Transparency News 10/6/16

Thursday, October 6, 2016


State and Local Stories

There will not be a Transparency News edition tomorrow (Friday). I will be at the National FOI Coalition summit in D.C. Follow the latest news and happenings at the conference on my Twitter feed (@opengovva). 
Conference agenda

Ballot selfies are not a crime, according to Virginia Attorney General Mark. R. Herring. In a formal opinion last month, Herring said it's not against the law for Virginia voters to use a cell phone inside a polling place to take photos or video of their own ballot for publication on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook, as long as it doesn't interfere with other voters or disrupt the election. Some states ban photography in polling places. Where it's not outright illegal, many election organizers consider the use of cell phones taboo given the private nature of voting and the need for an orderly process. But as cell phones and social media become more ubiquitous, bans on ballot photos have started to loosen. Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that a New Hampshire law prohibiting voters from posting photos of completed ballots online infringed on free speech.
Daily Progress


National Stories

Federal officials are backing the Delaware State Police against a Freedom of Information Act request for information about how law enforcement uses cell site simulators. Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice filed a “statement of interest” last week in a Superior Court lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Delaware man. The suit challenges the refusal of state officials to provide details about DSP’s purchase and use of the technology, which mimics a cell phone tower in order to connect with and collect information on nearby cell phones.
Washington Times

The FBI busted an NSA contractor after finding top secret documents hidden in his home and car. His arrest was kept secret for more than a month. Investigators searched the Maryland home of Harold Thomas Martin III on August 27 and found several documents, both digital and physical, stashed on multiple devices. "A large percentage" of the stolen information was labeled top secret, according to the Department of Justice. Among the classified documents discovered in the FBI's search, six contained highly sensitive information that would have revealed the US government's sources, methods and capabilities, investigators said.
CNET

D.C. Councilmember Anita Bonds, chair of the Committee on Housing and Community Development, announced in a Sept. 29, 2016 committee hearing that Advisory Neighborhood Commissions will not get a blanket exemption from the D.C. Freedom of Information Act.   When introduced, in April, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission Omnibus Amendment Act of 2106 stated that ANCs would no longer be "public bodies" subject to the FOI Act. The bill's open meetings provisions, which are unenforceable and far less comprehensive than the D.C. Open Meetings Act, remain in Bill 21-697.   Robert Becker, the Coalition's government relations chair, testified that the Council should remove all open meetings provisions from the ANC enabling statute and the bill, and that the OMA should be amended to apply fully to ANC meetings. Several other witnesses, including ANC commissioners, supported the decision to remove the FOIA exemption from the bill and to apply the OMA to commission meetings.
DC Open Government Coalition

Senior Judge Robert E. Lee Davies ordered Metro Nashville to pay nearly $57K in attorneys fees to a public records requester, saying that the city “misinterpreted and ignored the ‘promptness’ requirement” in the Tennessee Public Records Act. Davies found the city was willful in not complying with the law, a requirement for awarding attorneys fees in a public records lawsuit. Plaintiff Bradley Jetmore filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming Metro Nashville’s police department records division had begun delaying release of traffic reports after about 20 years of making them available within three days. The city claimed that under the Tennessee Public Records Act it had seven days to respond to a public records request. After hearing testimony from the city about its process, Judge Davies found differently, and cited the law’s requirement to release records promptly unless it was not practical to do so.
Tennessee Coalition for Open Government