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Wednesday
February 7, 2018
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state & local news stories
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Yesterday, at the General Assembly, the Senate Local Government Committee advanced a bill that would require local governing bodies and school boards to post check registry information to their websites on a quarterly basis. The bill has exceptions for divisions under a certain size, allows for removal of data that could be exempt under FOIA and does not dictate the manner in which the information is presented. Three senators voted against the bill, siding with local government reps who called it an unfunded mandate and school board reps who said it would take resources away from the classroom.
SB751 is being patroned by Sen. Glen Sturtevant.
Del. Roxann Robinson asked the House General Laws FOIA subcommittee to send her bill (HB1101) to require public comment periods during most open meetings to the FOIA Council for further study. Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Peake's bill (SB336) on the same topic passed the Senate on a 38-2 vote.
SB727, which would exempt the judiciary from FOIA, was on the calendar for a vote on the Senate floor yesterday but was passed by and is now on today's calendar. THERE'S STILL TIME TO CALL YOUR SENATOR TO URGE HER/HIM TO VOTE NO.
(See related editorial below.)
The 1902 poll books from Prince William County's Brentsville District – some labeled "Colored" and others labeled "White" – came away with a $2,000 prize as part of the Virginia Association of Museum's contest of Top 10 Endangered Artifacts for 2017. The public was asked to vote online for the favorite artifact. The poll books came in fourth in the competition, and the money received will go toward restoring the books, according to a county news release.
InsideNoVa
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national stories of interest
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Despite previous statements from Nashville Mayor Megan Barry about needing to travel with a police officer for safety, records released Monday show the mayor routinely went on trips without securityfrom her inauguration in September 2015 to June 2016. Last week, Barry acknowledged the affair with Sgt. Rob Forrest, a police officer and head of her security detail. She said the affair began in the spring of 2016 and the affair is over, although she would not say when it ended.
USA Today
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 Public records contradict mayor's statement.
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editorials & columns
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 NOTE: The editorial says Stuart's bill has passed the Senate already. It has not. It's up for a vote today.
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An analogy: Right now we have a system that is akin to having all the scores for the history of baseball in a single database, but we can only look them up one at-bat at a time — we can’t easily figure out who won the game, or who’s in first place, much less who won the World Series. This not only makes public scrutiny difficult, it’s also just plain antiquated. Here’s an example of how antiquated it is: Even the federal government has a more technologically up-to-date system. Two legislators arrived in Richmond this General Assembly with a proposed fix. Del. Greg Habeeb, R-Salem, and state Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham County, working in conjunction with the Supreme Court’s administrative arm, introduced legislation that would accomplish two things. Coming down the pike from the opposite direction, though, is a bill by state Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Stafford County. It would exempt the entire judicial system from the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Stuart says this bill would not affect public access to court records themselves — but it certainly would mean the public couldn’t cite FOIA to gain access to them, if denied.
The Roanoke Times
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