Richmond Public Schools cited the personnel exemption to justify redacting large portions of an internal report about mismanagement of the facilities department, particularly the former department director. Whole pages were redacted, including some key findings and recommendations, even though FOIA’s personnel exemption (nor any other exemption, for that matter) was never intended to cover up wrongdoing.
A federal district judge denied the Virginia Supreme Court’s Office of Executive Secretary’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Courthouse News and Lee Enterprises that challenges court policy prohibiting lawyers who obtain records through the court’s electronic filing system from sharing them with the news outlet. The judge said the plaintiffs made a plausible argument that the restriction amounts to a prior restraint on speech that violates the First Amendment.
Richmond officials continue to assert that it will take massive amounts of time to review and redact sensitive or confidential information from entries posted to an online registry of city spending that a 2015 city ordinance requires them to do. Though they do plan to start posting information again (after the city stopped doing it in 2019), the information posted would show how much money the city spends with each vendor providing goods and services and list reimbursements to city employees for work expenses, but it would not include payments to individuals, nor would it include the dates or invoice descriptions for any payments. City Councilor Kenya Gibson introduced a proposal to investigate why the city stopped complying with the ordinance, but when she tried to discuss the proposal at a May 20 Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting, the committee chair, Councilor Ellen Robertson, cut her off saying, “We’re not going to entertain that today in this committee.” She said discussions should continue until a future meeting. Councilor Reva Trammel was quoted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch as saying that shunting questions council members have to behind-the-scenes discussions with staff and the mayor’s office has a chilling effect and denies the public information they are entitled to. Meanwhile, The Richmonder reported that the auditor’s office relied on an old version of the payment registry to identify a $5 million wire transfer that was processed twice.
The Greene County Sheriff’s Office refused to release records under FOIA about the 26 Latino men taken into custody in a single day by officers from the sheriff’s office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations. In response to a FOIA request for the records, the sheriff told The Daily Progress, “We just assisted [ICE and DHS]; we didn’t arrest anybody. It was their operation, so they advised me to redact all the names.”
The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services released almost 100,000 police records in a settlement for a public records lawsuit brought by the Invisible Institute. The DCJS refused to release officer names or identifying data, claiming that it would endanger officers should they later become undercover agents, but the Court of Appeals reached a different conclusion under similar circumstances in the Minium v. Hines case, which the Supreme Court declined to second-guess.
On May 19, a judge heard arguments for sanctions against Chesterfield County relating to an ongoing FOIA lawsuit from 2022, where attorneys for a Chesterfield resident claim the county destroyed materials that make up much of the resident’s records request, which the county said would cost her $24,000 to obtain. The attorneys claim that the county continued to litigate despite knowing the records were destroyed. The judge will rule on the motion at a later date.
Hopewell’s Mayor twice ejected residents from public meetings twice. A former council member was removed after she called out from the audience that the mayor lacked the power to question the CFO about mismanagement. In a second meeting, the mayor removed a resident over comments that he perceived to be “threats.” The mayor reminded the audience they only receive one warning before removal, prompting another resident to walk out.
A member of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors voluntarily withdrew his civil suit against three other board members for holding what he said was an unlawful closed session. The parties came to an agreement during a court recess, after a judge dismissed five of the six charges and overruled the defendants’ motion to dismiss the remaining charge.
A Circuit Court Judge reinstated LC Jones as Mayor of Martinsville, ending his court-ordered suspension. The suspension lasted for the duration of a citizen-led recall petition following bribery and misconduct allegations. In May, a judge dismissed the underlying removal case, ruling that the petition lacked the correct number of signatures required to take effect. Jones still faces an active criminal investigation by the Virginia State Police regarding the allegations. Despite this, Jones plans to run for reelection.
The Surry School board said it would hold a closed meeting about the proposed budget, citing the personnel exemption, because the board would be looking at “personnel in reference to job descriptions, caseloads, master schedule, internal movement of staff.” The personnel exemption applies to “specific public officers, appointees, or employees.”
Faculty members at the University of Virginia complained about FOIA requests for their course materials and syllabi. According to records obtained by Charlottesville Tomorrow through a FOIA request, 19 requests were filed, seeking 200 syllabi, for the 2025 calendar year. All but three of the requests were filed by the same person, who is loosely affiliated with The Jefferson Council. In 2014, a Virginia Supreme Court case about what a public body can charge for records sprang from UVA faculty resistance to FOIA requests for their email.
Warren County citizens complained to the board of supervisors about the way the county’s planning commission treated them at a meeting held the previous week. At that meeting, the commission’s chair unexpectedly changed the rules for public comment, limiting the total time to one hour, which shut out several people who had planned to speak, thinking it was a statutorily required public hearing. Commission members called audience members “children” and a “lynch mob” that “ain’t gonna shut up.” Some of the supervisors were sympathetic to the citizens’ concerns, but the board did not take up a suggestion to admonish the planning commission.
A legal defense fund set up for Sen. Louise Lucas, following an FBI raid of her business office, lets contributors choose whether to keep their donations a secret. Donors can click a box to “Hide your name from the public”, and/or “Hide your contribution amount from the public.”
Jeff McKay, chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors apologized to Melanie Meren, a member of the county school board, for calling her a “bimbo” in a text message he sent to a third party that inadvertently included Meren. McKay and Meren exchanged texts disagreeing about something Meren wrote about the school district’s budget in a newsletter. McKay then took a screen shot of their conversation, and sent it to a group chat that was not supposed to include Meren with the comment “What I sent the bimbo.”
A member of the Petersburg City Council publicly complained about the city’s budget process, saying there should be greater public transparency instead of private briefings each councilor gets from city administrators. The vice mayor took the complaint has an insinuation that they were “doing something nefarious” and reminded everyone that the practice had been going on since before any of them were on the council.
The Suffolk School Board adopted new guidelines in place of the old norms and complaint system. The board will now handle member complaints in public meetings instead of in closed sessions.
The Virginia Department of Health launched a dashboard to keep the public informed about the uptick in measles cases statewide. The dashboard allows users to report potential measles exposure, check immunization records and view specific information about confirmed cases.
An article from The Virginian-Pilot highlighted the heavy use of code names for economic development projects in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. “Publicly identifying a company during negotiations could impact its ability to negotiate competitively,” a Virginia Beach spokesperson said, especially when multiple localities and states are being considered. (Question: Are there examples of companies dropping a potential plan in a locality because of public exposure?)
The former Greene County supervisor who insists that the board should have allowed him to take back his resignation from the board amended his lawsuit to assert a common law claim of quo warranto, saying the person appointed to fill his seat had seized it unlawfully.
