Transparency News 10/13/16

The Virginia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists announced Wednesday that Dave Ress, a senior reporter at the Daily Press, is the 2016 recipient of the George Mason Award.  Awarded annually since 1964, the award is named for the primary writer of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which would later inspire the U.S. Bill of Rights, according to a release from the chapter. “His extensive knowledge of FOIA has been invaluable in his job for The Daily Press — but even more invaluable is David’s willingness to share this knowledge with reporters across the Commonwealth,” wrote Betsy Edwards in her nomination letter. “His commitment to open government will make a real difference in how the Freedom of Information Act in Virginia is applied in years to come.”
Daily Press

In light of recent publicity, jury selection for the public corruption trial of city Treasurer Anthony Burfoot is expected to take more time and effort than normal. But U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan Jr. is working with prosecutors and defense attorneys to streamline what they will have to do Nov. 7 as the trial kicks off in Norfolk. Morgan ordered 75 prospective jurors from across South Hampton Roads, Western Tidewater and the Eastern Shore to come to the federal courthouse one week early and answer questions about the case. He expected about 15 to be disqualified almost immediately, meaning there will be a better jury pool to sift through on the first day of trial. “There is a lot here in this case that an informed community has probably been exposed to,” defense attorney Andrew Sacks said Wednesday after a hearing in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
Virginian-Pilot

Rockingham County Public Schools violated a student’s privacy last year, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education. The letter, which was sent to the parent of a former Turner Ashby High School student on Sept. 6, said the district violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act “when it disclosed personally identifiable information from the education records of her son, Edward, to third parties absent her prior written consent.”
Daily News Record

Members of the Loudoun County School Board last night debated the ethics and efficacy of hiring their own part-time assistants as a means to better communicate with their constituents. The idea first came about at the board’s governance workshop on Aug. 23. Loudoun County Public Schools’ staff put together a list of possible options to pay the assistants and what kinds of tasks those assistants would perform as an information item at last night’s School Board meeting.  In the scenarios laid out by staff, a maximum of nine assistants would work about 25 hours a week for each School Board member for $22 an hour, with a total cost of $272,400. Other options had a lower cost, like hiring one assistant to aide all the board members for $121,000 a year. 
Loudoun Times-Mirror

A public hearing to consider Ronald Morgan’s request to rezone the former Mineral Elementary School property from residential general to light commercial is back on the table. The hearing is set for next Tuesday at 7 p.m. The hearing is the result of confusion over Mineral Town Council’s decision in August to allow conditional zoning. Town Attorney Jack Maus said on Sept. 12 that the town’s 3-2 vote was invalid. Maus said a vote to amend the town’s chapter on zoning requires a majority vote of the entire governing body rather than a majority of voting members present at the meeting, as was the case in August. “So, the governing body consists of 7 people, and with the mayor not voting [she serves as a tie breaker], it’s six; so, the majority would have to be four,” Maus said.
Central Virginian

National Stories
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Last month police in Charlotte, North Carolina, shot an African-American man and then sat on the footage from their body and dashboard cameras, refusing to release it until protesters’ demands that the footage be shared turned violent.  Had the shooting occurred 11 days later, recordings of it would not have been considered public record under a new North Carolina law, making it harder to force police to share the footage. Over the last two years, and without much regulation, police departments have hurried to strap body cameras to their officers, both to address demands for transparency and to protect police from accusations of wrongdoing. But once the cameras started rolling, many departments were left not knowing when or how they could show the footage to the public, prompting policymakers to act. At least 21 states and dozens of municipalities have instituted policies that range from treating body camera footage like other public records to imposing outright bans on releasing footage. And more could be on the way to locking down body camera footage.
Governing

Protecting the identity of current and past New Canaan, Connecticut, officials who fear retribution or embarrassment in the community if their true opinions became known is a weightier public interest than letting the identities and opinions be known to the electorate. New Canaan Charter Revision Commission Chairman David Hunt and member Penny Young told a Connecticut Freedom of Information hearing officer on Tuesday that this was a primary reason for the Charter Revision Commission (CRC) withholding such information from the public. These are “real concerns in a small town,” Hunt said.
New Canaan Advertiser

Editorials/Columns

Jamycheal Mitchell died in his cell at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail 14 months ago and still the commonwealth cannot say how or why it happened. Oh, there are plenty of theories about what occurred during the roughly 100 days Mitchell was held at the Portsmouth facility. But they are no substitute for a clear and unimpeachable explanation – something that can foster accountability and provide a framework for reform. Chief among them are two reports prepared by state agencies that made half-hearted attempts to discern what took place, one by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and another by the Office of the State Inspector General. A third report – an internal investigation conducted by the jail staff – has yet to be released, which follows a pattern of obfuscation from officials at the facility.  A third report – an internal investigation conducted by the jail staff – has yet to be released, which follows a pattern of obfuscation from officials at the facility. However, the tide appears to be changing at the facility at long last.
Virginian-Pilot

Americans are fed up with Washington in general and Congress in particular. So it’s refreshing to learn that at least one member of the House of Representatives recognizes that deep dissatisfaction. Since being elected to Congress in 2007, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-First District, has actively worked to make Congress more accountable to the people.
Daily Progress

One of the most sacred tenets in the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, is the First Amendment. In scholarly analysis, the underlying theme of the First Amendment is the supremacy of the individual citizen over the government. The right to believe as he wishes, the right to voice those beliefs without fear of retribution by authorities, the right to act on those beliefs and hold his government to account. That’s why a trend that’s been gaining steam over the last decade on America’s college campuses is so troubling, a trend free-speech advocates see as nothing short of the stifling of free speech by colleges whose very mission is to train and educate America’s citizens and future leaders, stunting their intellectual growth at a time we desperately need more tolerance and acceptance of ideas and opinions that differ from our own. Today and tomorrow, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the protection of Free Expression at the University of Virginia will be holding a symposium on Grounds for college leaders from across the country to address this growing concern.
News & Advance