Transparency News 1/16/15
State and Local Stories
My apologies for posting a faulty link to VCOG's legislative chart. Though the link under the sun logo is correct, the one I provided yesterday was for 2014. Here is the link to the 2015 chart.
As outrage flooded the inboxes of top University of Virginia officials following the Rolling Stone story that shook Grounds in November, one of the saga’s central figures pleaded with administrators to clear her name. “This is MY reputation, my very life’s work, I hope you all realize that,” Nicole Eramo, UVa’s associate dean of students, wrote in a Dec. 2 email to the school’s communications team. Through open records requests filed shortly after the Rolling Stone story broke Nov. 19 and filled Wednesday and Thursday, The Daily Progress obtained more than 1,500 pages of emails from members of the Board of Visitors, as well as Eramo and Claire Kaplan, director of UVa’s gender violence and social change program. Covering a range from September to December, the documents include clashes between former Rector Helen E. Dragas and her successor, George Keith Martin, along with disapproval from alumni, faculty and others in the immediate aftermath of the 9,000-word story. Board leaders cautioned other members against discussing the Rolling Stone fallout in ways that would be subject to Freedom of Information Act requirements. “We need to avoid emails,” Martin wrote Nov. 19 in a response to fellow board member Edward Miller. “Will call you tomorrow.” Miller fired back, saying he was reconsidering writing a recommendation letter for a female high school senior who wanted to attend the university because he questioned whether UVa were “a safe place to put her.” “George I totally disagree,” he wrote. “We need to address this issue with an emergency meeting of the board I really don’t care who sees this email,” Miller continued. “Screw the reputation of the university if we have a problem and as the Jeffersonian dinners showed and as the death of Hannah Graham highlighted we have a culture that is not in keeping with our principles.”
Daily Progress
Bristol leaders were tight-lipped Thursday following a hastily scheduled 90-minute closed door meeting dealing with The Falls. City Council held a 9 a.m. called meeting to confer with City Attorney Pete Curcio, but had little to say afterward. A notice about the meeting was emailed to media outlets at 6:13 p.m. Wednesday and simply said it would be a “consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel. (The Falls Development).” The lone agenda item was discussed in closed session, which excludes the public and news media.
Herald Courier
A Loudoun parent's successful lawsuit forced the Virginia Department of Education to release English and math improvement scores for county students. Brian Davison filed a Freedom of Information Act for student growth percentile (SGP) scores, used to measure student improvement across grade-levels. He wants Loudoun school officials to use the data in making decisions in teacher assessment and student needs, something which SOL scores alone don't do, he said. “With these scores, particularly...if they're made public, Loudoun would have the ability to determine which of its teachers are effective or not,” he told the Times-Mirror. “The data's going to get out there...We want to set up [a system] where great teachers are recognized for what they're doing.” The request was initially denied on the grounds that the information is part of “scholastic records” that reveal individual students, violating the Family Rights and Privacy Act. Richmond's Circuit Court overruled the objections, granting that the information would be released with student names removed.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
National Stories
A federal study found that there was no reliable way to get at the communications of terrorism suspects without sweeping up records of every call in the United States.New York Times
Editorials/Columns
A good government is one that responds to the wishes of the public. But the public cannot know how responsive its government is when much of what government does lies outside public view. Hence the need for transparency, the handmaiden of accountability. A new coalition, Transparency Virginia, has been formed to monitor and improve openness at the state level. It will focus on the sometimes overlooked mechanics: meeting notices, ensuring that all bills get heard, and the recording of votes in committees and subcommittees. All three are important; the last element deserves special mention. For years the House of Delegates has shanked important legislation — such as that regarding nonpartisan redistricting — in unrecorded subcommittee votes, leaving the public to wonder which members tried to save it and which plunged in the knife. No wonder voters are cynical. The new coalition comprises mainly established groups such as the League of Women Voters and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Individually they do good work; together, let us hope they become a force to be reckoned with.Times-Dispatch
The ethics law passed last year had the unintended – and we stress that word — consequence of unraveling some key electronic filing gains made in the last few years. The legislation – HB1211 – set up an Ethics Advisory Council and specified that it would “establish and maintain a searchable electronic database comprising disclosure forms.” The problem is confusion over the meaning of “searchable database.” To transparency boosters like ourselves, the meaning is simple. A “searchable database” means the forms would be stored in a computer language that allows the entire contents to be read automatically by a web browser or computer system. This “data feed” could be published by agencies on their websites or downloaded by citizens, media, bloggers or groups like VPAP. But to state officials looking for the quickest and least expensive way to implement HB1211, “searchable database” may simply mean the ability to locate the .pdf version of a report filed by a particular lobbyist or official. The only way to view the contents would be to open each .pdf and scroll down, page by page. This proposal would do little more than send us back to the days when looking for information meant flipping stacks of paper.
William Fralin Jr. and Albert Pollard Jr., Roanoke Times
