Amid allegations made by faculty and staff that the heads of the University of Virginia hospital and medical school had allowed a "culture of fear and retaliation" to reign, possibly endangering patients, the university hired William & Connolly, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm to "conduct an independent review of the complaints and allegations raised by members of the UVa Medical School faculty." If the phrase "independent review" sounds familiar, it's because the Board of Visitors used a similar phrase ("external review") when it authorized engaging a different law firm to look into the circumstances leading up to and following the shooting deaths of three university football players. If you recall, the public was told they would get to see the results of that investigation, but then the university balked, the local newspaper sued, and the Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney intervened to insist that he had a right to keep the report under wraps.

We won't have to go into all that this time around, though, because the university came right out to nip any hope of finding out what's going on: “The report will be delivered only to President Ryan and the Board,” said the school's spokesman. It won't be given to the public. Case closed, right?

Not quite. The report will be a public record and if someone asks for it in a FOIA request, the university will have to cite an exemption that would allow it to withhold the entire thing instead of disclosing it in full or as redacted. If the past is any indicator, that most likely means the attorney communication exemption or the one for personnel. But whatever exemption is chosen, it *is* a choice. Those exemptions are discretionary, not mandatory.

Stay tuned.

A judge in Chesterfield issued what is now the second court ruling that allows law enforcement offices to redact the names of police officers from a salary database because one day they might be used in undercover operations. A similar ruling in favor of the Hanover County Sheriff's Office is currently being appealed to the Virginia Court of Appeals. VCOG has filed an amicus brief in that case arguing that the personnel exemption's mandatory statement that salary be released by name controls over the discretionary exemption for undercover operations.

The FOIA Council issued an opinion on Sept. 6 on a related issue, saying that current law does not require police departments to release the bonus or overtime pay an officer receives. "Nevertheless," the council added, "This office generally recommends releasing all information on overtime pay, bonuses, or other compensation." The council also noted that releasing the information seems to fit within the holding of the Supreme Court's 2022 opinion Hawkins v. Town of South Hill, where it said personnel information should be released if it doesn't constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy

Meanwhile, the Invisible Institute filed suit against the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services over that agency's refusal to divulge the names of police officers who have been decertified. The Invisible Institute is being represented by attorneys for the University of Virginia's First Amendment Law Clinic.

The Division of Legislative Automated Services launched a revised version of its longtime legislative information system (LIS), which is where Virginians can search for and track legislative proposals for every General Assembly session since 1994. Many people were unaware that a redesign was underway until a message began appearing on the previous site announcing that a change was coming Sept. 26. The new system is supposed to work better on mobile devices and some open source developers have complimented the back-end Application Programming Interface (API) upgrades. The new look covers only the upcoming 2025 session. Past sessions still live on the "legacy" LIS. It will take some getting used to, so give yourself plenty of time to give the new system a whirl.

At a court hearing in early September, the Commonwealth's attorney for Portsmouth argued that just because the office ignored a FOIA request for five months didn't mean that it couldn't later invoke FOIA exemptions to avoid disclosing the requested records. According to The Virginian-Pilot write-up of the hearing, the circuit court judge "voiced skepticism that a government agency should be the unilateral arbiter that a document should be withheld."

Through emails obtained through a FOIA request, WTVR confirmed that the Prince George County School Board was aware of child sex abuse allegations against the former assistant superintendent before his retirement. 

A Rockingham County circuit court judge rejected a defense motion to bar photographers from the courtroom during the trial of the so-called "Shopping Cart Killer." The defendant's lawyer said the click of a photo being snapped and/or what the photographer was focused on would signify to the jury what was important. The judge, however, barred the media from taking video of the proceedings.

After WRIC revealed that the Richmond inspector general's office had not posted any reports online for nearly five years, the office responded by publishing 17 reports. These reports included cases of city employees working second jobs during their city employment, a manager involved in a personal relationship with an employee and giving them preferential treatment, and incidents of embezzlement.

Two Surry County supervisors said in July that because of threatening emails and social media posts, an amendment to the county's gun ordinance was needed to allow them to carry firearms to board meetings. In September, in response to a FOIA request from The Smithfield Times, the county said it had no records of communications between the supervisors and county staff or the sheriff's office that referenced threats.

