Transparency News 3/27/17
Monday, March 27, 2017
State and Local Stories
State and Local Stories
Back in the 1600s, when Archbishop William Laud was using the secret Star Chamber as a court to punish Puritans and King Charles I used that same court to make law when he suspended Parliament, Virginia's judges and elected lawmakers did their business in the public eye. Openness in government and in the courts is a Virginia – and Peninsula – tradition. Now, 49 years after our state Freedom of Information Act became law, Virginia's tradition sometimes seems mostly honored in the breach. The law says the public should be able to listen when public bodies meet, and be able to see the records that public bodies keep. But it also provides about 170 reasons why public bodies can meet in secret and shield records. Both happen a lot.
Daily Press
If Loudoun County government officials want to tell the public about an upcoming Board of Supervisors committee meeting, they turn to Facebook. When the threat of inclement weather looms, the county’s official Facebook page is there to provide the community with tips on how to prepare. Virtually all county entities and elected officials use social media to communicate with constituents. But just as simple as it is for county leaders to send their message out with the click of a button, they can swiftly manage who can respond to those messages, and, in some cases, they may have gone too far in deleting and blocking constituents. Loudoun County resident Brian Davison says he has been the victim of social media censorship by various county arms, and he believes his right to free speech was infringed upon. Over the last two years, Davison has filed three separate Civil Rights lawsuits against the Loudoun Board of Supervisors and Chairwoman Phyllis Randall (D-At Large), Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman (R) and the Loudoun County School Board for either blocking him from their Facebook pages or deleting critical comments he posted. When he sought an answer from School Board members about a Freedom of Information Act he filed for the school system’s student growth percentile (SGP) scores, he says his comments on several board member’s Facebook pages were deleted, and he was blocked.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
National Stories
It was a signature achievement for Montgomery County. Maryland, Council member Hans Riemer: passage of the 2012 Open Government bill, which requires all county departments to make public records more available and accessible through a central Web portal. Last week, however, after more than 200,000 email addresses of people receiving newsletters and other information from the county government were made public on the county’s website, Riemer and some of his colleagues decided they had opened the portals of government a bit too wide. What followed was an example of how the competing interests of government transparency and personal privacy can create serious friction.
Washington Post
The Vermont Senate has unanimously approved a measure that would provide robust protections for Vermont journalists. The bill nullifies subpoenas used to force journalists to reveal confidential sources. It requires prosecutors to meet a high legal bar in order to force journalists to reveal non-confidential information. Some of the state's journalists have recently been called to court to testify on cases that they have covered, helping to spur consideration of the bill.
McClatchy
A California-based news service is accusing the Vermont court system of improperly concealing newly filed lawsuits in violation of the public's First Amendment right to access court records. Vermont is the only state in the country that keeps most lawsuits secret until after the papers have been served on defendants — a process that can lead to months of delays in disclosing new cases, according to a lawsuit filed by Courthouse News Service in federal court in Burlington. The case is public only because it is in the federal system, where most new actions become available the moment they are filed. If the lawsuit were in state court, the proceedings would remain hidden from public view.
Burlington Free Press
Citing "unsafe working conditions," Portland, Oregon, Commissioner Nick Fish directed his bureau employees and office staff to not attend City Council meetings in the Portland Building, according to an email obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The decision followed unrelenting yelling by protesters at a City Council meeting Wednesday afternoon. "I have a responsibility to maintain a safe workplace," Fish said in a text to The Oregonian/OregonLive. "Council meetings are no longer safe."
The Oregonian
The Associated Press used dozens of interviews and multiple public records requests to determine that North Carolina's "bathroom bill" will cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years. This is how the largest elements were compiled and used:
McClatchy
Wisconsin's courts director is considering removing records of criminal cases that ended in dismissal or acquittals from the state's popular online courts database within months, rather than decades, out of concern that people are abusing the information. The move could result in thousands of cases disappearing overnight from the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access database, popularly known as CCAP, warned Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders. Hard copies of the records would still be available at local courthouses, but they would no longer be a mouse click away. The state would be left with an online compendium of the guilty that could lead to even more discrimination, Lueders said.
LaCrosse Tribune
Daily Press
If Loudoun County government officials want to tell the public about an upcoming Board of Supervisors committee meeting, they turn to Facebook. When the threat of inclement weather looms, the county’s official Facebook page is there to provide the community with tips on how to prepare. Virtually all county entities and elected officials use social media to communicate with constituents. But just as simple as it is for county leaders to send their message out with the click of a button, they can swiftly manage who can respond to those messages, and, in some cases, they may have gone too far in deleting and blocking constituents. Loudoun County resident Brian Davison says he has been the victim of social media censorship by various county arms, and he believes his right to free speech was infringed upon. Over the last two years, Davison has filed three separate Civil Rights lawsuits against the Loudoun Board of Supervisors and Chairwoman Phyllis Randall (D-At Large), Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman (R) and the Loudoun County School Board for either blocking him from their Facebook pages or deleting critical comments he posted. When he sought an answer from School Board members about a Freedom of Information Act he filed for the school system’s student growth percentile (SGP) scores, he says his comments on several board member’s Facebook pages were deleted, and he was blocked.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
National Stories
It was a signature achievement for Montgomery County. Maryland, Council member Hans Riemer: passage of the 2012 Open Government bill, which requires all county departments to make public records more available and accessible through a central Web portal. Last week, however, after more than 200,000 email addresses of people receiving newsletters and other information from the county government were made public on the county’s website, Riemer and some of his colleagues decided they had opened the portals of government a bit too wide. What followed was an example of how the competing interests of government transparency and personal privacy can create serious friction.
Washington Post
The Vermont Senate has unanimously approved a measure that would provide robust protections for Vermont journalists. The bill nullifies subpoenas used to force journalists to reveal confidential sources. It requires prosecutors to meet a high legal bar in order to force journalists to reveal non-confidential information. Some of the state's journalists have recently been called to court to testify on cases that they have covered, helping to spur consideration of the bill.
McClatchy
A California-based news service is accusing the Vermont court system of improperly concealing newly filed lawsuits in violation of the public's First Amendment right to access court records. Vermont is the only state in the country that keeps most lawsuits secret until after the papers have been served on defendants — a process that can lead to months of delays in disclosing new cases, according to a lawsuit filed by Courthouse News Service in federal court in Burlington. The case is public only because it is in the federal system, where most new actions become available the moment they are filed. If the lawsuit were in state court, the proceedings would remain hidden from public view.
Burlington Free Press
Citing "unsafe working conditions," Portland, Oregon, Commissioner Nick Fish directed his bureau employees and office staff to not attend City Council meetings in the Portland Building, according to an email obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The decision followed unrelenting yelling by protesters at a City Council meeting Wednesday afternoon. "I have a responsibility to maintain a safe workplace," Fish said in a text to The Oregonian/OregonLive. "Council meetings are no longer safe."
The Oregonian
The Associated Press used dozens of interviews and multiple public records requests to determine that North Carolina's "bathroom bill" will cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years. This is how the largest elements were compiled and used:
McClatchy
Wisconsin's courts director is considering removing records of criminal cases that ended in dismissal or acquittals from the state's popular online courts database within months, rather than decades, out of concern that people are abusing the information. The move could result in thousands of cases disappearing overnight from the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access database, popularly known as CCAP, warned Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders. Hard copies of the records would still be available at local courthouses, but they would no longer be a mouse click away. The state would be left with an online compendium of the guilty that could lead to even more discrimination, Lueders said.
LaCrosse Tribune
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