Transparency News 11/3/16
Thursday, November 3, 2016
State and Local Stories
Standing in the middle of thousands of bound volumes at the Library of Virginia, archivist Roger Christman thumbs through a binder of hard copy records from the administration of Governor Tim Kaine. This document — and more than a million emails — are being uploaded to the library’s website.
Idea Stations
The Franklin City Council is calling for the resignation of every School Board member over financial concerns. In a resolution passed Tuesday, the council points to a number of mistakes it says the board made in recent years. Council members have lost faith in the board members because of “incompetence in the performance of their duties,” the resolution says.
Virginian-Pilot
Warren County omitted some delinquent taxpayers from a list of real estate accounts advertised last week. Treasurer Wanda Bryant advised the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the list of accounts in arrears for real estate taxes did not include some property owners. The omissions occurred when the software used by the Treasurer’s Office converted the list from one electronic document format to another for use in the advertisement in the Northern Virginia Daily, Bryant explained. County supervisors decided recently to revive the practice of advertising the names of accounts in arrears for real estate taxes in the newspaper. The office already makes that information available on the county’s website.
Northern Virginia Daily
National Stories
We don’t yet know why James Comey wrote that letter to Congress about Hillary Clinton’s emails. We don’t fully know why President Obama decided not to bomb Syria after Bashar al-Assad crossed the “red line” by using chemical weapons. We don’t even know why President George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq. However, in 20 years or so, we might be able to unravel those mysteries and many more, thanks to a little-noticed revision to the Freedom of Information Act. The revision—passed by Congress in July but making its first dent in the public record just this week—severely weakens one of the nine exemptions, under Section (b) of FOIA, that federal agencies can cite when rejecting a citizen’s request for specific government documents, declassifying them if necessary. The one in question is Exemption No. 5, which covers “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters”—a phrase that courts have since interpreted to include memos that are “part and parcel” of an agency’s “deliberative process.”
Slate
Editorials/Columns
The preventable death of Jamycheal Mitchell at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail last year continues to illuminate flaws in the system of oversight meant to ensure accountability and improve the function of state government. At a recent meeting of the joint subcommittee studying Virginia’s mental health system, three people who worked with the Office of the State Inspector General outlined possible conflicts regarding investigations by the OSIG’s office. In particular, they claimed reports had been altered to make it appear that conditions at Eastern State Hospital were better than they are. They alleged that admissions staff was dangerously overworked, and that officials at the OSIG’s office removed those concerns from a report about the hospital. Left unmentioned at the time was that State Inspector General June Jennings’ husband, William D. Jennings, works at Eastern State as the director of quality management, and that Priscilla Smith held that position prior to William Jennings’ appointment. Smith now serves as the head of the OSIG division that reviews Eastern State and the rest of Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
Virginian-Pilot
It is more than distressing to learn that a government agency that describes itself as "championing better government performance" would feel it appropriate to cover up finding that Eastern State Hospital employees were working excessive amounts of overtime. Exhaustion, after all, was the excuse for why the hospital somehow mishandled a court order that extremely an ill Hampton Roads Regional Jail inmate needed its care. But when the state office of the inspector general prepared a final report on the way the hospital handled Mr. Mitchell's paperwork, mentions of the exhausting overtime staff members put in were omitted though they were reported by investigators looking into the case. We know about the omission only because word slipped out during a telephone conference of a General Assembly subcommittee. The Daily Press had asked for drafts of her reports under the Freedom of Information Act but had not received them. In the past the inspector general's office has withheld drafts and other case file records under an exemption in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Daily Press
Here’s the problem faced by opponents of the natural gas pipelines proposed for this part of Virginia: The system is rigged against them. The agency that rules on pipelines – the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – is dominated by appointees from the energy industry. The commission is also funded by fees paid by the very industries it regulates. This is an agency apparently impervious to the normal political pressure. When a bipartisan group of Virginia’s senators and congressmen asked FERC for something as simple as scheduling more hearings, the agency said “no.” If the agency won’t even give in on something that innocuous, what hope is there of outside pressure influencing the actual outcome?
Roanoke Times
In a lamentable example of “ready-fire-aim,” the Arlington County Board is considering eliminating a tradition that goes back generations. Since the 1950s and perhaps even earlier, the County Board had held its organizational meeting on New Year’s Day. On those occasions when Jan. 1 falls on a Sunday – as it will in 2017 – the board traditionally has moved the meeting to the morning of Monday, Jan. 2, which, as it is a federal holiday in those years, allows interested residents to attend. Veteran civic activists are not pleased. Nor are we. Traditions are important, and should not be trod upon with little reason.
