Transparency News 10/18/17
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
State and Local Stories
State and Local Stories
Thank you to our most recent conference sponsor.
- Becky Bowers-Lanier
- Gary Grant
- Anne McCray
The National Freedom of Information Coalition concluded its 2017 FOI Summit in Nashville over the weekend. The annual two-day event features presentations from FOI experts and practitioners on trending FOI and open government issues in public institutions at the state and local levels. Summit attendees include NFOIC’s state coalition directors, journalists, media lawyers and first amendment watchdogs. The Tennessee Coalition of Open Government served as summit co-host. This year’s gathering highlighted key FOI challenges emerging in state and local governments including:
- Growing use of private communication and information sharing devices (personal email, texting, cell phones and web apps) by public officials to conduct government business that circumvent public records laws;
- Reverse FOI lawsuits where third parties intervene or governments sue the requester to block release of public records, forcing requesters to hire attorneys to defend themselves; and
- A troubling development of government entities keeping information in government contracts with business secret, in some cases, even the dollar amount of the contracts.
VCOG’s Megan Rhyne was elected vice president of the NFOIC board.
NFOIC
Dominion Energy is already known as the largest corporate contributor in Virginia politics. But outside of the company's giving, individual executives and employees bundle donations to state lawmakers from their own pockets in an artful display of power.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Capitol Police incurred more than $4,400 in expenses in responding to the Sept. 16 pro-Confederate rally at the Robert E. Lee Monument, the agency confirmed Tuesday. That figure includes $3,828.36 for officer overtime and $650.90 for equipment, said spokesman Joe Macenka.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
National Stories
A North Carolina judge's long-running fight with the police department that detained his adult son could force municipalities to provide more of their internal records to the public. The state Court of Appeals on Wednesday hears from attorneys for Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett of Manteo. He argues he's entitled to see an insurance provider's private review into the workings of the Kill Devil Hills Police Department. Tillett, a trial judge on the Outer Banks since 1993, has had an ongoing dispute with the beach town since its police stopped his son's vehicle for an unspecified reason in 2010. Eleven days later, Tillett called town and police officials to a meeting in his chambers to complain about his son's traffic stop and raise a series of other complaints about alleged police misconduct. The next year, Tillett again pressed police Chief Gary Britt, the assistant town manager and the local district attorney over complaints he said he was hearing. Tillett was reprimanded in 2013 for misuse of power after pressuring the town's police and the local prosecutor in ways that seemed threatening. The Judicial Standards Commission, which hears complaints against judges, found Tillett's conduct threatened the public's confidence in the court's integrity and impartiality. Tillett sued Kill Devil Hills in 2015 after he said local officials failed to turn over public records he sought.
Virginian-Pilot
For several legislative sessions, David Rosenberg, of Norfolk (Massachusetts), a retired MIT computer scientist, has pushed a bill that would revise the open meeting law to allow online deliberation by public bodies. Rosenberg, who has served on local boards in his hometown, has become frustrated with what he perceives as limitations to the open meeting law. He argues that if town boards could conduct at least part of their business online, in a forum that is open to the public, then more business would get done in advance of physical meetings and there would be a better record of deliberations as well. In the past, the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association has opposed the bill because many citizens are either not online or not internet-savvy, and therefore would be disenfranchised. Indeed, there is still widespread lack of broadband access in many rural communities. More recently, however, the publishers association is reconsidering its opposition because the bill may make government more accessible and transparent.
Cape Cod Times
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appears to oppose President Trump's view about what could lead to a broadcaster's license getting revoked. Trump last week threatened NBC and "the Networks" for coverage he described as "Fake News." At a telecommunications conference Tuesday in Washington, DC, Pai said, according to Politico, "I believe in the First Amendment," without mentioning Trump or NBC. "The FCC under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment," Pai continued, "and under the law the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on content of a particular newscast."
CNET News
Declassified files have revealed new details of U.S. government knowledge and support of an Indonesian army extermination campaign that killed several hundred thousand civilians during anti-communist hysteria in the mid-1960s. The thousands of files from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta covering 1963-66 were made public Tuesday after a declassification review that began under the Obama administration. The Associated Press reviewed key documents in the collection in advance of their release.
