Residents of Hopewell expressed their continued frustration over the city’s decision to spend over $17,000 on a city council “retreat” in Williamsburg, with one speaker telling the mayor to “keep your piehole shut,” when he attempted to justify the expense. He and his fellow council members, plus the interim city manager, focused on the benefits of having a more informal retreat, while residents wondered why a cash-strapped city wouldn’t save money by meeting locally. The interim manager later apologized to citizens for saying that they could “object to that retreat continuously, if they dare.”
In a recent court filing in Connie Clay’s whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Richmond, Clay’s former supervisor said in a deposition that she was under pressure from several department heads about Clay’s handling of FOIA requests. The supervisor described Clay as “competent” and said she “helped a lot,” but acknowledged that some colleagues were put off by what she characterized, “for lack of a better word,” as “sort of a bitchiness type of attitude.” For example, the city’s finance director complained that Clay was harassing her by viewing her LinkedIn profile. And the former utilities director questioned Clay’s motives for reviewing her email. Meanwhile, the judge in Clay’s case questioned the city’s lawyers about whether city officials could have retrieved the supervisor’s phone that was lost at an airport.
A homeowners association canceled its “town hall” meeting on a proposed natural gas plant in Fluvanna County after at least three county board supervisors indicated they would attend. Though FOIA allows them to attend public forums — so long as they do not discuss public business amongst themselves — the county attorney thought that the meeting must be open to the public, with the three in attendance, something the homeowners association did not want to do. A week later, the board amended its bylaws to formally limit attendance at town halls and community meetings to no more than two supervisors.
The New Kent County director of community development proposed creating a data center “overlay district” that would fast-track data development projects in part by doing away with the usual required public hearings.
Residents of Warren County were left in the dark about the resignation of the county administrator. Following a one-hour closed session, the chair of the board of supervisors announced that the board had “accepted” the administrator’s resignation. There was no motion made in the public meeting, no discussion and no public vote.
To answer questions residents had about the sudden cancellation of the county’s sewer service, the Gordonsville mayor directed folks to a blog run by his wife for an “accurate summary.” The mayor later apologized for using Facebook as his primary way of communicating with the public, but he did not walk back his comments about the contract’s cancellation or his direction to visit his wife’s blog.
The criminal proceedings against the former UVA student who pleaded guilty to murdering three of his former football teammates may be over, but the report detailing the university’s involvement with the student before the shooting and the response to the event has still not been fully released. Legal proceedings are ongoing. For a full timeline, click here.
Warrenton tried to revive its transparency commission after getting an interim town attorney to take the reins after the previous attorney left and a possible replacement withdrew from consideration. The sticking point has been over how the commission accesses and reviews town records, particularly email.
A FOIA request served on Wise County Schools by a Tennessee TV station (WCYB) revealed that the former football coach who fled the county after warrants for his arrest on five counts of possession of child porn and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor were filed was drawing a salary from the division. The school division charged the TV station $150 for access to the records documenting the payments.
The chair of the Franklin City School Board announced that the board would have to redo the vote it took (in her absence) to change citizen comment time. The changes to the citizen time were well received by the public, but the way that the vote was taken was “done incorrectly,” the chair said. VCOG wrote about the problems with the first meeting.
A member of the Mineral Town Council complained that her colleagues were having “secret, hidden meetings” of various committees. A fellow member indicated that the committees had only two people because if there were three members, they’d have to publicize it, making the process more difficult. FOIA kicks in even for two-person committees, though, if two people constitute a quorum.
Frederick County’s Public Information & Engagement Forum on data centers didn’t go as well as hoped, with attendees frequently interrupting speakers and complaining about the format. Residents were told that county staff would only answer questions previously submitted online or given to staff at the forum. The county administrator asked the sheriff’s office deputies to remove audience members for interrupting.
Records obtained through FOIA were used in one case to contradict official claims, and in another to explain what officials would not. Though the chief executive officer of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority previously said residents had first reported issues with the hot water in “mid-December,” records showed that work orders for “no hot water” had been placed two months earlier. Meanwhile, the Richmond Public Schools superintendent earlier would not reveal details about personnel cuts in the budget; records showed 74 employee layoffs that had been redacted by name, but not by position.
According to records obtained through FOIA, the Virginia Racing Commission approved 500 more historical horse racing machines at Richmond Rosie’s than the 700 originally approved, without putting the topic on a meeting agenda for a public discussion and vote. A former commission employee authorized the expansion in an email just over a day after the Colonial Downs Group and its parent company, Churchill Downs, asked for it.
