Transparency News 11/23/16

State and Local Stories


Norfolk former Mayor Paul Fraim testified Tuesday that Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot never solicited his support for three men who now claim they bribed the city’s former vice mayor. On cross-examination by a prosecutor, however, Fraim also told a jury he would have disclosed relationships prosecutors say existed between Burfoot and some of the men. “Of course,” Fraim said.
Virginian-Pilot

At least one Arlington School Board members thinks her colleagues should consider pressing the General Assembly for a pay raise. At the board’s Nov. 15 meeting, School Board Vice Chairman Barbara Kanninen raised the question of procedural steps involved in upping board pay. She noted that County Board Chairman Libby Garvey recently had broached the same subject for her body. The issue of upping School Board salaries significantly has been brought up before, and despite what appears to be reasonably clear Code of Virginia language, “we have conflicting information” on what action would be needed to obtain authority for higher pay, School Board Chairman Nancy Van Doren said. Perhaps sensing that the School Board didn’t need the brushback that came to Garvey when she broached the subject of a County Board pay raise, Van Doren cut off discussion and moved the meeting on to other topics.
Inside NOVA

A Rocky Mount man’s felony conviction for hanging a noose in his yard will stand, based on a decision this week by the Virginia Court of Appeals. Jack Eugene Turner, 53, has admitted he used a rope to suspend a dark-colored, life-sized dummy in his yard during a 2015 feud with his neighbors, a black family. At a bench trial last year in Franklin County Circuit Court, Turner was found guilty of violating a state law, passed in 2009, which prohibits displaying a noose to intimidate someone. In September, a three-judge panel heard arguments from Perdue and from Assistant Attorney General Christopher Schandevel, who said Turner’s actions constituted unprotected threats no matter where they occurred. As he had during Turner’s trial, Perdue claimed that Turner’s display was protected as free speech under the First Amendment, and also that it occurred on Turner’s own private property and not “on a highway or other public place” as the statute prohibits. In a 16-page opinion released Tuesday, Judge Robert Humphreys affirmed Turner’s conviction. While he acknowledged the importance of free speech, and that “the First Amendment protects Turner’s right to be a racist and even to convey his racist beliefs to others,” he later added that a “constitutional limit to that allowance has been reached when an idea becomes a threat that causes reasonable people to fear leaving their homes.”
Roanoke Times



National Stories
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Should Brigham Young University's police department be subject to Utah's open records laws? The law enforcement arm of the private university, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has contended that it doesn't have to comply with state records laws, and the Utah Records Committee has agreed. But The Salt Lake Tribune is scheduled to argue in court Monday that because the state granted the department full policing powers — the same as any other public law enforcement agency in Utah — it should be open to public scrutiny.
Salt Lake Tribune

A federal jury ordered the District government to pay a former senior city contracting official $1.7 million in damages Tuesday after finding he was wrongfully demoted and fired in January 2009 for objecting to what he deemed political meddling in the awarding of city contracts. Eric W. Payne filed his whistleblower retaliation suit in 2010, alleging his wrongful termination as contracting director in the office of then-D. C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi. A judge later dropped Gandhi from the suit but allowed to go forward Payne’s claims that he was punished for complaining that then-Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and then-Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) sought to steer a $228 million lottery contract. Graham and Gray have vigorously denied the allegations of wrongdoing.
Washington Post

Two Indiana Appeals Court judges took issue with key arguments made by the Pence administration Monday, as it tries to keep an email sent to Gov. Mike Pence secret. The judges challenged the governor's argument that the judiciary branch had no authority in the matter, and that the email — sent to 30 recipients in various states — was protected by attorney-client privilege. In a case that may determine how the governor's office complies with Indiana public records laws, Pence's legal team argued before appellate Judges Nancy H. Vaidik, John G. Baker and Edward W. Najam Jr. that a political white paper should be kept from the public. "The statute itself cannot get into the governor's personal papers," said Joseph Chappelle, Pence's attorney, from the Indiana law firm Barnes & Thornburg, referring to the legal bounds of the Indiana Access to Public Records Act.
Indianapolis Star

An atheist's request to say "IM GOD" on his license plate was denied by the state of Kentucky, which said it might distract other drivers, could spark confrontations and would be in bad taste. Bennie L. Hart says that by driving around with the "IM GOD" message, he simply wants to spread his views about religion — that it's impossible to disprove anyone's claim to being "God." Besides, Hart says, he had the same plate for a dozen years when he lived in Ohio, without causing any problems.
Fox News