VCOG was especially pleased with two resolutions introduced this session (really, three resolutions, but two on the same topic). VCOG stopped by each sponsor’s office to offer its thanks.
One resolution, sponsored by Harvey Morgan (R-Gloucester) in the House and Ralph Northam (D-Norfolk) in the Senate, celebrates the life of the former House Speaker John Warren Cooke. The resolution noted, among other things, Cooke’s co-sponsorship of what became Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act in 1968. As editor and publisher of the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal, Cooke was a consistent member of VCOG, and his daughter, Elsa Cooke Verbyla, carries on this tradition today.
Another resolution, co-sponsored in the House by Terry Kilgore (R-Gate City) and Bud Phillips (D-Castlewood), recognizes the technological innovations being used by the Wise County Clerk of Court (former VCOG board member Jack Kennedy) and the City of Norton. VCOG was mentioned in the resolution for having publicly lauded the services Kennedy used and improved upon to make the records and proceedings of the court system as open and accessible to the public as possible.
VCOG was recognized by House and Senate resolutions in 2006 on the occasion of the organization’s 10th anniversary.
Hear hear!