Transparency News 6/30/17

Friday, June 30, 2017



State and Local Stories

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Daily Press is not entitled to access a statewide database of routine criminal court information under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The database is maintained by the Supreme Court’s Office of the Executive Secretary and compiled from information from the state’s 118 judicial jurisdictions. To access the information, the court ruled, the Daily Press, other media and the public must request it from each jurisdiction’s clerk of circuit court. The court decided the clerks were the custodians and therefore the point of access to the court records. The ruling upheld a previous decision by a circuit court judge. The Daily Press appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
Daily Press
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
Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said she's disappointed by the ruling but is pleased the court didn't go any further. She noted that the justices declined to address the question of whether the court clerks are exempt from the state's public records law.
U.S. News & World Report
Read the opinion on VCOG's website.
Daily Press v. Office of Executive Secretary

Former Petersburg City Attorney Brian K. Telfair asked a city employee to buy a prepaid cellphone that he later used to make a phone call to himself — a call that Telfair told police was made by an unknown “redneck” caller who made racist threats to the mayor and two other city officials, according to court records. The phony call led to the abrupt cancellation of a Petersburg City Council meeting in February 2016 after city officials received word that residents were upset about high water bills and other financial issues plaguing the city, according to court records related to Telfair’s pending misdemeanor criminal charge of lying to police about the supposed threat to city officials.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Gov. Terry McAuliffe said on Thursday he has “no intention” of cooperating with a request from the Trump administration seeking detailed information about Virginia’s voters. McAuliffe said Virginia and the 49 other states received a “lengthy request” on Thursday from Kris Kobach, vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. McAuliffe said it sought a list of all registered Virginia voters, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, their addresses, dates of birth, political affiliations and voting histories, as well as other “vague inquiries” about Virginia’s election policies and laws.
Richmond Times-Dispatch



National Stories
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The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously sided with open government advocates Thursday in a closely watched case over when meetings should be open to the public. The court ruled that the Appleton school district improperly closed the meeting of a committee charged with reviewing course material. A parent in the district who had wanted to attend the meetings sued and lost in lower courts before the state Supreme Court sided with him. Krueger argued in court filings that governmental bodies could evade the open meetings law by having administrators, rather than the governing boards, create committees. The district argued that when a committee is created by school employees it is not created by "rule or order" of the governing body and therefore not subject to the law. The court disagreed. The committee "met the definition of 'governmental body' under the open meetings law and therefore was subject to its terms," Justice Michael Gableman wrote for the court. Justices Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley concurred, but also cautioned that the open meetings law is not without its limits and should not apply to "every meeting between administrators and employees and others."
Star Tribune

Nearly two months have passed since the state of Michigan received a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the school pension system. Yet the law requires public entities to take no longer than 15 business days to respond to a request. That delay doesn't break the law because there is a loophole with FOIA: The law does not specify when documents responsive to a request must actually be released. Patrick Wright, senior legal analyst for the Mackinac Center, said the case law on FOIA states that the government entity just has to respond.
Michigan Capitol Confidential


Editorials/Columns


July 1 is the date when new laws take effect in Virginia. While many of this year's new laws will affect more people on a more regular basis, none is truly more important than this one, which requires that the records of any completed "unattended death" investigation be released to a parent, spouse or nearest kin of the deceased (unless the relative is somehow suspected in the death). This cuts to the very heart of what we mean by the phrase "freedom of information." If a parent or a spouse can be arbitrarily be denied such intensely personal and relevant material, what does that say about how our state regards any citizen's right to any information? This new law is narrow in its focus. It doesn't fix what's broken in our state FOIA. But it is an important step in the right direction.
Daily Press

There’s been a great deal written about contrasts between the private sector and the public sector. Over time, we’ve written repeatedly in this space about a variety of reasons you can’t really run a state or local agency like you would a business. While we stand by that, it’s equally clear that the lessons men and women learn in the private sector can be applied -- successfully -- to their work in government. One such lesson is the idea that asking questions and challenging the status quo can be a valuable attribute in state and local governments.
Governing