Google is fighting me in court. This requires a bit of backstory. For months, local governments refused to disclose how much water a potential Google data center in Botetourt County might use. The Western Virginia Water Authority redacted those estimates in contracts released to The Roanoke Rambler. The agency cited a section of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act that allows government agencies to withhold “proprietary information” under certain circumstances. I did not believe that exemption applied. So I decided to sue. As The Rambler’s founder, I took the water authority to court last month to argue that, despite Google’s claim, water use is not proprietary and should be made publicly available. The judge agreed.

Last week, a private attorney representing the Richmond government in a high-profile lawsuit told The Richmonder the city didn’t ask a judge to take “any action whatsoever” before the judge sealed a court document from public view. However, newly surfaced emails show the attorney — Jimmy F. Robinson Jr. with Ogletree Deakins — did, in fact, request that the document be sealed. Circuit Court Judge Claire G. Cardwell pressed Robinson on the discrepancy in a public court hearing Tuesday, saying she had sealed the document only because the city’s attorneys had urgently asked her to intervene and she wanted time to get a better grasp on the situation. Cardwell unsealed the document Tuesday. “I’m the one that sealed it based on emergency emails,” Cardwell said. “I’m going to undo it.” Cardwell read out portions of the emails from Robinson about the sealing, indicating she found the statement by Robinson to The Richmonder contradictory to the emails Robinson had sent to her office. The dispute was over a report detailing how the city has searched for electronic records in response to a lawsuit filed by former Richmond Freedom of Information Act officer Connie Clay.

After submitting a six-section Freedom of Information Act Request to the University Sept. 18, State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, received 284 pages of records Oct. 29, pertaining to former University President Jim Ryan’s resignation this summer. Among these documents were several public records, including community announcements surrounding Ryan’s resignation and letters from the Justice Department. They also included previously unreleased records such as text messages and emails between Board of Visitors members and Ryan’s internal letter of resignation sent to then-Rector Robert Hardie. Deeds provided these documents to The Cavalier Daily, which has submitted 25 FOIA requests of its own but has not received any records since July 1. Below is a summary of the new information regarding Ryan’s resignation that The Cavalier Daily found after reviewing all 284 pages of the records.

At a meeting on Nov. 6, with no public notice or discussion ahead of the vote, the Board of Commissioners of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority voted to terminate its executive director. No reason was given during the vote, which happened after the commission retreated into a closed session to discuss an unspecified personnel issue, according to a recording of the meeting that was posted almost two weeks later. Nathan Simms, who had short stints at several municipal housing authorities before starting in Norfolk two years ago, was present and gave a brief presentation during the Nov. 6 meeting. But neither Simms nor any members of the public appeared to be present at the meeting after the board reconvened to vote on Simms’ termination following the closed session.

I include this for contrast

When the Patrick County Board of Supervisors returned from a lengthy closed session after a regular meeting on Monday, it was announced that the administrator had resigned. “Mrs. Simms tendered, and we accepted her resignation,” said Board Chair Jonathon Wood. “I will accept a motion for an interim county administrator at this time.” The printed agenda for the meeting listed five items, including an evaluation of the county administrator.

Some Warrenton Town Council members collaborated on how to fire former town manager Frank Cassidy and ways to tamp down public discussion about it, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Fauquier Times requested emails and text messages sent by Council member Eric Gagnon to the three other council members who voted to remove Cassidy – David McGuire, Larry Kovalik and Paul Mooney – during the days leading up to the council’s Oct. 14 vote. The messages and a related document show that Gagnon coordinated with the council members beforehand by laying out a plan to limit discussion. He also shared a play-by-play script of the council’s possible actions….”Gagnon: I just wrote something up and sent it to your personal e-mail. Give me a call when you get it and we can discuss.” Gagnon then sent an email from his personal email address to McGuire’s personal address with a script laying out a plan. It included steps to exclude Cassidy from the closed session, what would be said to Mayor Carter Nevill and other council members and instructions to have Cassidy enter the room so Warrenton Human Capital Director Kasey Braun could collect Cassidy’s work equipment before they voted to fire him.

Despite the absence of a written contract, Surry County paid over $100,000 this year to its interim finance director’s consulting firm. Swindell Associates LLC billed the county $108,378 for over 1,000 hours of work performed Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, according to invoices the Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Carol Swindell, whom State Corporation Commission filings list as a principal of the company, was named Surry’s interim finance director in April following the departure of former Finance Director Steve Morris, who left the role for unexplained reasons at the end of March. Despite remaining in her contractor role, as interim finance director Swindell is now supervising full-time county employees, which an expert in municipal governance called “unusual.” An Oct. 2 FOIA request for Swindell’s current contract yielded “no records responsive” to that request, according to County Attorney Lola Perkins. Perkins declined to comment on the legality of compensating an independent contractor without a written contract in place, stating the question is “beyond the scope of FOIA and as you are not my client, I am unable to advise you as to legal requirements for county contracts.”

A revised memorandum of understanding between Loudoun County Public Schools, the Sheriff’s Office and Leesburg Police Department is continuing to garner concerns from county leaders and community members. The MOU is set to be reviewed annually and outlines the roles and responsibilities of school resource officers, school security and administrative staff. The revised memorandum removes a requirement that officers receive crisis intervention, bias awareness, and cultural competency training within 60 days of being assigned as SROs, which drew concern from School Board members and county supervisors during a joint committee meeting Monday night. “This is a public facing document. It does not do justice to the amount of training that our SROs get on so many different topics,” Loudoun County Sheriff’s Officer Lt. Col. Christopher Sawyer said. A requirement to complete the training with 60 days is also removed from the revised version. “There’s no way that we can do all of this with a brand-new SRO within 60 days. So, the intent of removing this is saying that our training is aligned with the [School Law Enforcement Partnership] guide. So, the SLEP guide is about 190-plus page document that talks a lot about the roles of SROs and all the things that they do and the way that they work and interact in there. So, all of our training will align with the with the guidelines and the intent of the SLEP guide. But it is not that we are not doing this training. That’s not accurate at all,” Sawyer said.

When Oregon State graduate JP Bertram started an OSU-themed podcast four-and-a-half years ago, alongside his two college buddies, Terry Horstman and Benny Wehage, the idea was to celebrate their alma mater, not scrutinize it….Over the last year, however, as the athletic department has been battered—first by the Pac-12’s collapse, which left Oregon State and Washington State behind, and then by a disastrous football season that has the team currently at 2-9—OSU sports programs have drawn a more critical gaze from the fanbase, including their allies behind the podcast mic. For the Belligerent Beavs, this shift culminated last week, when Bertram launched a GoFundMe campaign, seeking $2,500 to help pay for the fulfillment of a public records request that he had originally made to Oregon State in late September. The request—the first Bertram said he has ever made—sought communications related to OSU’s controversial engagement with NIL consulting firm Blueprint Sports, which ultimately contributed to the departure of executive deputy AD Brent Blaylock.