Transparency News 11/14/14 – Virginia Coalition for Open Government

Friday, November 14, 2014

State and Local Stories

The mayors of Norfolk and Suffolk resigned as directors of TowneBank on Thursday, five days after a Pilot investigation into votes taken by Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms, who is also a TowneBank president. The bank issued a statement praising Paul Fraim of Norfolk and Suffolk’s Linda Johnson, calling them community leaders. The decision to part ways stemmed from a desire to “eliminate any perception of a conflict of interest and is not suggestive that any conflict exists.” “The unfortunate events of the past week concerning city council actions in the City of Virginia Beach have led us to reassess the perception of our local mayors serving as members of our various boards,” the bank statement said. The resignations come after “reflection and out of an abundance of caution.”
Virginian-Pilot

A man claims in a lawsuit that Hopewell police violated his constitutional rights by arresting him as he carried a rifle while displaying an "Impeach Obama" sign on a highway overpass. Brandon Howard alleges that his 90-minute detention violated his free-speech rights, as well as his rights to bear arms and to be free of unreasonable search and seizure. Howard was not charged in the September 2013 incident on an Interstate 295 overpass slightly west of Hopewell city limits in Prince George County.
Daily Progress

The list of the Lynchburg City Council’s legislative priorities opposes legislative action that would remove the current Freedom of Information Act exemption on the release of information pertaining to closed criminal justice case files. The exemption does not prevent such disclosure but gives law enforcement the option to decline to disclose details when doing so is likely to compromise ongoing criminal investigations. The city’s request to the state says a primary reason for keeping investigative details from public knowledge is to preserve investigators’ ability to evaluate the validity of information gathered from various sources.
News & Advance

Madison County citizens have a thirst for knowledge and are using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to quench it. FOIA provides citizens with access to public documents—encouraging governmental transparency and accessibility to information; something Madison County has been seeing a lot of this year. Madison County Administrator Ernie Hoch said he has sent and received more than 400 e-mails regarding FOIA requests this year—some of which have led to further litigation in court, which he said costs the taxpayers dollars and the time and talents of county staff. He also noted a majority of the requests and correspondences have originated from one citizen. Hoch said FOIA litigation has cost Madison taxpayers $5,490.45 to date in legal fees, estimating a jump to $6,990.45 following the current cases Madison County Supervisor Bill Campbell has filed against Hoch and fellow supervisors Doris Lackey, Clay Jackson, Kevin McGhee and Jonathon Weakley. But the cases aren’t just costing taxpayers money on the county side. When citizens file a FOIA request the county charges them for the time it takes to fill the request as well as any other “reasonable” fees. In Campbell’s case, his FOIA request sought access to emails sent and received between his fellow supervisors and Hoch. On Oct. 10, Hoch fulfilled the request, delivering 6,483 individual emails including attachments to Campbell. Hoch initially estimated a cost of $978.89 for the request, however the county ended up charging Campbell $1,742.94. Hoch said the scope of this project was huge and required unforeseen hours of work which was responsible for the increase in price.
Madison County Eagle

National Stories

With $750,000 in additional funding, the OpenGov Foundation plans to expand its footprint into the world of lawmaking tools for citizens and governments. The Washington, D.C.-based organization reports the new investment comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a civic tech philanthropy that, in July of 2013, funded the nonprofit with $200,000 to develop its Project Madison, an interactive platform that lets citizens opine on proposed and current legislation. The refill of capital is slated to fine-tune Madison further while extending a runway to launch new government partnerships for the group’s AmericaDecoded program, a campaign that liberates laws from publishing copyright for citizen access. While it affects many, few know of copyright’s pervasive influence on law accessibility across the U.S. State departments and federal agencies — the primary users of the tactic — often employ copyright as a cost-cutting measure to publish and distribute legal codes and regulatory standards.
Governing

Editorials/Columns

We have to pass the deal to find out what’s in it. Such is the message from the city of Richmond’s EDA, which continues its refusal to answer even basic questions about the Stone Brewery deal. It won’t say whether the approved contractor, Hourigan, offered the lowest bid. It won’t even disclose the other bids. Now Times-Dispatch reporter Graham Moomaw has revealed another wrinkle: The EDA apparently hopes to skim off some of the funds from the Stone project to fund its own operations. But the EDA won’t reveal any details. As EDA board member Rich Johnson put it, “If I discuss that … then I’m talking about a transaction that’s still in negotiation, which is what’s inappropriate.” Once the deal is irrevocable, then people can find out what it contains.
Times-Dispatch

Police shootings where civilians are killed (or wounded) are assumed to occur while protecting the public-at-large, as well as the officer(s) involved. When the public seeks to learn the circumstances of such shootings, police officials lock up the files and send out their spokesperson to say they can reveal nothing, forever. Any killing is a terrible thing. Police killings are worse. Officials know they cannot escape being accused by someone of having done something wrong, so they assume a permanent defensive crouch. The easy way out is to say nothing and reveal nothing. While shortsighted, that practice and policy is understandable. However, refusing to explain what happened erodes public trust in those sworn to “serve and protect.” It also obscures the fact that law enforcement officers in Northern Virginia are skilled professionals who, almost without exception, act properly in highly-charged circumstances. The many instances of police shootings over recent years prove beyond question that the police will not open their investigative files and their spokespersons will not tell the public what happened, until forced.
Michael McMorrow, Connection Newspapers

Can this be real? The Virginia Senate’s majority leader says he’s open to changing the way the state chooses its judges. You did not misread. That’s Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, whose Republican Party is currently in the catbird seat for filling vacancies on the bench because of Virginia’s unique selection process: The General Assembly elects judges by majority vote. This is a jealously guarded prerogative of the party in power, whichever it may be, involving lots of backroom horse trading that rarely gets aired publicly. When it does, it’s likely to carry at least a bit of an odor.
Roanoke Times