Transparency News 11/8/16

Tuesday, November 8, 2016


State and Local Stories

Petersburg residents determined to oust city officials they say are to blame for the city’s financial quagmire are bringing a recall fight to polling places on Tuesday. Although only three council seats are up for election, community activists say it’s past time for a referendum on the entirety of city leadership. To that end, members of the Clean Sweep Petersburg civic group are planning to collect signatures outside of polling places from voters unhappy with the city’s treasurer and members of the City Council whose seats are not up for election this time.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

A jury was picked Monday in the case of Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot, one day after a court filing reveal several new details of the government's case. Three new allegations included in the document: Burfoot required a constituent to provide him with two free lots before helping her obtain approvals for a development, arranged for his best friend to obtain a contract to collect delinquent business and property taxes, and nominated his girlfriend to serve on the Norfolk Library Board.
Virginian-Pilot

Breaking months of silence, Gene Ergenbright said Monday that he attached a “dictator smiley” to an email and sent it as a joke to a colleague “solely to poke fun at my co-worker’s curt request” for some stored files, not as an endorsement of “the views and actions of an evil man” like Adolf Hitler. That statement was at the heart of an emotional 15-minute news conference at City Hall called by Ergenbright, an employee in the offices of the Commissioners of Revenue in the city and in Augusta County.
Daily News Record

A video obtained by the Daily-News Record shows Nexus Services Inc. employee and City Council write-in candidate Theo Whitelow using the same racial epithet that he and his company’s CEO have accused a Nexus critic of using. Nexus CEO Mike Donovan on Monday evening said Whitelow had been fired over the video, though Donovan added that Whitelow could still appeal his dismissal. ... Donovan, Whitelow, other Nexus employees and members of Nexus’ closely associated Americans Resisting Minority and Ethnic Discrimination group have launched a television campaign and petition drive calling for the public to “fire” city Commissioner of the Revenue Karen Rose.
Daily News Record

The office of Virginia State Del. Richard L. Anderson (R-51) has announced that the Prince William County legislator will again host the 51st House District Future Delegate Program at the Virginia State Capitol in January and February 2017. The program, in its fifth year, is open to public, private and home-schooled students in grades seven-12. The 51st House District stretches from Occoquan  through Lake Ridge, into Brentsville and Nokesville.  All students are welcome to participate, regardless of party affiliation or views. The program focuses on the legislative process and shows students and families legislative life in Richmond, with a goal of motivating students to consider public service as a profession.
Inside NOVA


National Stories

A federal judge signaled Monday that he's not inclined to agree to a timetable for the release of FBI-recovered Hillary Clinton emails that could have the records dribbling out over the next five years. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg made the comment during a hearing on a Freedom of Information Act case brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch where the State Department is currently processing 500 pages per month. With as many as 31,000 emails contained on disks the FBI turned over but State has not yet processed for release, the current pace in the case Boasberg addressed Monday could stretch out for several years. "I'm not satisfied with saying, 'Fine, go ahead and take five years to do this,'" Boasberg said during a half-hour hearing in federal court in Washington.
Politico

The Cause of Action Institute has sued the Department of Treasury in order to procure records detailing the agency’s “sensitive review” policy.    The CoA Institute, a nonprofit corporation concerned with government accountability, filed the lawsuit on Nov. 1 in order to compel public disclosure of policies that can delay Freedom of Information Act record requests. The CoA has been pursuing this information since June 2013, when it submitted a FOIA request to learn more about how politically sensitive or potentially embarrassing information can slow open records being fulfilled. 
Federal Times

A Vermont judge has ruled a private contractor managing medical records for the state has to follow the state's public records law. Vermont Information Technology Leaders denied a citizen-activist's request for records on how it was spending money received from the state, saying it was a private, nonprofit firm. But Superior Court Judge Mary Miles Teachout has ruled VITL is the "functional equivalent" of a public agency. She says it gets government funding, is regulated by the government and would not have been created without the state's involvement.
Connecticut Post

