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Friday
February 2, 2018
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state & local news stories
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Shenandoah County leaders voiced opposition Thursday to a bill under consideration in the Virginia General Assembly aimed at making government spending more transparent. The Board of Supervisors voted 5-1 at its meeting Thursday to approve a motion adopting a resolution in opposition to Senate Bill 751. The legislation, if enacted by the General Assembly and made into law, would require localities with a population greater than 25,000 and school divisions with more than 5,000 students to post on their respective websites a register of funds expended each quarter. The legislation would require the register to include the vendor name, date of payment, amount and a description of the type of expense including credit card purchases with the same information. County Administrator Mary T. Price said the locality already complies with the Freedom of Information Act when it receives a request for this data. Price noted that a private company regularly requests this information from the county. However, the legislation, if made into law, would put an undue burden on county staff. The county likely would need to create a document each quarter, Price added.
Northern Virginia Daily
Note: Read the estimates some cities say it will cost to comply with the legislation, if passed
After years of residents asking for it, James City County is set to make it easier for people to follow the money. The county is creating an “online checkbook” for residents to follow county expenditures, according to Assistant County Manager Jason Purse. County residents have advocated for the move to more clearly open the books for years. It was a fight spearheaded by county resident Barbara Henry since Oct. 13, 2015.
WY Daily
For years, national Christian conservative activists have argued that churches or other houses of worship should be allowed to endorse or donate money to candidates running for elected office. Such support is prohibited if a religious organization wants to keep its tax-exempt status. A church opposed to abortion rights, for example, cannot donate to a candidate that backs their point of view. But in Virginia, dozens of churches have been donating cash to campaigns for several years – and often to liberal Democrats, according to an analysis of campaign reports compiled by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Most of those donations are to one candidate in Hampton Roads, state Sen. Lionell Spruill Sr., a Chesapeake Democrat. Spruill received almost two-thirds of the $31,500 that churches have given to Virginia candidates in the past two decades. Spruill acknowledged the money was paid but argues the checks weren't campaign contributions. The churches were buying tickets for their members at a reduced price to his annual campaign fundraising dinner, he said.
The Virginian-Pilot
The Town of Purcellville has spent more than $170,000 related to the ongoing investigations into the police chief, town management and an audit of the original investigation into the police chief, according to an accounting statement released by the town. More than $95,000 of those public dollars have gone as payment to employees who are currently on leave, including the Chief of Police Cynthia McAlister, Interim Town Manager Alex Vanegas, Town Attorney Sally Hankins, Human Resources Specialist Sharon Rauch and an unnamed police officer.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
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national stories of interest
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Newly released emails show Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt personally monitored efforts last year to excise much of the information about climate change from the agency's website, especially President Obama's signature effort to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. The internal EPA messages from April 2017 were released earlier this week following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund. They show then-newly arrived political appointees in the agency's press office directing career staffers to make a list of changes to epa.gov. The emails show Pruitt wanted the updates to appear as soon as possible and had specific changes he wanted made.
The Virginian-Pilot
Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said Wednesday he would not turn over any data requested by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the wake of the gerrymandering ruling that Republicans have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review. Last week, the state high court ruled that Pennsylvania's congressional map was the product of unconstitutional gerrymandering and ordered the General Assembly to submit files "that contain the current boundaries of all Pennsylvania municipalities and precincts" by noon Wednesday. In a letter to the court, lawyers for Scarnati, a Jefferson Republican, said he would not do so, repeating an argument they have made in the petition to the U.S. Supreme Court: The state court is overstepping its authority.
Governing
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday overturned a ruling ordering the FBI to release thousands of files on its surveillance of Muslim communitiesin the United States. The dispute over requested records will go back to district court where a federal judge must reassess whether the FBI can continue withholding nearly 50,000 pages of files under a public records law exemption. The American Civil Liberties Union, Asian Law Caucus, and San Francisco Bay Guardian, a former independent weekly paper, sued the FBI to pry loose the Muslim spying files in 2010. After a protracted legal battle, the FBI turned over some 50,000 pages of documents but continued to hold an additional 47,800, claiming they were exempt from disclosure under Exemption 7 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Courthouse News Service
D.C. will not reappoint open government watchdog who ruled against city // Ethics official most recently found problems with board of District’s troubled public hospital
Washington Post
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 "Emails show then-newly arrived political appointees in the agency's press office directing career staffers to make a list of changes to epa.gov"
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editorials & columns
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 You can watch video of the presentation of SB727 in committee, including VCOG's testimony against it, by going to the Senate's archived video page.
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AMONG THE many legislative proposals that would inflict serious harm to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, there may be none more infuriating than one put forth by state Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Montross. He is responsible for Senate Bill 727, a measure that would exempt the state judiciary from the requirements of FOIA. And as vice chairman of the state Freedom of Information Advisory Council, he should know better. Speaking about the bill on Wednesday to the Senate Courts of Justice Committee, of which he is a member, Stuart argued that his legislation would clarify that the FOIA does not apply to the courts. That’s already the de facto position of the judiciary. Speaking in support was Kristi Wright, the director of the Department of Legislative and Public Relations for the Supreme Court of Virginia Office of the Executive Secretary. The OES is the administrative arm of the court system. Wright helps coordinate the judicial branch’s legislative proposals, among other things. She told the committee that every chief justice in Virginia since FOIA was enacted has taken the position that it does not apply to the judiciary, and she echoed Stuart’s position that his bill would simply clarify that for the public. Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, seemed skeptical of that position, probing as to the problem Stuart’s legislation aimed to correct. It’s a question the public should be asking as well, especially at a time when Virginia would be served by greater transparency in government, not less.
The Virginian-Pilot
Note: You can watch video of the presentation of SB727 in committee, including VCOG's testimony against it, by going to the Senate's archived video page, clicking on Courts of Justice for Jan. 31 under the archived videos, and going to the 1:40:40 mark in the video.
State Sen. Amanda Chase is right. And you don’t have to oppose the plans for an industrial mega-site in Chesterfield to think so. Nor is it necessary to think the county’s economic development authority has done anything untoward with regard to the site. All that’s necessary is to share her concern that such authorities — EDAs — lack sufficient accountability. And that is easy to do. In Richmond, the city’s EDA has taken a high-handed approach to public scrutiny. Its members have refused to talk to reporters, refused to release information about the bids for the construction of the Stone Brewing project, and are generally chary about disclosing what the EDA is up to. Not all EDAs are so secretive, but all of them could be if they wished, because they are exempt from the state’s Public Procurement Act. That might make negotiating deals easier. It also makes avoiding public accountability easier.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), enacted in 1967, provides the public, individuals, and corporations, the presumptive right to access and obtain records from any federal government body unless such records meet one of the nine exemptions or is protected under special law enforcement record exclusion. On April 27, 2017, the House unanimously passed H.R. 1694, the Fannie and Freddie Open Records Act of 2017. H.R. 1694 would make the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) subject to FOIA. Currently, these two agencies are not classified as federal agencies and as such, they are not required to release records to the public although they are government sponsored and under the conservatorship or receivership of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exert extraordinary influence over the lending market for housing and student loans. They enjoy special status and are backed by the federal government. Yet, despite their favored position, they are not subject to the same oversight as other federal agencies.
San Diego Free Press
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