Transparency News, 10/4/2022

Tuesday
October 4, 2022

There was no newsletter yesterday, Oct. 3.
 

state & local news stories

"He specifically highlighted two comments council members directed at the staff during meetings this year: 'What are you babbling about?' and 'the liar speaks.'"

Plans to temporarily transform and reopen what was formerly known as the Lee Circle were approved Monday by Richmond's Planning Commission, despite a recommendation to reject the proposal. The city's proposal is designed to fill the circle on Monument Avenue, which is about three-fourths of an acre, with trees and plants in an intentional attempt to keep people from gathering inside it due to safety concerns. But last week, the Urban Design Committee (UDC), which serves as an advisory board to the Planning Commission, voted the $100,000 planting project down. Among their concerns. The city did not engage the public before bringing the project forward.
WTVR

The Office of the State Inspector General’s investigations, audits, and reviews of executive branch agencies resulted in numerous recommendations for improved internal controls, efficiency, and effectiveness. In its Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Report, OSIG reports that the Investigations Unit opened 30 executive branch agency investigations, referred 13 cases for prosecutorial consideration, and closed 35 cases.
WSET

A woman who has accused Liberty University of mishandling an accusation of sexual assault cannot have the protection of anonymity, a federal judge ruled last week.The woman has so far been referred to only as “Jane Doe” in court documents, though her identity is known to both the University and Charles Tippett, the former student accused of assaulting her in 2020. Under Judge Norman K. Moon’s new order, she must add her real name to the civil complaint by Friday, Oct. 14 or the case will be dismissed.
WRIC

With three months left in its term, the Purcellville Town Council is working to set a new foundation for the council-staff relationship that replaces frustration and distrust with a commitment to trust, respect, and civility. On Thursday, the council received the results of an independent management analysis that studied the increasingly public frictions playing out in the council chambers. And On Saturday, the council held a day-long meeting to set a better project management structure, to be in place when a new mayor and up to three new council members take their seats in January. Consultant John Anzivino attributed much of the friction on display in Town Hall to the shift from a “more traditional” council-manager form of government to one of an “activist council.” Anzivino’s report is not overtly critical of the conduct of any individual council member, noting the members’ efforts to be an “active and detail oriented governing body” often result in pointed questioning of the staff and disagreements among members. However, he acknowledged the tenor of the debates can undermine the council’s goals. He specifically highlighted two comments council members directed at the staff during meetings this year: “What are you babbling about?” and “the liar speaks.”
LoudounNow
 

stories of national interest

"It was not fake news, as a batch of newly released emails reinforces and details."

The Wall Street Journal reported in May 2019 that the military had worked to obscure the USS John S. McCain ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to a neighboring ship in Japan. It was a decision that apparently stemmed from Trump’s feuds with the decorated war hero and late senator, who was added as a namesake for the ship initially named for his father and grandfather. But the senator had died just nine months prior, rendering the effort particularly bizarre. Trump initially seemed to confirm that someone had tried to keep the ship out of sight, while emphasizing that he didn’t request it. But then he called the reporting into question, citing a statement from the Navy and suggesting that the report was “an exaggeration, or even Fake News.” It was not fake news, as a batch of newly released emails reinforces and details. The emails, obtained by Bloomberg News reporter Jason Leopold and by the Wall Street Journal through Freedom of Information Act requests, fill out the story of military officials responding to a request from the White House Military Office. Among the discoveries:
The Washington Post

The Delaware Attorney General’s Office has found the state auditor’s office in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, in the latest battle between the two offices. In a letter sent Sept. 23, Chief Deputy Attorney General Alexander Mackler informed a petitioner that the auditor’s office is in violation of FOIA after failing to respond to his request for information within the law’s 15-day requirement. On July 29, the petitioner had requested any and all policy analyses, reports or other work products for the auditor’s office prepared by My Campaign Group, Innovative Consulting or Christie Gross from 2018 to present. About a month later, after hearing nothing, the petitioner contacted the Attorney General’s Office about the auditor’s failure to respond to the request for information.
Cape Gazette

The National Archives and Records Administration on Monday publicly released a small fraction of communications related to government documents removed by former President Donald Trump and his reported destruction of some White House records. The communications related to NARA’s efforts to recover those documents, which included letters to Trump from former President Barack Obama and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. They also expressed the agency’s concern about Trump’s reported penchant for ripping up some documents he read in the White House.
CNBC
 

editorials & columns

Defunding the police was the worst possible public reaction to the killing of George Floyd. The cold-blooded Minneapolis cop who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd pleaded for his life was a monster. But using his crime to justify the wholesale sacking of the police department never held a chance of success practically or politically. Eventually, it backfired and offered an excuse not to deal with police brutality. What makes the most sense when individual police officers commit crimes is to hold them accountable by applying the justice system to them in the same way it would apply to an average citizen. This is why a court decision out of Chesterfield County last week sent a horrible message that the Virginia General Assembly must fix legislatively as soon as possible and that the governor should quickly sign into law. Chesterfield Circuit Judge M. Duncan Minton Jr. last week ruled against a legal argument by the special prosecutor who brought a criminal charge against Chesterfield Det. Robert Sprouse. In Virginia, Minton ruled, malfeasance in office is not a crime.
The Daily Progress