” and ordered it to pay the ACLU’s costs and attorneys’ fees of $5,645. On appeal, the corrections department argued that Beetem had wrongly applied the law and there was no substantial evidence to support his judgment. The Missouri Court of Appeals, in a decision written by Chief Judge Mark D. Pfeiffer, rejected both arguments.
KCUR
“This could be one of the most unrestrained governments that we’ve seen in this country in who knows how long,” Ryan Shapiro warned. Shapiro has been described as a “FOIA superhero” — one of his many monikers. The punk-turned-transparency advocate has filed thousands of Freedom of Information Acts requests and sued major government agencies over their refusals to abide by transparency laws. Now he has his sights set on the impending administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Salon
Editorials/Columns
The observation is so axiomatic it has become a cliché: The First Amendment protects offensive and unpopular speech partly because inoffensive, popular speech needs no protection. And such is the case with Joseph Draego, who said some very ugly things about Muslims before the Charlottesville City Council back in June. The council shut him down, citing a rule against group defamation. Draego sued, and federal judge Norman Moon sided with Draego, imposing an injunction against the rule pending a court ruling on its merits. He said the city’s sole legal support for the rule is outdated, the rule itself is overly vague and overly broad, Charlottesville can cite no compelling governmental interest for imposing it and it likely will be found unconstitutional. Other than that, there’s not much wrong with it. Actually, there is.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Some of the reforms suggested in the JLARC review could be accomplished by executive orders, but some will require action by the Assembly. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership is set to receive $27 million in the two-year budget legislators will be considering; JLARC said the Assembly should approve that appropriation only if the agency has completed or will complete a laundry list of almost three dozen reforms, including regular performance and financial audits and stringent outside oversight.
News & Advance
Virginian-Pilot
Virginia's General Assembly floats on a sea of special interest money, with legislators spending millions of dollars from their campaign funds on themselves, their offices and their staff in years when they are not seeking re-election in their generally uncompetitive districts. A Daily Press review of more than 200,000 items from a decade's worth of legislators' campaign reports found: •$1.1 million in campaign funds that lawmakers paid directly to themselves, family members or their businesses, including $734,000 spent in months between their elections and the close of the following year's General Assembly session, when they can again start accepting donations. "Lawmakers don't want to bill taxpayers for the full costs of running a state government and if lobbyists are willing to cover some of the bills, lawmakers are glad to let them," said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington.
Daily Press
In the eight years since he took over Your Time Fitness, Ryan Mosher has put up hundreds, if not thousands, of signs around the city advertising his business. When city officials started summoning him to court last year for violating their sign ordinance, he paid the fines. To him, it’s just the cost of doing business. But to the city, the signs pose a safety hazard and impede daily operations. Now Chesapeake is taking legal action against Mosher and his company for repeatedly putting up signs in public spaces.The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 2015 that content-based restrictions violate the First Amendment, forcing city officials to rewrite their rule book to comply. King said they’re still working on proposed changes and will try to get public input soon.
Virginian-Pilot
Charlottesville Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy published several tweets between 2009 and 2014 using gay slurs, comments against white people, lewd slang for female genitalia and other profanities. Many of the old tweets show a stark contrast between his more recent posts lauding women’s and LGBTQ rights. Bellamy made his Twitter account private this Saturday. The tweets surfaced on social media after local blogger Jason Kessler posted criticism of the tweets on Nov. 24. The post led some members of the community to call on Bellamy to leave office.
Cavalier Daily
National Stories
As challenging as public records can be, it’s an incredibly important part of the democratic process that often provides a unique opportunity for oversight and engagement. That opportunity wouldn’t be possible without government officials doing their job, and often going above and beyond in the name of transparency. This holiday, we once again want to ask you to take a moment and say thanks to a public records officer who has gone above and beyond in helping process a request. Maybe it was for waiving a fee, or helping you better phrase your request to get what you wanted.
