Transparency News 11/2/15
Monday, November 2, 2015
State and Local Stories
FOI Advisory Council opinion on records prepared for use in closed sessions, rights of a board member to access records, speaking about and sharing information discussed in closed session.
VCOG
A Virginia school board has filed a lawsuit that blocks until after Election Day Tuesday the public release of documents on a controversial transgender policy, prompting several candidates for the board to say Monday that voters now must toss the incumbents. Several documents released last week under Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Judicial Watch have revealed that Fairfax County Public School district board members already began implementing policy changes to accommodate transgender students before hastily voting on the gender identity policy amendment in May.
Washington Times
Earlier this year, Norfolk's School Board approved guidelines for social media use. The policy says employees have the right to speak out as citizens, but adds they "have the unique responsibility within the community to serve as role models, leaders, and caretakers for the division's students." The guidelines also say social media use should not create a hostile or disruptive environment, harm the reputation of Norfolk Public Schools or lead teachers to inappropriately socialize with students. Rodney Jordan, the board chairman, said the guidelines are meant more to protect staff than restrict them as the social media world evolves. "Technology is like water," Jordan said. "It can revive you, and sometimes it can drown you."
Virginian-Pilot
National Stories
The White House will not allow the immediate release of emails exchanged between President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton from when she was secretary of state, a senior administration official said on Friday. The emails may be withheld until after Obama leaves office under the Presidential Records Act, according to the White House, a law that governs public access to the president's records. The number of emails involved has not been made public. The White House said Obama and Clinton, who is now running as a Democrat to succeed him in office in 2017, exchanged emails "on occasion.”
Reuters
The director of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records cannot be removed by the governor without cause, Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled Tuesday in a decision that will keep in place the executive director fired early this year by Gov. Tom Wolf. The Supreme Court ruled 3-1 that Wolf overstepped his authority when he dismissed Erik Arneson shortly after taking office in January. Justice Max Baer wrote in the majority opinion that the justices generally agreed with a lower court that the Legislature “intended to immunize the executive director from the governor’s ability to remove him without cause at will,” but he also emphasized the ruling applies narrowly to the open records office.
The Reporter News
The 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), one of the "open government" laws, generally mandates that federal advisory committee meetings be held openly, except under certain specified circumstances. But over the past ten years, the number of closed meetings has actually increased, a new analysis by the Congressional Research Service found. "FY2014 reported the highest percentage of closed meetings (71.1%) during the time period of examination," CRS found. Official advisory committees can be an important mechanism for exerting non-governmental influence on the policies of executive branch agencies. So the composition of such committees, their operations and their recommendations are susceptible to political pressures. FACA was intended to help counter abuse of the advisory committee process and ensure a modicum of fairness to competing points of view, in part by requiring that their meetings be conducted openly.
Secrecy News
Editorials/Columns
This year the General Assembly and the governor agreed to modify the state law governing such partnerships by increasing transparency and oversight. That’s a step in the right direction. The next step should be to ask exactly what the state is supposedly getting from public-private deals — and if they actually deliver. Judging from recent experience, they’re sure not saving taxpayers any money.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
I EXPECT elected leaders to display more tact and comity than residents who speak at public meetings. Deep down, council members might believe citizens are off-base, misinformed or even nonsensical. Public officials shouldn't voice those sentiments, however. They should explain rather than humiliate, illuminate rather than embarrass. That brings me - as you know it must - to the recent nastiness at Portsmouth City Hall. Issues of race, personal agendas and pettiness have created a toxic mixture. At meetings, Mayor Kenny Wright often displays an imperial attitude that infuriates residents. This would be bad enough if the city administration were running smoothly. It's not.
Roger Chesley, Virginian-Pilot
