Transparency News 10/13/15

State and Local Stories

Richmond city administrators now say they anticipate meeting a Nov. 30 state deadline to complete their latest annual financial report. The city turned in their report for the prior fiscal year more than 10 months late last week, leaving them less than two months to compile this year’s. At the time, officials were noncommittal when asked when they expected to complete the document, telling a reporter they didn’t want to give a specific date “because then you’ll use it against us.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch

A federal judge has ordered the city of Petersburg and its mayor to hold settlement talks with a man who claims his First Amendment rights were violated at a City Council meeting in January. The parties will meet with Magistrate Judge David J. Novak on Jan. 11, two months before a trial is scheduled. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia on behalf of Linwood Christian, claims Christian was not allowed to speak during the public discussion portion of the council meeting because of an unpaid fee associated with his failed run for School Board in 2014. The suit claims the decision to keep Christian from speaking was a violation of his rights causing “emotional distress and public humiliation.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch

A local political operative has filed a $500,000 defamation complaint against the Republican candidate for Loudoun County chairman, Charlie King, who responded today by calling the lawsuit a “baseless attempted October surprise.” Brian Reynolds, who currently works as a political and design consultant with incumbent Sheriff Mike Chapman (R) and Chairman Scott York, claims King has “maliciously and intentionally” defamed and spread lies about him. In a complaint filed Oct. 9 in Loudoun Circuit Court, Reynolds claims King referred to him as “a hacker” and said his actions have been “negligent, reckless, intentional, malicious, wanton, and represent a conscious and total disregard for [Reynolds'] rights.” The suit notes: "[King] has engaged in malicious and intentional actions of unlawfully defaming and spreading lies about [Reynolds], over the past several months, to wit, falsely alleging and stating that plaintiff is a 'hacker,' and has hacked into defendant's law practice computer system, and/or hacked defendant's law practice hard-drive."
Loudoun Times-Mirror


National Stories
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Pvt. Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst convicted of disclosing state secrets to document-dumping group WikiLeaks, is suing the Justice Department over the government’s failure to heed her Freedom of Information Act requests. Attorneys for Pvt. Manning, 27, who is currently serving a 35-year prison sentence for charges related to her role with WikiLeaks, filed the federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday.
Washington Times

Did a failed attempt by the Department of Treasury to redact part of an e-mail related to a Freedom of Information Act request expose a state government strategy of charging high fees to discourage requests for public information? The liberal group Progress Michigan, which was quoted more than $52,000 for records it requested about communications with a state education adviser, says yes. State officials deny the charge and say the cost estimate was high because the group’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was an overly broad "fishing expedition" that would have required more than 2,500 hours of state employee time. The controversy is enhanced because activists at Progress Michigan could read part of an e-mail about its FOIA request that the treasury tried to black out. In the e-mail, Treasury Department official Terry Stanton, citing advice from the Attorney General's Office, said  the treasury would use the "fee approach" to respond to the Progress Michigan FOIA request, rather than an outright denial, as originally planned.
Detroit Free Press

A Texas district attorney said on Monday his office was investigating the use of a Taser on a city councilman in Prairie View, the city where a black woman died in custody in a case that raised questions about racial bias in policing. One of the officers involved in the incident was also present during the arrest of Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her cell on July 13, three days after she was taken into custody following a minor traffic infraction in Waller County, about 50 miles northwest of Houston. In the cellphone video, officers responding to a disturbance last Thursday night are seen asking Miller numerous times to place his hands behind his back. A Taser is then used on Miller, who is on his knees, and he falls face first to the ground.
Reuters

California's state treasurer, John Chiang, on Monday called for state legislation requiring private equity firms to disclose all fees charged to California public pension funds. In a letter to the country's two largest public pension funds, Chiang said the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, along with other limited partners, "pay excessive fees to private equity firms and do not have sufficient visibility into the nature and amount of those fees." Chiang urged that all California public pension funds, as well as the University of California Retirement System, work with his office to develop legislation to place fee disclosure requirements on private equity firms.
Reuters