Charlottesville
declined to release the agreement between it and its former police chief after it was learned the chief, who retired in December 2017 amid criticism over his handling of the Aug. 12 rally, would remain on the payroll through July 15, 2019.
The current Charlottesville police chief said
she could not release updated data on police stop-and-frisk interactions because it was still being extracted from new software, adding that the data is now collected in a more context-rich fashion. Nonetheless, she surprised board members and those in the audience alike when she
presented that data at the tail-end of board of supervisors meeting. Nothing on the agenda indicated such a report would be made.
The City of Roanoke again voted to ask for legislation to allow localities to
bar firearms in places where a local governing body is meeting.
Norfolk residents wondered why the police
did not send out a press release on a murder-suicide in a historic, upscale neighborhood as it does for other killings in the community. The police told the department's public information officers about the incident, but that department did not provide basic information when WTKR and
The Virginian-Pilot asked about it.
After operating for several months under a sign that said the "public shall not film, videotape or otherwise electronically records within town hall without expressed (sic) permission," the Boyce Town Council
moved the sign to the clerk's desk inside council chambers. The clerk had previously complained that someone with a grudge agains the council was "being kind of disrespectful" and "came to interrupt the meeting."
A review of records obtained under FOIA by the
Register & Bee revealed that Danville had
spent $1.78 million in the past five years for 30 consultants' reports on various projects.
Members of the board that oversees Reagan National and Dulles International airports
spent roughly $17,000 in travel last year, as compared to $32,000 in 2015 when a policy encouraging more travel was adopted.
Norfolk school officials notified the parents of students and employees whose medical information
was publicly disclosed in school crisis plans online for a year until August. After staff and attorneys reviewed the plans, the district identified a total of 308 students and staff who were referenced in the school crisis plans from the past two years, although only about half of those individuals had their information shared publicly.
Virginia officials refused to release information about why five of the 51 entities that applied for a medical marijuana dispensary license were chosen, nor why the remaining 46 were not. An anonymous score sheet was released before the awards were made,
but the names of companies that applied still hadn't been revealed.
Officials in the Town of Round Hill informed the public that it had
suffered a data breach and a destruction of electronic records.
At the October meeting of the FOIA Council, Del. Glenn Davis -- a council member -- proposed a that public university and college boards should allow for public comment at meetings where tuition increases are discussed. The council agreed it was logical to require such comment but decided to hold off on advancing a formal proposal to
give the schools time to adopt such a "best practice."
The University of Virginia Police Department agreed to release a transparency report on the department, including information on the race and gender and education backgrounds of all department supervisors, to the department's website. The website will also include
updated officer names, photos, emails, office locations and phone numbers.
A Norfolk judge issued a gag order in a murder case that covered not just the parties to the case but
also the spokeswoman for the prosecutor.
The chairman of the Hopewell Republican Committee filed a FOIA lawsuit against the city’s general registrar, alleging the registrar failed to provide public record information that is required by the Election Code. The chair
withdrew his suit soon after receiving the information, which was the political affiliation of each officer working city voting precincts.
Using crime data requested from the Richmond Police Department, the
Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that in 2017 there was a
small uptick in criminal incidents on nights when the moon was full. A similar uptick was observed on Halloween night in 2017.
VCOG marked with sadness the passing of its founding board president Bob O'Neil. Bob was the founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, and also a past president of the University of Virginia. 
