Transparency News 1/15/18

The link provided Friday to the Fairfax FOIA policy page was incorrect. The right address is below. Apologies!
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicaffairs/foia

The one-time head of the state agency that oversees Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act has filed legislation to shield all court records from the Virginia law guaranteeing citizens’ right to see public records. The bill, posted late Friday by state Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Montross, would exempt the entire state judicial system from the Freedom of Information Act.
Daily Press
The Daily Press newspaper in Newport News fought to get a state database that could shed light on such issues as whether race plays a role in plea bargains in Virginia. The state Supreme Court ruled in June that its own Office of the Executive Secretary — which fought release of its database — was not required to turn it over. Nothing stopped the Office of the Executive Secretary from giving the Daily Press the information. But state law did not require it.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Since the deadly Unite the Right rally Aug. 12, locals have come before Charlottesville’s City Council to demand answers about the summer, air their grievances and press for change from their government. Over the past six months, meetings have been punctuated with screaming matches, confrontations, calls to order, and even arrests. In response, some councilors and members of the public are calling for a return to civility in Council Chambers. Other people are challenging the notion of civility as a goal, suggesting that focusing on decorum has not worked so far, ignores deeper issues, or even masks them.
Daily Progress

A lack of a quorum of the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors during Thursday meeting, did not allow members to decide whether to proceed in its endorsement of a resolution establishing legal counsel for an upcoming lawsuit brought against them late last year. The suit, the second one brought forth by Washington resident Marian M. Bragg, alleges the board collectively and four current board members violated the Freedom of Information Act during a closed session of the board on Nov. 8. A former board member, Mike Biniek of the Piedmont District, got named in the suit but has since lost re-election. A sixth respondent, former Interim County Administrator Brenda G. Garton also got attached to the suit in her role as the county’s FOIA officer.
Culpeper Star-Exponent

Rockingham County officials will lobby against legislation that would require local governments to have open public comment periods during their meetings. The Board of Supervisors directed staff Wednesday to express opposition to at least three bills proposed this year in the General Assembly, which convened for the 2018 session on Wednesday.
Daily News Record

WHILE KOCH INDUSTRIES SNARED headlines last fall for its partial acquisition of Time, Inc. (including Fortune, Sports Illustrated, and other holdings), the business empire’s nonprofit Koch Foundation made a smaller, little-noticed investment—granting $80,000 to the American Society of News Editors for its freedom of information hotline program. Historically media-shy, and famous for their efforts to discourage and discredit journalism critical of their business and political operations, the Kochs are now expanding their media holdings, while the family’s nonprofits ramp up donations to mainstream media institutions such as ASNE and the Poynter Institute, and underwrite programs for NPR and PBS. These two paths, by legally separate yet financially entwined Koch family institutions, have raised concerns about the Kochs’ larger effects on the media landscape, and on how they are viewed by the public and covered by the press.
Columbia Journalism Review

State and local governments have been more than happy to play up the amenities they think make their locations the best choice for Amazon’s second headquarters. But many of them will not disclose the tax breaks or other financial incentives they are offering the online giant. More than 15 states and cities, including Chicago, Cleveland and Las Vegas, refused requests from The Associated Press to detail the promises they made to try to lure the company. Among the reasons given: Such information is a “trade secret” and disclosing it would put them at a competitive disadvantage. Public records laws around the country vary, but when courting businesses, governments generally aren’t required to disclose tax breaks and other incentives during the negotiating phase.
AP News

Newly released court documents show the Las Vegas shooter’s girlfriend deleted her Facebook account before police announced the identity of the gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern history. Marilou Danley, who was in the Philippines visiting family when Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured another 557 in the attack, started making changes to her Facebook account about 2 1/2 hours after the first volley of bullets rained down on people attending a music festival on the Las Vegas strip. The first calls rolled in at 10:08 p.m., according to police. Several hundred pages, including more than a dozen search warrants and affidavits, were unsealed Friday by a U.S. judge in Nevada in response to a lawsuit filed by several media outlets, despite requests from law enforcement agencies that they remain sealed.
NPR

 

 

Advocates for transparency in state government scored a big win this past week when a new house rule requiring recorded votes in all legislative committees and sub-committees appeared in House Resolution 17, establishing rules for the 2018 and 2019 sessions of the General Assembly.  Delegate Ben Cline proposed a law the past two years. Both bills were cast aside, naturally, without a recorded vote. The rule change, while it doesn’t have the permanence of law, is long overdue. Virginia still has many opaque and Byzantine governmental laws, rules and procedures that thwart transparency, but in this one little-but-important corner, some fresh sunshine will shine in.
News Leader

There’s good news from Capitol Square. In a bipartisan move that enhances transparency and makes it easier for citizens to watch their government at work, the General Assembly will livestream House and Senate committee hearings. And it will archive the videos so they’ll be available for Virginians who aren’t able (or willing) to take time off from work to watch, say, the proceedings of the Senate Finance committee.
Richmond Times-Dispatch