December set us reeling when a Hanover judge issued a ruling that allows publicly paid employees to remain anonymous. And we were frustrated by the short-shrift the FOIA Council gave weighty issues this year. Nonetheless, we remain hopeful for the future and are pleased to welcome our new officers and directors, as well as our 2024 Chip Woodrum Legislative Intern. Click the video below to learn more about all of them.

The FOIA Council used to be a place where members and stakeholders literally sat around a conference table to hammer out compromise language. This year's council met only twice -- the first time in late July -- and its local government attorney-dominated members were left to tackle weighty policy issues from the dais. We all deserve better.

Despite FOIA's statement that salary data for public employees must be released by name, a Hanover judge ruled, incredibly, that the names of scores of officers in the sheriff's office could be withheld from the public because revealing them might interfere with the sheriff's ability to staff undercover operations some time in the future.

The Alexandria Public School Board offered a unique (and unfounded) twist on the exemption allowing for closed-door conversations about personnel matters. The exemption says it's for discussions of the "assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation" of "specific public officers, appointees, or employees." That wouldn't cover issues of general application to all employees. But the board apparently didn't want to talk publicly about its thoughts on collective bargaining, so they offered this gem of a motion to go into closed session. (Click the image to go to the video.)

"Madam Chair, I move that the board convene a closed meeting pursuant to Virginia Code 2.2-3711(A)(1) for the discussion and consideration of employment, performance and contractual matters for 2700 specific public employees."

What we know is that this session will be full of unknowns. Thirty-four percent of the members will be new. The building will be new. The dynamic of having a Democratic controlled legislature and a Republican governor will be new. And legislation? 

While there are some bills we will know about ahead of time, most of the bills that we will follow will be new to us, too. We'll find out what those bills are in the next several days, and as we do every year, we'll be tracking them on our website.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch filed a lawsuit against the Richmond School Board over its refusal to release a report it commissioned to examine the circumstances leading up to the June 6 shooting death of two people outside of the Altria Theater after a high school graduation. The board has refused to release even a redacted version of the report, claiming the entire thing is protected by the attorney-client exemption of FOIA.

The Southampton County School Board claimed it was unnecessary to discontinue the broadcast of its public comment period to counter misinformation. Because members do not respond to citizen comment, people could say untrue things that would be broadcast to a wider audience, the board chair said, even though the simpler way to correct misinformation would be to actually respond to the comment at the time.

The Prince William County School Board changed its public comment period rules. Though it walked back some of its tougher restrictions, the board still approved a limit on speakers' ability to comment at two or more meetings in a row. Under the new rules, speakers who give comments at one meeting, or who miss their confirmed speaking time without prior notice, are not "qualified" to speak at the next meeting unless there are unfilled speaking slots.

The Spotsylvania County School Board, whose members have been publicly arguing amongst themselves for the past few years, ended its 2023 term with more recriminations. One member who lost election in November accused the board chair of censoring meeting minutes to remove "everything that makes them look bad." The chair insisted that it was using a "streamlined format" for drafting minutes that is more efficient.

The former chair, and soon-to-be-former member of the Spotsylvania County School Board entered into a plea agreement in a case where he was charged with felony forging of a public record and misdemeanor tampering with a public record when he unilaterally altered the terms of a contract with the acting school superintendent. The felony charge was dismissed, and the misdemeanor charge will be be dismissed in the future provided that Kirk Twigg complies with certain conditions and pays restitution of more than $10,000 by December 2024.

Fairfax County's FOIA office published its annual report. The county received 17,349 requests and had an average response time of two business days. As in past years, the county department that received the most requests (and charged the most in fees) was the police department, followed by the fire department and then land development services. And if you needed yet another example of how FOIA isn't a media law -- as it is often portrayed -- only 1% of the requests came from media.
 

A Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled that Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration did not have to turn over a database sought by the NAACP related to the process of restoring voting rights to people who have been convicted of a felony. The judge agreed with the argument that the database was part of the governor's "working papers."

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case brought by Courthouse News Service against the Virginia Supreme Court over its policy limiting access to online court records to lawyers only. Approved government agencies can also obtain online access, but the press and public cannot. VCOG has signed onto a friend of the court brief in support of CNS.

Upon arriving at the Greenville Correctional Center at the invitation of the Department of Corrections to observe a multi-agency drill, journalists were told by the prison's newly named assistant warden that they could not film the drill because Virginia State Police did not want some of their tactics made public.

As part of an effort to make citizen participation in public meetings more geographically equitable, the Newport News City Council held a work session and council meeting at a facility that is as about as far from city hall as possible.

A Lynchburg City Council member censured by his colleagues at the end of November is taking his case to court. In a complaint filed in Lynchburg Circuit Court, he claims the censure was “negotiated by council members in advance of the business meeting, drafted in secrecy, and introduced without notice.”

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors held a 27-hour-long meeting, taking comments from hundreds of residents on three different proposals for data centers. One woman took her comment time to sing a song opposing the projects, which prompted the chair to call a brief recess to restore order.

“It’s so risky telling people this is what it’s gonna look like. There’s so much that could change.” That's what the Norfolk city manager said in an interview when asked why the city had provided so few details in its public presentations on plans to protect the city from rising sea levels.

After missing nearly a dozen meetings since August, a Lovettsville Town Council member submitted her resignation from the council.

A law firm concluded its review of a data breach at Fairfax County Public Schools and found the division left old thumb drives with unredacted student files on them in boxes of materials prepared in response to a parent's request for information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. A PTA group for special education students issued a statement saying, "We are aware that there is a significant history of FCPS unintentionally releasing other students’ information in FERPA &/or FOIA requests."

Nominate your FOIA Hero for the past year. Nominees in the categories of citizens, media and government are being accepted through Jan. 31. Winners will be honored at our annual conference. Click here for the nomination form.

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