Inside NOVA
Idea Stations
The Franklin City Council is calling for the resignation of every School Board member over financial concerns. In a resolution passed Tuesday, the council points to a number of mistakes it says the board made in recent years. Council members have lost faith in the board members because of “incompetence in the performance of their duties,” the resolution says.
Virginian-Pilot
Warren County omitted some delinquent taxpayers from a list of real estate accounts advertised last week. Treasurer Wanda Bryant advised the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the list of accounts in arrears for real estate taxes did not include some property owners. The omissions occurred when the software used by the Treasurer’s Office converted the list from one electronic document format to another for use in the advertisement in the Northern Virginia Daily, Bryant explained. County supervisors decided recently to revive the practice of advertising the names of accounts in arrears for real estate taxes in the newspaper. The office already makes that information available on the county’s website.
Northern Virginia Daily
National Stories
We don’t yet know why James Comey wrote that letter to Congress about Hillary Clinton’s emails. We don’t fully know why President Obama decided not to bomb Syria after Bashar al-Assad crossed the “red line” by using chemical weapons. We don’t even know why President George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq. However, in 20 years or so, we might be able to unravel those mysteries and many more, thanks to a little-noticed revision to the Freedom of Information Act. The revision—passed by Congress in July but making its first dent in the public record just this week—severely weakens one of the nine exemptions, under Section (b) of FOIA, that federal agencies can cite when rejecting a citizen’s request for specific government documents, declassifying them if necessary. The one in question is Exemption No. 5, which covers “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters”—a phrase that courts have since interpreted to include memos that are “part and parcel” of an agency’s “deliberative process.”
Slate
Editorials/Columns
The preventable death of Jamycheal Mitchell at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail last year continues to illuminate flaws in the system of oversight meant to ensure accountability and improve the function of state government. At a recent meeting of the joint subcommittee studying Virginia’s mental health system, three people who worked with the Office of the State Inspector General outlined possible conflicts regarding investigations by the OSIG’s office. In particular, they claimed reports had been altered to make it appear that conditions at Eastern State Hospital were better than they are. They alleged that admissions staff was dangerously overworked, and that officials at the OSIG’s office removed those concerns from a report about the hospital. Left unmentioned at the time was that State Inspector General June Jennings’ husband, William D. Jennings, works at Eastern State as the director of quality management, and that Priscilla Smith held that position prior to William Jennings’ appointment. Smith now serves as the head of the OSIG division that reviews Eastern State and the rest of Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
Virginian-Pilot
It is more than distressing to learn that a government agency that describes itself as "championing better government performance" would feel it appropriate to cover up finding that Eastern State Hospital employees were working excessive amounts of overtime. Exhaustion, after all, was the excuse for why the hospital somehow mishandled a court order that extremely an ill Hampton Roads Regional Jail inmate needed its care. But when the state office of the inspector general prepared a final report on the way the hospital handled Mr. Mitchell's paperwork, mentions of the exhausting overtime staff members put in were omitted though they were reported by investigators looking into the case. We know about the omission only because word slipped out during a telephone conference of a General Assembly subcommittee. The Daily Press had asked for drafts of her reports under the Freedom of Information Act but had not received them. In the past the inspector general's office has withheld drafts and other case file records under an exemption in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Daily Press
Here’s the problem faced by opponents of the natural gas pipelines proposed for this part of Virginia: The system is rigged against them. The agency that rules on pipelines – the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – is dominated by appointees from the energy industry. The commission is also funded by fees paid by the very industries it regulates. This is an agency apparently impervious to the normal political pressure. When a bipartisan group of Virginia’s senators and congressmen asked FERC for something as simple as scheduling more hearings, the agency said “no.” If the agency won’t even give in on something that innocuous, what hope is there of outside pressure influencing the actual outcome?
Roanoke Times
In a lamentable example of “ready-fire-aim,” the Arlington County Board is considering eliminating a tradition that goes back generations. Since the 1950s and perhaps even earlier, the County Board had held its organizational meeting on New Year’s Day. On those occasions when Jan. 1 falls on a Sunday – as it will in 2017 – the board traditionally has moved the meeting to the morning of Monday, Jan. 2, which, as it is a federal holiday in those years, allows interested residents to attend. Veteran civic activists are not pleased. Nor are we. Traditions are important, and should not be trod upon with little reason.
Inside NOVA
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