Transparency News 11/3/17

Friday, November 3, 2017



State and Local Stories

VCOG’s annual conference: tentative line-up of panels:

• From watchdog to the watched -- It's not unusual for journalists to go into government service, usually in communication departments or public information. But have you ever heard them explain what  was like to see the world through a different set of lenses?
• The Old Dominion and the Old North State -- Virginia's longest border-neighbor, North Carolina, faces many of the same access issues Virginia does, but what do we do differently?
• The Rolling Stone case -- The defamation trial a UVA official against the well-known rock-n-roll magazine is broken down for us by a reporter who covered the trial and a 1st Amendment scholar who was also present.
• When the lawyers come in -- Citizens and media alike attempt to resolve FOIA disputes with government through discussion, negotiation and persuasion. But when that fails to break the impasse, it might be time to call in the attorneys. A veteran media law attorney tells us more.
• Pressures on front-line FOIA workers -- FOIA officers and other employees who handle FOIA requests on a daily basis often find themselves making decisions as much based on what pressures their bosses may be exerting on them as what the law says. A researcher tells us more.
• The silly season -- It's election time, and what better way to relive this year's roller coaster ride of an election cycle than with political humorist Beau Cribbs?

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Charlottesville firebrand civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel has filed suit over the city’s decision to commission former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy to conduct an independent review of the white nationalist and white supremacist rallies held in the city this year. Fogel, a defense attorney who has brought multiple suits against the city in the past, filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that City Manager Maurice Jones did not have the authority to sanction the contract between the city and Heaphy’s law firm, Hunton & Williams. The suit asks the Charlottesville Circuit Court to declare the contract null and void.
Daily Progress

A stoic Judge Kurt Pomrenke listened intently Thursday during a 30-minute afternoon hearing before the Supreme Court of Virginia, whose seven members now hold his judicial fate in their collective hands. Pomrenke, the embattled 28th District juvenile and domestic relations court judge serving Washington and Smyth counties and Bristol, Virginia, was the subject of a complaint of judicial misconduct, filed earlier this year by the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission of Virginia. If the court agrees with the complaint, it can censure Pomrenke, which would allow him to continue on the bench, or it can remove him from that position. Katherine Burnett, counsel for the commission, called Pomrenke’s actions “very serious misconduct” but stopped short of asking for a specific action. She requested only that the court take appropriate measures.
Bristol Herald Courier

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will take the first steps in learning how to remove the treasurer and the commissioner of revenue as elected officials at Monday night’s meeting. Chairman Chris Tuck brought up the idea of consolidating the offices and putting them under the county’s purview at a regular meeting in early September.
News Messenger