Journalists seeking records from Ferguson, Mo., were told they needed to come up with more than $2,000 to see files related to the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Under Missouri law, the town is obligated to make such information available at no charge when doing so is in the public’s interest.
The problem is, the laws allow that judgment call to be based on the bureaucrat’s interest. Thus, town officials hired a consulting firm at a cost of $135 an hour to retrieve relevant emails in response to a request from The Associated Press. It was basically a cut-and-paste job that a city bureaucrat could have readily handled, but the pricy firm billed 16 hours of labor. EPB, the taxpayer-owned electric utility in Chattanooga, Tenn., shocked a college student by telling him the cost of just looking at basic records would be $1,767. Tennessee’s Office of Open Records Counsel was on the student’s side, telling utility officials they “should not have assessed (the) fees,” but EPB did anyway. An outside group picked up the tab so that the student could go to the office to see the documents. He was then told that he would have to pay an additional $2,070 to look at them a second time. The records provided evidence that the electric company attempted to bully local media not to report on issues that reflected negatively on the utility. Similar incidents play out all across the nation.
Washington Times
On Oct. 9, Zachary Reid reported: “Richmond school officials are conducting an intensive internal investigation of student records after a School Board member shared confidential information about at least 20 students with a vendor that provides mental health services.” Student privacy rates as an absolute. Students and their families are betrayed when information is released to outside sources. Indeed, members of school boards should not have ready access to individual records. The public needs to learn more. School employees who might be involved have violated the trust placed in them — and must face the consequences. A board rebuke of Eppes remains a possibility.
Times-Dispatch
A Richmond-area circuit judge did not elaborate on her sudden decision to retire after her daughter was appointed prosecutor in the same jurisdiction, and a court spokesman said officials “don’t believe” that the retirement is related to the appointment. Still, the unexpected resignation points up two ongoing issues for all of Virginia: » The care officials must take to avoid conflict of interest, or even the appearance of conflict. » The state’s shortage of judges, tracing to the legislature’s inability to fill vacancies.
Daily Progress
The saying “better late than never” best describes briefings that state senators had with FBI officials on federal corruption laws after former Gov. Bob McDonnell was convicted of violating those laws. We suspect most Virginians assumed that their legislators had become familiar with these laws — state and federal — the day they took office, if not sooner. Obviously, that has not happened. But it should now. State and federal officials should join forces to hold mandatory training sessions for all newly elected legislators to ensure that they know the laws that govern their actions from Day One. It is for their protection and the public’s.
Martinsville Bulletin
The fact that both political parties play games with the district lines doesn’t make it right. In fact, it’s one of the most corrosive aspects of our political system. Drawing legislative district boundaries to favor one political party over the other isn’t new, and it leads to the coarsening of our civic culture as legislators placed in no-lose districts can toe the party line — and not worry about a challenger. That, in turn, leads to the kind of legislative gridlock we see in the halls of power. If a politician is sheltered from the voters, he only has to answer to the people who put him in office — the guys who draw the legislative districts boundaries.
Register & Bee