Transparency News 4/24/17

Monday, April 24, 2017



State and Local Stories

VCOG is offering an in-person FOIA and records management training seminar, May 17, at the Library of Virginia. Click here for tickets and details.





The Daily Press took its battle with the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Virginia Supreme Court over access to a statewide court records database to the justices of the state Supreme Court on Friday. The newspaper is seeking the data under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to determine whether race plays a part in plea bargains in the state’s circuit courts. The position of the OES is that each of the state’s clerks — not the OES — is the custodian of the records. Stuart A. Raphael, Virginia’s solicitor general, argued Friday that the law is clear that the clerks — not the OES — are the custodians of the records, which are not created or altered by OES. A friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Daily Press was filed by the Virginia Press Association; BH Media Group, which owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other Virginia newspapers; other newspaper companies; The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; and The Virginia Coalition for Open Government.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Justice William C. Mims' line of questioning Friday indicated he sees OES' actual possession of the data as an important point. He asked Solicitor General Stuart Raphael several times how a state agency can hold data and not be its custodian, and thus responsible for release under the state's Freedom of Information Act. Mims compared the database to a quilt: If each clerk is custodian of a square, "who is responsible for the entire quilt?" Justice D. Arthur Kelsey seemed favor the state's argument, asking Daily Press attorney Hunter Sims repeatedly whether the secretary's office creates or otherwise manipulates the data, or if it simply holds it. Justice Cleo E. Powell wondered whether more sensitive data would be subject to open records requests if the court sides with Ress and the Daily Press.
Daily Press

Members of the Richmond School Board who met behind closed doors to orchestrate the departure of Superintendent Dana Bedden were reluctant to explain their decision in the hours after his June 30 exit was announced. Only two of nine members responded to questions about the move, which put an end to days of speculation capped by a last-minute meeting Friday in which no formal action was taken after a three-hour executive session. Open government advocates were critical of the process the board undertook to arrange Bedden’s departure. Although the members were within their legal rights to discuss his performance out of the public eye, taking action without public engagement is not in the spirit of open meetings laws, said Dick Hammerstrom, president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government and chairman of the Virginia Press Association’s Freedom of Information Act committee.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

High-ranking Norfolk officials – including a judge and the city attorney – devised a secret agreement on who would become city treasurer after Anthony Burfoot’s removal, emails obtained by The Virginian-Pilot show. But the deal fell apart a month later when the interim treasurer, Amy Ortega, fired her agreed-upon successor, Stanley Stein, whom she described as unqualified to take over. Emails involving Ortega, City Attorney Bernard Pishko and others describe a series of conversations that led to a deal about who would be treasurer for the final nine months of 2017. The Pilot obtained the emails through Freedom of Information Act requests to the city.
Virginina-Pilot



National Stories
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The Justice Department is reconsidering its contention that all resignation letters from U.S. attorneys this year should be secret. The review comes in response to a Freedom of Information Act appeal filed by the Burlington Free Press, which first sought the letters following the mass resignation in March of U.S. attorneys on orders from Attorney General Jeff Sessions. A Justice Department attorney in Washington determined the letters were so "inherently personal" that they were exempt from release.
Burlington Free Press

Even in the dark days following their son’s death, the Dyers tended to believe the police. Why wouldn’t they? Kathy, a civil engineer, and Robert, a teacher, were solid citizens. And yet, they wondered: What were those marks on his arms — “chicken feet” scratches, Robert called them. Or what to make of the emergency room doctor’s notes saying it appeared Graham had been the victim of an assault? Seeking answers, the couple asked the Mesquite (Texas) Police Department for their records of what happened that night. But the department refused to release them — because, its lawyers explained, Texas law said it didn’t have to. State law says a police agency isn’t required to turn over records for incidents that don’t result in a conviction. Graham, who’d been charged with assaulting a police officer after the confrontation, had died before his case could be litigated. So, the department reasoned, his records were confidential. Asked to weigh in on the dispute, then-Attorney General Greg Abbott agreed the Mesquite police could refuse the Dyers’ request. Over the next two years, the Dyers would wage an emotionally draining war to pry loose information that might shed light on what had happened to their son that summer evening. And when, thanks only to their persistence and creativity, they finally managed to obtain it, they would discover Graham’s final hours were very different from what the police said had happened.
Austin American-Statesman

The education department is among the least responsive agencies in New York City when it comes to public records requests. Worse than the Mayor’s Office, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Administration for Children’s Services — and far worse than the NYPD. That’s according to an analysis of a year’s worth of open records requests initially gathered by the Village Voice and subsequently provided to Chalkbeat. In fact, the Department of Education’s 103-day average response time to public records requestsunder the state’s Freedom of Information Law makes it the least responsive of more than a dozen city agencies. 
Chalkbeat

The Justice Department won't budge from its position that federal mug shots of criminals should be kept secret, arguing in a U.S. Supreme Court brief that jailhouse photos are "embarrassing, nonpublic" moments that add to defendants' grief. The agency clarified its stance as part of an ongoing legal battle over whether federal law enforcement, like many states, should be required to hand over booking photos. "Mug shots reveal much more than the sterile fact of arrest and booking," the Justice Department wrote in a Supreme Court brief filed this month. "They graphically depict individuals in the embarrassing, nonpublic moment of their processing into the criminal justice system." The case has been appealed to the nation's highest court following a lawsuit brought by the Detroit Free Press newspaper. The Free Press, which is owned by Gannett, the publisher of USA TODAY and dozens of other newspapers, has challenged the federal government over its decision not to release the mug shots of four Michigan police officers charged with public corruption charges in 2013.
USA Today


Editorials/Columns


Two years ago Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Dana Bedden was a finalist to run the school system in Boston. When word got out that he might leave Richmond, a grassroots campaign urging him to stay blossomed. A “Better With Bedden” petition drive sprang up and collected nearly a thousand signatures. Even Gov. Terry McAuliffe made a personal plea. Now, all of a sudden, Bedden is out. And nobody cares to explain why. On Friday, the members of the Richmond School Board sequestered themselves away from public view for secret talks about Bedden. When they emerged, they said little and conveyed even less. The next day the school division announced that Bedden’s term will end on June 30. But that was about the extent of their disclosures. Only two of the seven members responded to press inquiries. Scott Barlow said he would have preferred to see Bedden stay but he would respect the board’s decision. Cindy Menz-Erb said she wouldn’t have anything to say. This is outrageous. Richmond’s children, parents, and taxpayers deserve better.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Facebook should have foreseen that some individuals would corrupt the live video option. Violent, deranged people will take advantage of whatever’s at hand. Such depictions might be only a small fraction of the posts, but they have an outsize effect because Facebook is so ubiquitous. As such, Facebook must lead the way in discussing where the line should be drawn between free expression and cracking down on certain images. Users expect better, and narcissistic criminals will continue to exploit that service until companies such as Facebook can deliver.
Virginian-Pilot