Transparency News, 11/16/2022

Wednesday
November 16, 2022

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state & local news stories

WHO IS YOUR FOI HERO?
VCOG is seeking nominations for its open government awards for citizens, press and government.
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As we all know, trust is not dictated, it is earned. With trust, there can be acceptance, however grudgingly, of even hard news. Like, I may not agree with TPTB’s decision, but I could entertain the possibility that it was 50%, even 100% correct if given the chance. My complaint is ultimately about process. And about communication. Because both, together, forge trust. Because I am like I am, I firmly believe that process and communication are essential to citizen attempts at getting records through FOIA. Process — not just the statutory procedures — but the whole interaction. Communication — not just the statutorily required responses — but the way difficult news is conveyed. But when the process is flawed or when there’s been no meaningful communication, there is resentment. There is mistrust.
VCOG newsletter on Substack

Among a new set of hires by Portsmouth City Manager Tonya Chapman is one former city employee whose name surfaced last month in connection with bribery allegations detailed in a lawsuit. Sunshine Swinson, a new deputy city manager as of Monday, has also been charged with welfare fraud in Suffolk. Swinson’s name surfaced publicly as a top candidate for the city manager position in March 2021 before Angel Jones was hired the following month. Swinson and Jones were both in the same news cycle last month, when Swinson was mentioned in Jones’ lawsuit against the city, in which Jones alleged Vice Mayor De’Andre Barnes accepted a bribe in the past from Swinson’s brother, Eugene, to hire Swinson for the city manager position.
The Virginian-Pilot

Monday’s Spotsylvania School Board meeting adjourned shortly before midnight with the board not taking up any of its action items, new or unfinished business. There was a motion and second to adjourn the meeting but no official vote. Chairman Kirk Twigg instructed staff to cut off the microphone while board member Nicole Cole was explaining that she had business items to discuss.
The Free Lance-Star

Isaac Kelley didn’t wait until the 11th hour to run for an open seat on the Timberville Town Council. Instead, the 19-year-old decided to launch his write-in campaign at the 12th hour, at noon on Election Day. With a whiteboard that read, “Write In: Timberville Town Council Isaac Kelley” and a small paper handout asking for votes, Kelley, who was 18 on Election Day, went to the Plains District Community Center, the town’s polling place, to campaign for votes. “I kind of waited until the last minute to run,” says Kelley, whose birthday was Saturday.
Daily News Record

Arlington County is looking to the state legislature to help with some key priorities, including combating malicious 911 calls and predatory towing. These are two of many issues that the county intends to have local legislators lobby for in the upcoming 2023 Virginia General Assembly session, which runs for 45 days beginning on Jan. 11, 2023. Other notable legislative priorities include expanding authority for local boards and commissions to meet virtually.
ARLnow

An internal report obtained by The Flat Hat identifies significant salary discrepancies among the College of William and Mary’s faculty, staff and contracted Sodexo dining hall workers, along the lines of gender, race and ethnicity. According to the report’s executive summary, associate professor of sociology Caroline Hanley authored the report for the Women’s Network, who Provost Peggy Agouris had asked to assess salary equity at the College. Hanley confirmed in a written statement to The Flat Hat that she authored the report and sent it to Agouris in May 2021. The Women’s Network did not respond to a request for comment. Administrators did not acknowledge the May 2021 internal salary equity report when asked about pay equity studies at the College. Both Agouris and College spokesperson Suzanne Clavet say that efforts to address pay equity with the College’s University Human Resources are ongoing.  The report recommends that Agouris and the administration should share the findings with College employees.
The Flat Hat

Isle of Wight County Schools Chief Financial Officer Rachel Trollinger has resigned, telling School Board members on Nov. 10 she could “no longer in good conscience” stand before them “and state that the school division was being good stewards with county or taxpayer funds.” According to the personnel report the School Board approved at its Nov. 10 meeting, Trollinger’s resignation was effective Oct. 24. Speaking during the meeting’s public comment period, Trollinger said she’d discovered evidence while working on year-end bookkeeping for the 2021-22 school year in preparation for an upcoming audit that federal grants awarded to the division had gone “unprocessed in a timely manner,” resulting in “over a $5 million cash flow shortage.” Federal funds, she contended, had also been forfeited, and a donation from one of the division’s local vendor partners had gone unspent by the June 30 end of the 2022 fiscal year, “resulting in the division giving these funds back to the county.” Trollinger further contended the division had missed the deadline for submitting its 2021-22 Annual School Report Financial Section. 
The Smithfield Times
 

stories of national interest\

"There has been a fierce bureaucratic war over the documents in recent years, pitting the Archives against the CIA, FBI and other agencies that want to keep them secret."

Almost exactly 59 years after those rifle shots rang out in Dealey Plaza, left a president mortally wounded and changed the course of history, there are still secrets that the government admits it is determined to keep about the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. More than 14,000 classified documents somehow related to the president’s murder remain locked away, in part or in full, at the National Archives in clear violation of the spirit of a landmark 1992 transparency law that was supposed to force the release of virtually all of them years ago. The fact that anything about the assassination is still classified — and that the CIA, FBI and other agencies have refused to provide the public with a detailed explanation of why — has convinced an army of conspiracy theorists that their cynicism has always been justified. Newly released internal correspondence from the National Archives and Records Administration reveals that, behind the scenes, there has been a fierce bureaucratic war over the documents in recent years, pitting the Archives against the CIA, FBI and other agencies that want to keep them secret.
Politico

editorials & columns

"How many emails were received in all? Where did they go? Who was charged with reviewing them? What will they be used for?"

Gov. Glenn Youngkin whispered his teacher snitch line into public knowledge in January during an otherwise ordinary appearance on conservative radio. There was no formal announcement, no fanfare, just an email address where people could speak the worst about educators and public schools with an assurance that the administration would listen. It was with similar sleight of hand that Youngkin pulled the plug on the initiative, following months of questions about what was being sent, which officials were reading the submissions and the ultimate purpose of that information. How many emails were received in all? Where did they go? Who was charged with reviewing them? What will they be used for? The governor sure isn’t saying.
The Virginian-Pilot