Muck Rock
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday vetoed a bill that would have put statewide restrictions on when police departments can release the names of officers involved in shootings or other uses of force that cause injury. The bill was meant to create a 30-day window for police departments and prosecutors to conduct investigations of police use of force without bending to the will of angry citizens demanding immediate information. But the bill appeared to go much further than that. The bill states officers' names would only be released if they were charged with a crime. But the bill's language could be interpreted to apply to criminal cases as well.
Governing
After months of wrangling with reporters and in court over the disclosure of emails, the administration of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday released a third batch of its correspondence with outside advisers that it has designated as “agents of the city.” The emails, released in response to a Freedom of Information Law request, totaled more than 1,550 pages and date to the first days of Mr. de Blasio’s tenure, in early 2014, through April 2015. They reveal a City Hall in regular contact with public relations firms over the minutia of press strategy: whether to remove a fence to make a better backdrop for an event in Harlem; a lengthy discussion of how to discredit rival cities in a bid to host the Democratic National Convention in Brooklyn; whether to solicit a politician to speak with a reporter.
New York Times
The Daily Tar Heel filed a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina last week for access to public records regarding sexual assault cases on campus. The Daily Tar Heel requested the records Sept. 30 and set a deadline of Oct. 28 which the University did not meet. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of The Daily Tar Heel, the Capital Broadcasting Company, the Charlotte Observer Publishing Company and The Durham Herald Company against Chancellor Carol Folt as the custodian of the records and Gavin Young, senior director for public records at UNC. The lawsuit requested the University appear in court and present the records, declared the records public in accordance with Chapter 132 of the North Carolina General Statutes, solicited the inspection and copying of the records permitted under Chapter 132 and asked for compensation for attorney fees.
Daily Tar Heel
The Missouri Department of Corrections knowingly violated the state’s Sunshine Law when it refused to provide records about applicants who sought to witness Missouri executions, an appeals court ruled last week. The ACLU had sued to obtain the information to determine if the department was choosing witnesses impartially. In response, the corrections department produced heavily redacted records, even though many witness applicants had agreed to produce the information. The trial judge, Cole County Circuit Judge Jon E. Beetem, found the department committed a “knowing violation of the Sunshine Law” and ordered it to pay the ACLU’s costs and attorneys’ fees of $5,645. On appeal, the corrections department argued that Beetem had wrongly applied the law and there was no substantial evidence to support his judgment. The Missouri Court of Appeals, in a decision written by Chief Judge Mark D. Pfeiffer, rejected both arguments.
KCUR
“This could be one of the most unrestrained governments that we’ve seen in this country in who knows how long,” Ryan Shapiro warned. Shapiro has been described as a “FOIA superhero” — one of his many monikers. The punk-turned-transparency advocate has filed thousands of Freedom of Information Acts requests and sued major government agencies over their refusals to abide by transparency laws. Now he has his sights set on the impending administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Salon
Editorials/Columns
The observation is so axiomatic it has become a cliché: The First Amendment protects offensive and unpopular speech partly because inoffensive, popular speech needs no protection. And such is the case with Joseph Draego, who said some very ugly things about Muslims before the Charlottesville City Council back in June. The council shut him down, citing a rule against group defamation. Draego sued, and federal judge Norman Moon sided with Draego, imposing an injunction against the rule pending a court ruling on its merits. He said the city’s sole legal support for the rule is outdated, the rule itself is overly vague and overly broad, Charlottesville can cite no compelling governmental interest for imposing it and it likely will be found unconstitutional. Other than that, there’s not much wrong with it. Actually, there is.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Some of the reforms suggested in the JLARC review could be accomplished by executive orders, but some will require action by the Assembly. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership is set to receive $27 million in the two-year budget legislators will be considering; JLARC said the Assembly should approve that appropriation only if the agency has completed or will complete a laundry list of almost three dozen reforms, including regular performance and financial audits and stringent outside oversight.
News & Advance
Categories:
