Transparency News 1/14/14

Tuesday, January 14, 2014
 

State and Local Stories

 

 

Yesterday, the Library of Virginia made the first batch of email from Governor Timothy M. Kaine’s administration (2006-2010) available online.  The initial release consists of 66,422 of the approximately 1.3 million emails the Kaine administration transferred to the Library four years ago.  It has taken a small but dedicated staff of Library archivists and IT professionals nearly three years to bring this project to fruition.  Access to the collection, information on related content and the nuts and bolts of processing this collection are available athttp://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/kaine/. “We are proud to be the first state government archives in the United States to make the emails of a previous administration freely available to the public online,” said Librarian of Virginia Sandra G. Treadway.  The Library can’t take all the credit.  We could not have achieved this distinction without the assistance of the Kaine administration records officers.  Records don’t magically appear at the Library at the end of a gubernatorial administration.  During those four years, the Library partners with the Office of the Governor to ensure that the official state records that document the activities of a governor’s administration are preserved and transferred to the Library.  The work of the Kaine records officers make today’s e-mail release possible.
Virginia Memory

Open Virginia Law yesterday released an assessment of public access in the nation’s court system. In addition to a narrative summary, recommendations for improvement, and a Q&A-format discussion of public access, the report card provides detailed, state-by-state information, supported with relevant hyperlinks, in an easy-to-understand format. Unfortunately, Virginia received a grade of C-, though that grade may have been lower had the Supreme Court of Virginia not announced Friday afternoon last week that it would make audio recordings of oral arguments available online.
Open Virginia Law

If the Richmond City Council were to cut back from two regular meetings per month to one, the change would save $288,668 a year in direct costs and staff time, according to a council memo. Councilman Jonathan T. Baliles, 1st District, has proposed making the move, but it will be a little longer before he learns whether his colleagues are on board with the idea. The matter was on the agenda for Monday’s council meeting but was continued until early March. “We can discuss ideas and some other best practices from other municipalities over the next 30 to 60 days and then look at maybe putting this paper up for a public hearing some time in March or April,” Baliles told his colleagues at a committee meeting last week.
Times-Dispatch

After spending most of his career working for partisan causes, Virginia's new Democratic governor is calling for nonpartisan redistricting of legislative boundaries. Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the former national Democratic chairman and chief fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton, said in his State of the Commonwealth speech Monday night that he will work with other Virginia leaders for legislation to take the politics out of the once-a-decade reapportionment process. Currently, the majority party in the General Assembly controls redistricting.
Register & Bee

In wake of the gift-giving scandal involving former Gov. Bob McDonnell and a wealthy businessman, Terry McAuliffe campaigned on banning gifts over $100 to himself and family members. And the Democrat followed through with an executive order to that effect on the day he took the oath of office as governor. But he didn’t publicize that, unlike his other three executive orders so far, the $100  gift ban one expires after one calendar year.
Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau

The executive order completed a promise Democrat McAuliffe made during his gubernatorial campaign, which played out in the shadow of the McDonnell scandal. The order applies to executive branch employees and their families only, and excludes the state attorney general, lieutenant governor and staff of a few commissions. It also creates an ethics commission that will investigate complaints under the order and issue recommendations for whether an employee should be disciplined, a decision that will be left to department chiefs. Longtime political analyst Bob Holsworth said the move marks a clear break from the previous administration. “McAuliffe has made a pretty clear statement about where he stands,” Holsworth said, “but what it doesn’t do is it doesn’t tell us what we’re going to go through in the legislature.”
Center for Public Integrity

Lawrence McConnell, publisher of The Daily Progress, has been named to the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. He will be inducted in April with five other newspaper, advertising, broadcasting and public relations professionals. McConnell has been publisher of The Daily Progress since 1995. He also serves as regional publisher of the Charlottesville Newspaper Group under BH Media. He joined the paper after serving as managing editor of The Tampa Tribune for eight years. McConnell also has served as board president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government as well as president of the Virginia Press Association, for which he remains a regional Freedom of Information coordinator. He also is a member of the advisory board at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Washington and Lee.
Daily Progress

The man who came under fire for his extreme political stances after he was appointed to the Loudoun Library Board of Trustees earlier this month has resigned. Andrew Beacham sent an email to the entire Board of Supervisors Sunday afternoon thanking them for their consideration in appointing him, but saying "[d]ue the circumstances, I hereby tender my resignation effective immediately from the Loudoun County Library Board of Trustees." Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling) nominated Beacham for the vacant Sterling District seat on the Library Board of Trustees in December. As is the process set out by the board, nominations are made at one meeting and the appointees are confirmed at the following meeting. But after Beacham's appointment controversy arose in the public because of his previous political activity.
Leesburg Today

A Virginia state senator has promised to return $1,695 in campaign donations raised with an appeal made in his name during the General Assembly session, when sitting lawmakers are prohibited from raising money. An e-mail sent under the name of Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) Thursday, one day after the session began, sought donations to help defray the costs of a recount in a special Senate election that was narrowly won by a Democrat last week. It also asked for donations to help a Democrat win a special House election coming up later this month, including a link not to the candidate’s campaign fund but to the House Democratic Caucus. McEachin said he was not aware that the appeal, sent by the Senate Democratic Caucus staff, would be issued under his name. It carried his signature at the bottom, but he said it was an electronic version added without his knowledge. Nevertheless, McEachin said he that took responsibility for the error and that the contributions would be returned to all 45 donors. “It was wrong,” he said. “I take full responsibility for it. It was not intentional.”
Washington Post

National Stories

Lawyers, journalists, technologist to discuss report from president's panel on intelligence and communications. The report and recommendations from the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies will be discussed by a member of the Review Group as well as legal, journalism and technology experts at a Jan. 22 event hosted by the Medill National Security Journalism Institute and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The discussion will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 22 from 9-10:30 a.m. in the Holeman Lounge at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Mark Darr isn't the only lieutenant governor to run into problems lately. Last year, the lieutenant governors of three other states — Florida, Massachusetts and Nebraska — all stepped down amidst scandal. Last month, Ohio Democrats dropped from their ticket state Sen. Eric Kearney, their erstwhile pick for lieutenant governor this year, due to unpaid taxes. On the Republican side, a Tea Party primary challenge against Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich was dropped this month due to similar tax questions dogging putative lieutenant governor candidate Brenda Mack. The office may not usually have much power, but some of its occupants do have the knack for getting themselves in trouble. There are several possible explanations for this.
NPR

New documents obtained by the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press show the administration of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is hiding details of the $25 million "Stronger Than the Storm" advertising campaign, which now is at the center of a federal probe. The state Economic Development Authority was asked in the public records request for the score sheets from the six members of the evaluation committee that awarded the contract to MWW. The newspaper received the sheets, but the names of the evaluators were blacked out, making it impossible to learn whose votes helped swing the contract award to MWW. The state declined to provide a reason for redacting the names.
USA Today

In government and politics, when is a secret ballot justified? Three members of the Nebraska Legislature's Rules Committee said it's the right thing to do when electing committee chairs to keep party politics out of the nonpartisan, one-house Legislature. The committee on Friday addressed seven changes in how senators conduct business, forwarding four on for debate and votes. One proposal to elect chairs and vice chairs with an open, recorded vote rather than secret ballot was killed outright. Sen. Lydia Brasch of Bancroft proposed the change, saying transparency is best. Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop followed with the kill motion.
Journal Star
 

Editorials/Columns

Virginian-Pilot: Residents of Virginia's 6th Senate District deserve to have the candidate they elected take his seat in the General Assembly as quickly as possible. That means that a recount to determine who that man is must be expeditiously completed.

Free Lance-Star: IT MAY BE impossible to legislate ethics, but at least our elected state representatives are giving it a try. In a rare show of solidarity, Republican and Democratic leaders in the House of Delegates have decided to come out four-square against corruption, announcing a sweeping set of reforms to state ethics, transparency and disclosure laws. This might seem only less monumental than agreeing that the sun rises in the east, but we’ll take what we can get.