Transparency News 3/29/17
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
State and Local Stories
State and Local Stories
On March 15, Judge Alfred D. Swersky, a substitute judge in Rappahannock’s 20th Judicial Circuit, issued an opinion letter dismissing a petition for a declaratory judgment and enforcement of Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the county’s board of supervisors. In her petition issued last September, local llama farmer Marian Bragg alleged that the board and four of its five individual members violated FOIA during the closed portion of several supervisor meetings last summer and fall by improperly discussing topics that were not exempt from the FOIA law. In addition, Bragg’s petition maintained that the supervisors’ procedures for going into and reporting out of the closed sessions were improper. In granting the supervisors’ request to dismiss the petition, Swersky cited “a procedural defect in the initiation of these proceedings,” specifically not complying with a statutory requirement that the petition “be accompanied ‘by an affidavit showing good cause.”
Rappahannock News
Most police records in Virginia can be withheld at the discretion of a police agency. To help provide closure to families such as the McCarthys, the General Assembly this year passed a bill that would require police to allow immediate family members to access records in suicides or accidental deaths — cases that will not result in criminal charges. No legislator voted against it. But Gov. Terry McAuliffe, siding with some police agencies that protested, has amended the legislature’s bill in a way that effectively kills it. McAuliffe’s version would allow the grieving family to receive only a summary, not the full file. The governor’s office provided the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Scott A. Surovell, D-Fairfax, with 13 letters from police agencies opposing his bill. The police agencies that wrote to the governor’s office to oppose Surovell’s bill expressed various concerns. Virginia Beach Deputy Police Chief William T. Dean was among those who said reviewing police files would add to the suffering of the families. “If we are truly concerned about the well-being of those families and loved ones who survive suicide, and the trauma that accompanies these cases, then I submit distributions such as this ... are counterproductive for the surviving families as well as the trust that the police work to achieve and maintain daily.” To that argument, Surovell responded: “I don’t believe law enforcement has a monopoly on how grieving families should be able to reach closure over the death of a loved one.”
Virginian-Pilot
A federal probe into the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office has extended to Old Dominion University, where former Sheriff Bob McCabe provided private security for years and served as a prominent booster. It is unclear what FBI investigators are looking into at the school. A university spokeswoman confirmed that ODU was served a federal grand jury subpoena relating to McCabe in recent months, but she has declined over the past two weeks to release it in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Several hours after this story was posted Tuesday on PilotOnline.com, the ODU spokeswoman, Giovanna Genard, reversed course and announced plans to release a copy of the subpoena today.
Virginian-Pilot
National Stories
A mayor, whether working in a big city or a small one, sees needs every day that would benefit from the investment of public resources. With such opportunities essentially unlimited but resources quite constrained, how should a leader respond? A comprehensive answer to this question was recently presented when Bloomberg Philanthropies' What Works Cities initiative lanched a certification program that provides much-needed clarity by identifying and endorsing clear, expert-tested indicators of the capacity to use data effectively. What Works Cities is a two-year-old initiative that provides technical assistance to midsized cities on open data, performance analytics, low-cost evaluations, results-driven contracting and repurposing of resources. In the process of working with 77 cities across the country, the What Works team identified the need for objective guidance and recognition of data practices that are most effective for delivering outcomes for residents. The resulting certification program, which is open to all cities of 30,000 or more regardless of whether they receive What Works Cities assistance, will recognize examples of excellence across 50 criteria and provide a concrete roadmap for cities that are at any point on the data journey.
Governing
Rappahannock News
Most police records in Virginia can be withheld at the discretion of a police agency. To help provide closure to families such as the McCarthys, the General Assembly this year passed a bill that would require police to allow immediate family members to access records in suicides or accidental deaths — cases that will not result in criminal charges. No legislator voted against it. But Gov. Terry McAuliffe, siding with some police agencies that protested, has amended the legislature’s bill in a way that effectively kills it. McAuliffe’s version would allow the grieving family to receive only a summary, not the full file. The governor’s office provided the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Scott A. Surovell, D-Fairfax, with 13 letters from police agencies opposing his bill. The police agencies that wrote to the governor’s office to oppose Surovell’s bill expressed various concerns. Virginia Beach Deputy Police Chief William T. Dean was among those who said reviewing police files would add to the suffering of the families. “If we are truly concerned about the well-being of those families and loved ones who survive suicide, and the trauma that accompanies these cases, then I submit distributions such as this ... are counterproductive for the surviving families as well as the trust that the police work to achieve and maintain daily.” To that argument, Surovell responded: “I don’t believe law enforcement has a monopoly on how grieving families should be able to reach closure over the death of a loved one.”
Virginian-Pilot
A federal probe into the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office has extended to Old Dominion University, where former Sheriff Bob McCabe provided private security for years and served as a prominent booster. It is unclear what FBI investigators are looking into at the school. A university spokeswoman confirmed that ODU was served a federal grand jury subpoena relating to McCabe in recent months, but she has declined over the past two weeks to release it in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Several hours after this story was posted Tuesday on PilotOnline.com, the ODU spokeswoman, Giovanna Genard, reversed course and announced plans to release a copy of the subpoena today.
Virginian-Pilot
National Stories
A mayor, whether working in a big city or a small one, sees needs every day that would benefit from the investment of public resources. With such opportunities essentially unlimited but resources quite constrained, how should a leader respond? A comprehensive answer to this question was recently presented when Bloomberg Philanthropies' What Works Cities initiative lanched a certification program that provides much-needed clarity by identifying and endorsing clear, expert-tested indicators of the capacity to use data effectively. What Works Cities is a two-year-old initiative that provides technical assistance to midsized cities on open data, performance analytics, low-cost evaluations, results-driven contracting and repurposing of resources. In the process of working with 77 cities across the country, the What Works team identified the need for objective guidance and recognition of data practices that are most effective for delivering outcomes for residents. The resulting certification program, which is open to all cities of 30,000 or more regardless of whether they receive What Works Cities assistance, will recognize examples of excellence across 50 criteria and provide a concrete roadmap for cities that are at any point on the data journey.
Governing
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