Transparency News 4/27/17

Thursday, April 27, 2017



State and Local Stories

VCOG is offering an in-person FOIA and records management seminar, May 17, at the Library of Virginia. The seminar is open to government employees, citizens, press and anyone else! Click below for tickets and details.




The recent wave of controversies over far-right speakers on college campuses shows that the debate over free speech — one of America’s founding values — is alive and well in the country’s education system. The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression always has placed itself in the center of this debate. Last year, it gave its annual Muzzle Awards — a dubious honor that goes to the people and organizations that tried to censor or silence others — to 50 colleges that had stifled free expression. Josh Wheeler, director of the center, said this year there was “no real theme” for the Muzzles, which examined incidents from 2016. But the majority of the cases highlighted by the center involved local government or school districts — things that aren’t necessarily reported nationally.
Daily Progress
The Muzzles will be posted on the Thomas Jefferson Center’s website:

Virginia State Police is unavailable by email due to malware, according to a news release from spokeswoman Corinne Geller.  State police won't be answering emails starting 8 p.m. Wednesday until about 12 p.m. Thursday, she said. Headquarters and area offices are still open during business hours.
Daily Press

Manassas teachers, students and parents believe the sudden suspension of Principal Cathy Benner has created an “environment of fear” at Osbourn High School, and dozens are imploring the city’s school board to reinstate an administrator beloved by employees and pupils alike. School administrators placed Benner on paid administrative leave March 20. But school system officials have yet to offer any rationale for that decision, prompting more than a hundred people to pack the school board’s April 25 meeting to praise Benner and ask for some clarity. “Parents need more information, because, otherwise, that’s how rumors get started, and there are plenty out there,” Mary Magerkorth, head of the school’s Parent-Teacher-Student Association and the mother of a senior at Osbourn, said. “And she is deeply loved by students, faculty and parents.” 
Inside NOVA

Abingdon Mayor Cathy Lowe disputes many of the statements made at the Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday about the amount of information provided to the board by the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator. At the meeting, Supervisor Vernon Smith said he requested a wide array of information — including the amount of cash the incubator has on hand, how many small businesses it has created and the meeting minutes of the incubator’s board going back to its creation in 2005 — and was not provided with it. At the heart of the dispute is the incubator’s budget. The Board of Supervisors is in the middle of its budget process for 2017-18. The incubator is requesting $177,000, $88,000 from the county board and the remainder from the town of Abingdon. Lowe, who is executive director of the incubator, said Wednesday that she and the incubator’s board did send Washington County much of the requested information. Lowe sent the Bristol Herald Courier emails and several documents showing that Washington County did receive some of the requested information. On Tuesday, Washington County supervisors discussed various options moving forward, including the use of a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain information. Lowe sent the Herald Courier documents that show the opinion of multiple legal experts that the incubator is not subject to FOIA laws because it is not a governmental agency.
Herald Courier



National Stories
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Alabama officials say they're forming a task force and taking other actions to address concerns about private information about victims and others posted to a state website for court records. The steps are being taken after a review of Alacourt.com by The Associated Press found names, home addresses, telephone numbers and other information about rape victims and children who have been molested. State officials say they're also adding a feature to the website designed to keep sensitive information private.
McClatchy


Editorials/Columns


FOR HAVING prosecuted journalists and whistle-blowers with uncommon aggression, President Barack Obama compiled a less than laudable record for government access and transparency. The Trump administration figures to take that lousy legacy and build upon it. Going even further in an opaque, unaccountable, unresponsive direction hardly recommends itself. The United States is supposed to be a model of democracy — of the people, by the people and for the people, as Abraham Lincoln said. Yet, here we go. First, anyone visiting the White House, a taxpayer-subsidized residence that also serves as the seat of executive power, has no expectation of privacy. Go to meet the president, sign in at the door. Simple as that. Beyond that, there’s a compelling public interest in knowing with whom the president meets, both for the historical record and for the crafting of policy. If Trump hears from a crowd of oil CEOs before opening the oceans to drilling, it’s a safe bet what’s being discussed — and citizens should know it. The White House’s second argument, claiming national security for concealing visitor logs, is similarly bankrupt.
Virginian-Pilot

Here’s one thing I know: When a public official says the equivalent of “Nothing to see here,” I reach for my eyeglasses. I search for the binoculars. To paraphrase a comic book webslinger, my Spidey sense starts tingling. I’m on alert today because of the secretive manner in which Norfolk Circuit Judge Everett Martin and City Attorney Bernard Pishko eased the path for a veteran insider to become city treasurer. Residents knew little of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering before The Pilot’s Eric Hartley wrote about it, partly from emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Transparency should’ve been front and center, especially since the job was vacated by Anthony Burfoot. He’s the disgraced ex-treasurer recently sentenced to six years in federal prison for public corruption and perjury. “Those who see conspiracy theories where none exist will not be satisfied with these reasons,” Martin added. “But so be it.” You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to think something was awry.
Roger Chesley, Virginian-Pilot