Transparency News 11/29/16

State and Local Stories
 

The ACLU of Virginia released a letter Monday criticizing the Petersburg City Council for meeting practices it said violate “the spirit of open government laws.” The council over-relied on special meetings — sometimes called at the last minute, during the work day or held in cramped quarters — to decide matters of governance and financial management as the city faced a fiscal crisis, ACLU executive director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga warned in a four-page letter first sent to the council last week. “Holding meetings at inconvenient times and in small spaces that cannot accommodate the public violates the spirit of open government laws that serve to promote an increased awareness by all persons of government activities and afford every opportunity to citizens to witness the operations of government,” Gastañaga wrote. Bill Farrar, the ACLU of Virginia’s director of public policy and communications, said Petersburg joins the counties of Grayson and Fairfax in drawing a rebuke this year from the ACLU of Virginia.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Norfolk’s former military liaison says in a new federal lawsuit that he was fired in retaliation for raising ethical questions about a federal program meant to help veterans find jobs. John Andrews, who left city government in November 2014, says he lost his job after pointing out a possible conflict of interest: A man selling software to help veterans transition to new careers was married to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official overseeing similar efforts. The lawsuit says the firing by Norfolk City Manager Marcus Jones violated Andrews’ First Amendment rights as well as state and federal laws meant to protect whistleblowers.
Virginian-Pilot

NFL Hall of Famer Bruce Smith said it’s possible Virginia Beach’s mayor won’t call for a racial disparity study because he’s scared of what he’d find. Smith said he and a group of businessmen, whom he declined to name, would be willing to pay half of the cost of a racial disparity study on how city contracts are awarded.
Virginian-Pilot

Nearly a year after leaving office, former Nelson County Sheriff David Brooks was convicted in a Lynchburg courtroom Monday of two misdemeanors stemming from an illegal recording of an ex-political rival in the fall 2013. In the fall of 2013, Rebecca Adcock, a former Nelson sheriff’s lieutenant who worked under Brooks, became aware of former deputy Malcolm “Mac” Bridgewater’s online connection with the woman and told her “we need to play with this one.” Two former deputies rented two rooms at the Econo Lodge just off the Lynchburg Expressway in October 2013, and one of the rooms was set up with a hidden camera and surveillance equipment. Hidden recording devices were placed in a tissue box in the room with Bridgwater and the woman, Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael DoucetteDoucette said. The woman was never paid for the “operation,” and the offenses came to light after a Nelson County-issued credit card provided by Brooks to the former deputies was used to pay for the motel rooms, according to Doucette. “Sheriff Brooks approved of the plan,” Doucette said. “Sheriff Brooks provided . . . his Nelson County credit card.”
Daily Progress

Approximately 25 students marched into a Board of Visitors meeting Friday with a list of verbal demands which centered on asking the University to do more to create a safe space for victims of hate crimes. Student protesters took turns going around the room and shared their concerns before Rector William H. Goodwin asked them to leave. Goodwin said he asked student protesters to leave because of safety concerns regarding the number of individuals who are allowed to be in the room at any one time. “I’ll ask y’all to leave only because we have a fire code here and we don’t want to get in trouble with the police,” Goodwin said. “But thank you.” In an interview with The Cavalier Daily, Goodwin said the protesters were exercising their rights. “They have a right to speak their voice, and they did, and that’s their right,” Goodwin said. The Board of Visitors only meets four times per year. Although the meetings are open to the public, they do not provide an opportunity for public comment.
Cavalier Daily

If you’re seeking pretty much any piece of data about your child’s school, a new Virginia Department of Education website has you covered. The new School Quality Profiles, located at schoolquality.virginia.gov, are a comprehensive look at how students at a school, school division and across the state are performing. Data about accountability, assessments, enrollment, finance, teacher quality and more are easily available, displayed in pie and bar charts. Some of the data is displayed over the past three school years, while other data compares statistics, like Standards of Learning performance, to all Virginia students.
Daily Press


National Stories
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The office within the National Archives and Records Administration tasked with overseeing Freedom of Information Act activities across government has tapped Alina Semo as its new director. Semo, who has served as NARA’s director of litigation in the Office of General Counsel since March 2014, will take over as director of the Office of Government Information Services. OGIS was established under the OPEN Government Act of 2007 as the ombudsman between FOIA requesters and federal agencies.
FCW 

An attorney for the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission has tentatively ruled that state police violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act when the agency required written permission from a prosecutor for the release of documents while a case was pending prosecution.
Record-Journal