In Spotsylvania County, where there's never a dull moment in meetings of the school board, one member, one member accused five other members and the district superintendent of lying to protect the administration's handling of an investigation into an alleged assault by a teacher on a kindergartener with a shoe. Later in the month, the superintendent brought in an expert on parliamentary procedures to give a presentation on board governance.

The Winchester City Council began reviewing new rules for its public comment period after recent meetings were dominated by protesters demanding the council adopt a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire to the war in Gaza. When the council refused to adopt a resolution on an issue over which it had no control, the protesters used the public comment period to "shame and cast aspersions" at council members, according to The Winchester Star.

On the first day of the first trial related to the death of a man in a mental health crisis at Central State Hospital, the judge attempted to bar reporters from the courtroom during jury selection.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Richmond City Council held a closed session on Sept. 16 and reportedly voted to fire the council's chief of staff. However, the council did not hold a public vote as required by FOIA. Sources later confirmed the firing to the reporter, but by the end of the month, the council had still not provided any official explanation regarding the chief of staff's departure.

An audit of Richmond's finance department that WTVR obtained through FOIA showed several customer service deficiencies. The finance director first contacted the auditor in January  and contracted with her in March, but in July, when WTVR asked for the auditor's initial recommendations, the city said there were no responsive records at that time.

The Roanoke City Council voted to end exclusive single-family zoning. Again. The council took a similar action in March but homeowners sued the city, saying there was not proper public notice about the measure. The council decided it would be easier to vote again instead of fighting the first vote in court.

The Frederick County School Board wrestled with public feedback during September. At the beginning of the month, the board voted to table a proposal that would prohibit signs, posters, placards or banners from the board's meeting room. The policy would have barred personal attacks against identifiable individuals, too, perhaps to include the shirt worn by an attendee that called the board chair a "fat [expletive]." By the end of the month, the ban on signs and such was back up for discussion, but the part on personal attacks was not. Instead, it said audience members and speakers should show courtesy and model respectful participation for students. Meanwhile, the school division changed the settings of its social media pages to disallow public comment on school posts.

According to a Virginia Department of Health audit, the Office of Emergency Medical Services suffered from four years of fraud, financial mismanagement and poor oversight, which led the office to neglect making $33 million in payouts to local rescue squads. The office's former associate director has pleaded guilty to embezzling $4 million, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The audit found that the office spent nearly $10,000 on a telepresence robot for virtual meetings, $51,000 on two vehicles to shuttle attendees at a once-a-year educational symposium and $9,000 worth of alcohol for the symposium.

The Danville Utility Commission implemented new rules for public comment, including giving the chair or vice chair the authority to restrict the number of speakers. The policy says there will be no question-and-answer period where commissioners might get into a discussion.

A Charlotte County supervisor entered an Alford plea in the case where he was accused of perjury and both misdemeanor and felony charges related to omissions on his statement of economic interest that most elected officials are supposed to file. The supervisor agreed to step down from his position within six months and he is barred from holding public office for the five years of his suspended jail sentence.
 

The Task Force on Transparency in Publicly Funded Animal Testing Facilities will hold its fourth meeting, an all-virtual session, on Oct. 11. VCOG's Megan Rhyne is a member, and the group is examining what information public universities should disclose about animals used in research. At least one of the four legislative members will likely carry related legislation in 2025.

The fifth meeting of the FOIA Council's "SB324 Work Group" to study FOIA charges will be held Oct. 21. The group has endorsed a best-practices document (largely written by VCOG) for making FOIA requests and is still wrangling over possible hourly rate caps for filling requests and whether there should be exemptions to that rate. Sen. Danica Roem will carry related legislation in 2025.

VCOG's Megan Rhyne will deliver FOIA presentations for the Virginia Association of Community Service Boards (Oct. 3), the Northwestern Community Services Board (Oct. 5), and the Virginia Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (Oct. 24). And on Oct. 30, she'll start her 3-day "Citizen Watchdogs" class at the University of Richmond's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (Oct. 30).

P.O. Box 2576
Williamsburg VA  23187
540-353-8264
vcog@opengovva.org