Transparency News, 5/19/2022

Thursday
May 19, 2022

There was no issue of the newsletter yesterday, May 18.

state & local news stories

A Richmond woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Richmond to defrauding Virginia and the U.S. out of more than $1.1 million in COVID-19 relief funds by submitting bogus applications using the identities of state prison inmates and acquiring the personal identification information of unsuspecting Virginians from a government database.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Someone wants to build a five-story, 650,000-square-foot distribution center in Virginia Beach — and while officials haven’t named the end user yet, several clues point to online retail giant Amazon as the potential company. The Virginia Beach Planning Commission approved the new use of a 160-acre property at the intersection of Dam Neck and Harpers roads at its May 11 meeting. The proposed building, which would be used for storage, packaging and distribution, would include 55 loading docks, 420 tractor trailer parking spaces and 1,750 regular parking spaces, according to planning commission documents. The documents say the project would also support more than 1,000 employees. At the meeting, commission members and other officials avoided naming the company behind the project. However, Virginia Beach attorney Eddie Bourdon, speaking for client and contractor Panattoni Development Company, called the proposed building a “state-of-the-art e-commerce robotics fulfillment center” which would support good and excellent paying jobs. In an email, Amazon spokesperson Emily Hawkins declined to say whether Amazon was behind the development. During the meeting, Virginia Beach Economic Development Director Taylor Adams said some public investment would be required to secure the prospect, referencing the road.
The Virginian-Pilot

Winchester City Council is investigating an alleged violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act in the Winchester Commissioner of the Revenue's Office. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets rules for wages, overtime pay and practices in the workplace. An employer who violates the regulations would be required to reimburse the wages of any worker who was not properly paid and could be fined $1,000 per incident. Willful violations of the act could also lead to the employer being criminally prosecuted. When asked about the allegations on Tuesday afternoon, Burkholder said, "I am completely unaware of any violation. I value my team highly and I have always worked with my people very closely. If someone had a concern and didn't share that with me, then I would have been unable to address it." Mayor and council President David Smith said on Tuesday he could not elaborate on the nature of the allegations or the specifics of the investigation because personnel matters are confidential. "I wish I could," Smith said. "We try our best to be as transparent, open and honest as we possibly can." City Council has not disclosed the name of the accuser or the time period in which the alleged violation occurred, but Tuesday's statement said the incident involved a person who no longer works in the Commissioner of the Revenue's Office.
The Winchester Star

Albemarle County boards, authority and commissions that are still meeting virtually will not go back to in-person meetings until September as COVID-19 cases are expected to climb. Albemarle’s Board of Supervisors, Planning Commission and School Board resumed in-person meetings in April, but with COVID-19 cases increasing, county staff has recommended that all other appointed bodies not come back in-person until the late summer. On Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors supported the recommendation. County spokesperson Emily Kilroy said Albemarle staff has been looking at the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute’s COVID-19 models, which are forecasting a significant surge of cases in the coming weeks. A bill in the General Assembly that would allow boards, commissions and committees to meet all virtually a limited number of times per year was signed into law, but was changed to exclude all-virtual meetings of local governing bodies, local school boards, planning commissions, architectural review boards and zoning appeals boards, Herrick said. “So despite our hope that pandemic might allow for greater enabling authority for all virtual meetings, the General Assembly giveth and the General Assembly taketh away. There is additional authority, but not much of it can be enjoyed by local governing bodies,” Herrick said.
The Daily Progress

Fairfax County Public Schools is establishing clearer ground rules for its employees’ use of social media. Under a proposed new policy, FCPS workers will be prohibited from expressing their personal beliefs, disparaging other community members, and other actions on accounts affiliated with the school system. A draft of the policy was discussed Tuesday by the Fairfax County School Board’s governance committee. Lloyd emphasized that the policy won’t limit what employees can say or do on their personal accounts, though it states that staff should include a disclaimer in their bio that the views expressed are their own, not those of their employer.
FFXnow

They were once Republican allies, but an apparent fallout between Chris Page and School Board member Bill Outlaw reached a new level at Thursday night’s School Board meeting. Outlaw, who served in combat in Vietnam and the Middle East, wasn’t present to defend himself from Page’s allegations that Outlaw may have carried a handgun on school property — and perhaps on more than one occasion. Page said that he attempted last August to move Electoral Board meetings from the Registrar’s Office — located at the former Burkeville Elementary School — to the Courthouse, which is centrally-located and where meetings can be recorded and posted online. “He told me he didn’t want to move the meetings there because you cannot carry your weapon there. And I replied, ‘Bill, these meetings need to be properly recorded, and you can’t carry a weapon here, either. This is a school.’ “Mr. Outlaw’s response: ‘I don’t see any children here.’” Page asserted, “This conversation strongly implied that Mr. Outlaw carries his weapons at these meetings.”
Courier-Record

The appointment of Jim Scearce to the Pittsylvania County Department of Social Services Board was approved 4-3 after a testy exchange between Board of Supervisors member Ron Scearce (Jim Scearce's brother) and Chairman Vic Ingram. Ingram said Jim Scearce has come to board for the past several months, attacking the Board and him personally. Ingram said Jim Scearce has made outbursts on two occasions and once had to be removed. Scearce was removed from the April meeting when he spoke out of turn after Ingram announced he was appointing himself as Board liaison to the DSS Board. Jim Scearce has been a frequent speaker during Supervisors’ meetings since January, mostly criticizing the Board for firing former County Administrator David Smitherman.  Ingram said Jim Scearce was “confrontational,” and confronted him and his wife at a God’s Pit Crew banquet. Ron Scearce said all he cares about is accountability and transparency and that he’s putting his brother on the DSS Board to “make sure someone is watching you,” and referring to Ingram.
Star-Tribune
 

stories of national interest

Laurie Madigen’s child is about to graduate from Rochester Adams High School [Rochester Hills, Michigan]. During this pandemic, she feels her daughter’s fallen behind in learning because of remote learning. She's part of a group of parents online — in a Facebook group — voicing their frustrations about remote learning in the Rochester Community Schools District. A lawsuit brought by a parent who criticized the district in 2021 claims she lost her job after the district contacted her employer. As a result, parents in the Facebook group filed public records request of their own. They asked the district to release information the district may have collected on them individually. “My invoice was $173,000," Madigen said. One parent shared an invoice for $18 million. In a statement, the district told 7 Action News: Examples of requests that may cause such unreasonably high costs include, but are not limited to: voluminous requests; requests that require time consuming searches, significant separation or redaction of exempt documents or information, significant IT (information technology) personnel time, etc.
WXYZ