Transparency News 10/30/15
Friday, October 30, 2015
State and Local Stories
A lawsuit alleging Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford demanded an exorbitant and unreasonable amount of fees for a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this month was filed in Richmond on Thursday. Richmond attorney Matthew Hardin filed the suit in that city’s Circuit Court and alleges Lunsford’s request for nearly $3,200 as a deposit to conduct the records search, the length of time she told him it would take to release all of the documents and the fact that she herself will be gathering and reviewing the records instead of an indifferent party in the FOIA request are unreasonable.
Daily Progress
Apparently responding to comments made by a citizen and his removal by police during the citizen’s forum at the September council meeting, the Culpeper Town Council is quickly attempting to put rules in place governing the handling of decorum and disruption during council meetings. The Culpeper Town Council Personnel and Ordinance Committee is considering changes to the public forum where citizens have the opportunity to address the town council on town-related issues not on the agenda. The draft rules addresses the consequences facing a speaker who is deemed disruptive. “When a person disrupts the order and decorum of the meeting, the presiding officer may order the person to stand silent, or may, if necessary order the person’s removal from the meeting room or building and may, at his or her discretion, bring formal charges for disruption of a public meeting.”
Culpeper Times
National Stories
The Homeland Security Department missed clear warning signs of a disgruntled federal agent's descent toward violence and could have intervened before he started a deadly gun battle inside a government office building in southern California, according to a confidential, internal investigation obtained exclusively by The Associated Press. The report offers an unusual glimpse behind factors that drove one of the most sensational instances in recent years of workplace violence, which kills more than 700 Americans each year. The AP obtained a censored copy of the 36-page report, which was marked "for official use only," five months after requesting it under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Kozak, 54, who struggles with debilitating injuries and may lose his leg, filled in key details during an exclusive interview with AP that the Homeland Security Department discouraged him from granting.
Associated Press
The S.C. Attorney General’s office confirmed in an opinion last week that public notice advertising must be published in a printed newspaper of general circulation and not on an Internet news site. The opinion written by Assistant Attorney General Anne Marie Crosswell said “online newspapers” that exist solely on the Internet with no print circulation would not be considered a newspaper of general circulation as the term is used within statutes and regulations imposing legal notice requirements for various purposes. The opinion was requested by the Williamston town attorney after an Internet news publication, the Anderson Observer, began selling and taking public notice ads. “This is a hugely important case that preserves the integrity of public notice advertising in our state,” said SCPA Executive Director Bill Rogers.
South Carolina Press Association
Ann Ravel, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, hasn’t had much success with her crusade to push the six-member panel to curb the unlimited money flooding congressional and presidential elections. So, she has helped spearhead another project: a $2.5 million overhaul of the agency’s website that she says will make it easier for average citizens to follow the money themselves. On Thursday morning, the general public will get its first look at a working version of https://beta.fec.gov, which tries to make it simpler to figure out who is funding elections and how politicians are spending donors’ money. Among the many changes: The new version can be viewed on any size screen, allowing users to view campaign-finance data on their mobile phones and tablets.
USA Today
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday refused to immediately halt the government's bulk collection of millions of Americans' phone records during a "transition" period to a new federal scheme that bans the controversial anti-terrorism surveillance.
Reuters
Editorials/Columns
A MAYOR and a councilman who condescend to residents. Council members who berate and belittle each other from the dais. Residents who hurl insults from the podium. This is the new norm at the Portsmouth City Council's chambers. Traditional standards of decorum and civility were abandoned long ago, and the behavior of people who should know better has had a poisonous effect on municipal operations and the public at large.
Virginian-Pilot
In our report, “Getting to Win-Win: The Use of Body-Worn Cameras in Virginia Policing,” the ACLU of Virginia reviews 59 local policies and one draft “model” state policy that are in place or recommended to guide deployment of body-worn cameras in Virginia. As the report indicates, current policies fall short of ideal in protecting the interests of the public and the police using them. Achieving a win-win in the use of BWCs will require greater attention to protecting the rights of people exercising their First Amendment rights, the privacy of crime victims and witnesses and the responsibility and accountability of police for proper deployment and use of the cameras and the data they collect. There must be a culture of transparency at all levels in every law enforcement agency. The “default” value in the agency must support openness rather than secrecy. The leadership of the law enforcement agency and all levels of government should take seriously the policy embraced in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, that the Act “shall be liberally construed to promote an increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities and afford every opportunity to citizens to witness the operations of government.” Information should be disclosed, rather than withheld, whenever possible. In addition, law enforcement officials should take seriously the Act’s direction that it should not be “construed to discourage the free discussion by government officials or employees of public matters with the citizens of the Commonwealth.”
Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, Richmond Times-Dispatch
