Transparency News 1/28/20
Tuesday
January 28, 2020
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
Contact us at vcog@opengovva.org
General Assembly update
FOLLOW THE BILLS WE FOLLOW WITH VCOG'S
BILL TRACKING CHART
Yesterday was rough. And it was long. Shuttling back and forth between the General Assembly member offices and the Capitol to talk to legislators and aides, watch meetings and testify on bills, I logged 5.25 miles on my Apple Watch. There was also much waiting and downtime because the House and Senate floor sessions went longer than usual, meaning afternoon committee meetings got pushed back to late in the afternoon. Just to alleviate boredom at one point, I bought a bag full of candy bars to dole out to fellow-suffering lobbyists, advocates and state employees (I opted for a Baby Ruth).
The day started with an 8 a.m. subcommittee meeting where HB321 from Del. Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) was heard. It's a bill that expands the instances where individual members of a public body can call into a meeting instead of being present. The bill not only increases the number of times a member can use it for a "personal matter," it also added a new category for "serious medical condition of an immediate family member that prevents the member's physical attendance" that has no limit on the number of times it can be used.
Instead of going to the Open Government subcommittee of House General Laws that hears virtually all other FOIA-related bills, this bill was heard by a subcommittee of the newly constituted Communications, Technology and Innovation Committee.
I opposed the bill on VCOG's behalf in part because all other expansions to the electronic meetings sections of FOIA have gone through review by the FOIA Council. The Council has had a subcommittee for more than a decade where real compromises have been hammered out in meetings bringing together many opinions and ideas. That's where a discussion about whether a serious medical condition of a family member is already covered by "personal matter," and if so, whether the number of times a "personal matter" call-in can be used should be increased.
My arguments fell on deaf ears. The subcommittee voted 9-1 to move it on to the full committee.
We fared only slightly better in the House Court of Justice subcommittee on civil laws. There, Del. Mike Mullin (D-Newport News -- he is VCOG's delegate) and Del. Jason Miyares (R-Virginia Beach) pursued their bills -- developed with VCOG -- to require the Office of Executive Secretary (the administrative arm of the court system) to respond to requests for its governmental administration records through FOIA (Miyares rolled his bill into Mullin's).
The OES, of course, vigorously opposed the bill, but so did Del. Rip Sullivan (D-Arlington), who cross-examined me on a number of points. He made a motion to table the bill, which was joined by Del. Steve Heretick (D-Portsmouth) and Del. Jay Leftwich (R-Chesapeake). Opposing the motion were Miyares, subcommittee chair Del. Jeff Bourne (D-Richmond), and Del. Terry Kilgore (R-Gate City). Two subcommittee members (Delegates Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church) and Patrick Hope (D-Arlington)) were absent. A tie vote means the motion failed, but if the motion were reversed to advance the bill, that too would have failed on a 3-3 tie. Instead, Del. Kilgore quickly moved to pass the bill by for the day, meaning it will come back to the subcommittee in the next few days.
In that time, perhaps some language can be worked out to change the minds of delegates who oppose the bill. Also, in the meantime, it would be helpful if ANYONE HAS EXAMPLES OF ASKING FOR RECORDS FROM THE OES SINCE ITS RULES WENT INTO EFFECT IN JUNE 2019. THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE "BAD" OR "GOOD" EXAMPLES, JUST EXAMPLES OF THE PROCESS AT WORK.
Message me at mrhyne@opengovva.org
-- Megan Rhyne
