|
A Richmond judge this week sided against Mayor Levar Stoney for a second time in the mayor’s effort to withhold documents related to a proposal that would use property tax revenue to pay for downtown development that includes replacing the Richmond Coliseum. Paul Goldman, a lawyer and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said he now has the records he wanted from Freedom of Information Act requests he made to the city in May. Richmond Circuit Judge Melvin Hughes on May 29 ordered Stoney to turn over the records; in June, Stoney filed court papers challenging the ruling and asking the judge to reconsider so the city could file an appeal with the Supreme Court of Virginia. Melvin signed an order Thursday denying Stoney’s request. Asked by email Friday if the mayor wishes he’d simply turned over the records to Goldman, Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan said the mayor had no regrets.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
It is not all that unusual for a city, town or county to receive a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from one of its elected officials, according to an expert. Alan Gernhardt, executive director of the Virginia Freedom of Information Council, declined to give an opinion about Berryville Mayor Patricia Dickinson’s recent submission of a formal FOIA request to Town Manager Keith Dalton because he did not know all of the details pertaining to it. But “it doesn’t surprise me at all” that she submitted one, Gernhardt said. There is no reason why an elected official or government employee cannot use FOIA to get information they consider important, according to Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. “Elected officials have no more — but no fewer, either — rights under FOIA” than a regular citizen or member of the news media, Rhyne wrote in a blog on the coalition’s website after reading The Winchester Star’s coverage of Dickinson’s request online.
The Winchester Star
A Berryville resident says he plans to sue Mayor Patricia Dickinson, claiming she violated his free speech rights by hiding comments he made to her Facebook page and banning him from it. At issue are comments that Brian McClemens posted in opposition to the McDonald’s fast-food restaurant that recently opened on North Buckmarsh Street in Berryville. McClemens added that he is willing to drop the suit if Dickinson resigns. That is what he intends for the suit’s outcome to be, he said.
The Winchester Star
|