Transparency News, 11/1/21

Michael McDermott has been clean from using drugs or alcohol for nearly 30 years, and he’s spent much of that time as an advocate for those like him in recovery. He shares helpful information on the website of FAVOR – Faces and Voices of Recovery of Virginia (favorva.org). On his website is a chart he made showing monthly EMS response data for overdoses in Virginia by jurisdiction from January 2017 to November 2020. He got the Microsoft Excel data three separate times from the state’s Office of Emergency Medical Services, part of the Virginia Department of Health. And the trends showed overdoses going up between 2017 and 2020 – evidence, McDermott says, that what the state’s doing to combat substance use isn’t working. But McDermott said he hasn’t been able to get the same data this year. He said he spent months going back and forth on the phone and email with the Office of Emergency Medical Services, where the associate director eventually told him they’d get him the 2021 data by Sept. 30. When that date passed, McDermott was so frustrated that he filed a petition in court in Goochland County, where he lives, asking a judge to order the agency to turn over the data under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. At a hearing Monday in Goochland General District Court, a judge found that the agency didn’t need to turn it over because an ongoing data migration was hindering the agency’s ability to provide it.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman (R) told school officials on Aug. 5 that the sheriff’s office would not provide uniformed deputies for security at two school board meetings in August, even as board members were receiving threats, according to an internal Loudoun County Public Schools letter and emails obtained by the Times-Mirror. Since the beginning of the current academic year, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office has not maintained a presence of uniformed personnel at the LCPS Administration Building in Ashburn, instead leaving the school division to hire private security to provide protection. But according to outgoing school board member Beth Barts (Leesburg District) — who announced her impending resignation on Oct. 15, and later confirmed that it was prompted by a stream of threats — the sheriff’s office had maintained a presence of uniformed personnel to provide security at school board meetings since 2015. Chapman told the Times-Mirror on Friday the sheriff’s office has continued to provide security at school board meetings since that Aug. 5 discussion, but not in the manner and degree requested by school administrators.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

A report on how a Front Royal department handled the mayor’s request for an exception to development rules remains under wraps. Town Attorney Douglas Napier responded in an email on Wednesday to the Daily’s request for a copy of the report. The attorney stated that he cannot release the 20-page report until authorized by the Town Council. The Virginia Freedom of Information Act and attorney-client privilege allows the town to keep the report confidential, Napier explained. The Planning Commission directed the Department of Planning and Zoning to look into the actions surrounding Chris Holloway Construction’s application for an exception to the rules for building subdivisions. Mayor Christopher W. Holloway sought the exception so his company could build townhouses on a vacant site and not need to meet certain requirements such as street width.
The Northern Virginia Daily

 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is attempting to let some sunshine into state government. The governor unveiled new transparency plans Thursday from more than 70 state agencies and public authorities and promised changes to how Freedom of Information Law requests will be processed and fulfilled in the Empire State. Hochul also made public recusal policies she, along with Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin and top aide Karen Keogh, signed off on. In a marked change from previous administrations, state agencies will no longer be required to send FOIL responses to the Executive Chamber for review. Instead, FOIL requests will be processed directly through an agency’s general counsel.
NY Daily News

The New York Civil Liberties Union is suing the city Department of Correction for access to internal disciplinary records of its officers, in which they say only a fraction of files has been publicly disclosed. The NYCLU filed the suit in Manhattan State Supreme Court on Friday after claiming their request for access to disciplinary records through the Freedom of Information Law was ignored. The NYCLU initially made the request in April, arguing they were entitled to those records after last year’s repeal of the state’s 50-a law, which shielded disciplinary records of officers from public view. While DOC has released a database of officers who had faced punishment for misconduct going back to 2019, including excessive force, an illegal chokehold, and at least one instance where a guard kicked a detainee while in custody, the NYCLU says these public records do not go far enough in providing transparency. They say it does not list names of officers whose cases were deemed unsubstantiated, meaning there was not enough evidence to proceed with discipline, providing a narrow scope of complaints. The public data also omits any substantiated case involving drug smuggling or sexual assault committed by guards, according to the suit.
Gothamist