Each year, Hawaii spends tens of millions of dollars to house prisoners on the mainland, a practice that it has maintained for more than 25 years. But the state's taxpayers are kept in the dark about much of what goes on at the Saguaro Correctional Center, a private Arizona prison where about 1,400 Hawaii prisoners are housed.
Mother Jones

Last March, the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency seeking a copy of "all pornographic material" collected during the May 2011 military operation that killed Osama bin Laden. In opposition, CIA argued that "responsive records, if any, would be contained in operational files," and that "the CIA Information Act exempts the CIA's operational files from FOIA's search and disclosure requirements." There is indeed an exemption from FOIA for CIA operational files, but the scope and the proper application of the exemption are in dispute. If the requested pornographic records do qualify for the "operational files" designation, as CIA holds, then they do not need to be assembled, reviewed or released in response to Judicial Watch's request. But whether they do so qualify is not a perfectly simple question, since the operational files exemption has various technical limitations and exceptions.
Secrecy News


Editorials/Columns

"Every man and every woman in this nation — regardless of party — who have the right to register and to vote, and the opportunity to register and to vote, have also the sacred obligation to register and to vote." — President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Election Day has arrived, bringing to conclusion a presidential campaign unlike any ever witnessed by living Americans. After all of the controversies, all of the insults and all of the hysteria, the election no longer belongs to the candidates and their shills. As of this morning, it belongs to the voters. It belongs to you.
Daily Press

Americans have a lot to think about today. There are, of course, the considerations to be made about each of the races they will see on the ballot. Across the country, that means selecting the best candidates for president and vice president, as well as for House and, in 34 states, the Senate. Closer to home, that also means picking the men and women who will serve as mayors, on city councils and on school boards. There are constitutional questions on Virginia ballots, and an important decision about light rail to be made at the Beach. Each has been the subject of debate, some more extensive and heated than others. And each, with any good fortune, will be resolved this day. However, on Election Day, Americans cannot restrict the scope of their vision to simply the names and issues on the ballot. Especially in our democratic republic, the very exercise taking place in civic halls, libraries, schools and church buildings is part of a continuum that merits some serious contemplation and celebration.
Virginian-Pilot

In 1894, when Roanoke was barely a dozen years old, yet another marvel was introduced to the roughshod little boomtown. The stereopticon. Today, we’d call it a slide projector. Back then, it was called “the magic lantern,” or if you want to be fancy, the formal name was used. And the young city’s morning newspaper aspired to be fancy. This was considered high technology in the late 19th century. It’s hard to tell which people found more fascinating — the mid-term elections (which saw Republicans seize control of the both houses of Congress from the Democrats) or the stereopticon.
Roanoke Times

Our nation functions best when its citizens take part in government. It’s a plain fact that democracy requires participation.
Free Lance-Star

It may feel as if the body politic is broken, fractured and shattered into a million pieces. Yes, there are divisions — deep divisions — in the country that have been building for 30 years or more. The nation is changing and evolving in ways many people wouldn’t have seen a few years ago, and we know change isn’t always easy to accept. The divisions in the country can be seen in Washington. Congress and the present seem incapable of accomplishing much of anything except arguing and fighting. The Supreme Court lacks a full complement of justices because of the partisan divide. And we wonder if our government is irreparably broken. It’s not, though. The works are gummed up right now, but the American people are capable of fixing it, if we choose to do so.  The fix starts with the ballot box, the most effective method of sending a message to the politicians who may have stopped listening to us.
News & Advance

I truly hope she was joking, but I don’t think so. On Monday, I headed out to pick up some stuff for lunch and ran into one of our readers. She thanked me for the coverage on the presidential election, but wished we had cut out some of the local material. She lived in the city, but just planned to leave the council space blank on the ballot today. She just didn’t see how a city council impacted her life at all. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that argument. I’ve even written about it before in this very column. I felt it needed to be said again, however, seeing as one way or another, Martinsville will have three council members picked tonight. All politics starts on the local level. I know, we see the presidential candidates on tv, we hear about the Senate or House members, but when it comes to simply impacting our daily lives, none do it more than local governments.
Martinsville Bulletin