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"The council had 'struck a balance between the city’s desire to be more efficient relating to the receipt of funds and the public’s desire to keep the amount of time in considering the ordinance to two times.'"
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A legislative proposal posted Tuesday would prohibit the disclosure of the name and hometown of any winner of $10 million or more in the Virginia Lottery.
HB 1650
The Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office is refusing to release more than a dozen investigative reports about an Aug. 16 incident in which a man handcuffed in the back seat of a patrol vehicle obtained an unattended gun from a compartment and shot himself in the head. Maj. Troy Skebo said Monday the Sheriff’s Office would not be commenting on the case because of pending litigation. A lawyer for Christopher Howard, the man who shot himself while in custody and survived, sent the county attorney a Nov. 15 letter that he wrote “serves to put you on notice of Mr. Howard’s claim for damages” as a result of alleged negligence by the Sheriff’s Office. Skebo cited that notice of a claim when he declined to comment, and The Free Lance–Star subsequently obtained a copy of the letter through a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request. But the Sheriff’s Office denied another FOIA request earlier this month for investigative records or reports about the incident. Authorities are not required to release such documents under Virginia law, but can do so at their discretion.
The Free Lance-Star
During a Thursday meeting open to the public, the Warrenton Town Council will interview three men with management experience in local government to serve as interim town manager. The town council is following the open-meeting interviewing process it conducted three years ago when Hendrix was selected to serve as town manager, explained Mayor Carter Nevill.Council held closed sessions as allowed by law to interview candidates for the permanent town manager's position, which led to Brannon Godfrey’s hiring in 2015.
Fauquier Times
At Waynesboro City Council's regular meeting Monday, the members of the council passed a resolution that maintained the current system of considering ordinances twice, except when the ordinance relates to the city receiving funds. A hot button issue of late has been the possibility of reducing the number of considerations of ordinances by the council from two to one. This was introduced during the previous council meeting on Nov. 13 by Melisa Michaelson, the council’s legal counsel and an attorney for Litten & Sipe. Michaelson is in favor of this because she claims that, particularly in terms of decisions related to government spending, it would increase the overall efficiency of the council in regards to passing ordinances, and that most localities only consider ordinances once. However, skeptics who spoke up at the last meeting argue that this does would not give the citizens of Waynesboro enough time to voice their opinions on the issue. In its final decision, Michaelson said that the council had “struck a balance between the city’s desire to be more efficient relating to the receipt of funds and the public’s desire to keep the amount of time in considering the ordinance to two times.”
The News Virginian
Former Judge Kurt Pomrenke’s license to practice law in Virginia has been suspended for nine months by the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board. Pomrenke, of Abingdon, is a former juvenile court judge who was found guilty of contempt for violating a federal judge’s 2015 order not to share prosecution evidence from his wife’s federal corruption trial. In November 2015, Don Bowman, BVU’s president and CEO, was notified that he could be a witness in the criminal case against Stacey Pomrenke. At that time, the judge sent a handwritten note along with one of his judicial business cards to Bowman, the disposition states.
Bristol Herald Courier
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