McClatchy
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed legislation aiming to prevent police misconduct from being kept secret when officers leave for a job at another department. The law signed Tuesday takes effect in 90 days. It will require law enforcement agencies to keep records about the circumstances surrounding any officer’s employment separation. The officer will have to sign a waiver allowing a prospective employer to ask for the records, and the department will be unable to hire the officer unless it receives the documents.
Detroit Free-Press
The Central Intelligence Agency thought for months that it had mistakenly shredded a massive U.S. Senate report on its use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" before suddenly discovering that its copy had not been lost after all, an agency official said on Tuesday.
US News & World Report
NFOIC
Dominion Energy is already known as the largest corporate contributor in Virginia politics. But outside of the company's giving, individual executives and employees bundle donations to state lawmakers from their own pockets in an artful display of power.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Capitol Police incurred more than $4,400 in expenses in responding to the Sept. 16 pro-Confederate rally at the Robert E. Lee Monument, the agency confirmed Tuesday. That figure includes $3,828.36 for officer overtime and $650.90 for equipment, said spokesman Joe Macenka.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
National Stories
A North Carolina judge's long-running fight with the police department that detained his adult son could force municipalities to provide more of their internal records to the public. The state Court of Appeals on Wednesday hears from attorneys for Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett of Manteo. He argues he's entitled to see an insurance provider's private review into the workings of the Kill Devil Hills Police Department. Tillett, a trial judge on the Outer Banks since 1993, has had an ongoing dispute with the beach town since its police stopped his son's vehicle for an unspecified reason in 2010. Eleven days later, Tillett called town and police officials to a meeting in his chambers to complain about his son's traffic stop and raise a series of other complaints about alleged police misconduct. The next year, Tillett again pressed police Chief Gary Britt, the assistant town manager and the local district attorney over complaints he said he was hearing. Tillett was reprimanded in 2013 for misuse of power after pressuring the town's police and the local prosecutor in ways that seemed threatening. The Judicial Standards Commission, which hears complaints against judges, found Tillett's conduct threatened the public's confidence in the court's integrity and impartiality. Tillett sued Kill Devil Hills in 2015 after he said local officials failed to turn over public records he sought.
Virginian-Pilot
For several legislative sessions, David Rosenberg, of Norfolk (Massachusetts), a retired MIT computer scientist, has pushed a bill that would revise the open meeting law to allow online deliberation by public bodies. Rosenberg, who has served on local boards in his hometown, has become frustrated with what he perceives as limitations to the open meeting law. He argues that if town boards could conduct at least part of their business online, in a forum that is open to the public, then more business would get done in advance of physical meetings and there would be a better record of deliberations as well. In the past, the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association has opposed the bill because many citizens are either not online or not internet-savvy, and therefore would be disenfranchised. Indeed, there is still widespread lack of broadband access in many rural communities. More recently, however, the publishers association is reconsidering its opposition because the bill may make government more accessible and transparent.
Cape Cod Times
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appears to oppose President Trump's view about what could lead to a broadcaster's license getting revoked. Trump last week threatened NBC and "the Networks" for coverage he described as "Fake News." At a telecommunications conference Tuesday in Washington, DC, Pai said, according to Politico, "I believe in the First Amendment," without mentioning Trump or NBC. "The FCC under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment," Pai continued, "and under the law the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on content of a particular newscast."
CNET News
Declassified files have revealed new details of U.S. government knowledge and support of an Indonesian army extermination campaign that killed several hundred thousand civilians during anti-communist hysteria in the mid-1960s. The thousands of files from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta covering 1963-66 were made public Tuesday after a declassification review that began under the Obama administration. The Associated Press reviewed key documents in the collection in advance of their release.
McClatchy
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed legislation aiming to prevent police misconduct from being kept secret when officers leave for a job at another department. The law signed Tuesday takes effect in 90 days. It will require law enforcement agencies to keep records about the circumstances surrounding any officer’s employment separation. The officer will have to sign a waiver allowing a prospective employer to ask for the records, and the department will be unable to hire the officer unless it receives the documents.
Detroit Free-Press
The Central Intelligence Agency thought for months that it had mistakenly shredded a massive U.S. Senate report on its use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" before suddenly discovering that its copy had not been lost after all, an agency official said on Tuesday.
US News & World Report
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