Transparency News 11/9/15

Monday, November 9, 2015

State and Local Stories

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Virginia shot up in a 50-state ranking of state government integrity released Monday, riding ethics reforms approved over the last two years from a spot at 47 all the way up to No. 16. Don't celebrate too hard, though. Virginia, like 36 other states, still got a "D." The study, a year-long collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity, concluded that state government nearly everywhere suffers from "pervasive secrecy, weak oversight and questionable ethics." "State governments are plagued by conflicts of interests and cozy relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists, while open-records and ethics laws are often toothless and laced with exemptions," the groups said in a press release.
Daily Press
Grades of all 50 states
USA TODAY

The City of Richmond is aggressively attempting to collect $71 million in outstanding property and real estate taxes. The very people paid by those taxes are some of the people not paying them. Now, the city is trying to change that. Collecting delinquent taxes is an ongoing problem for any municipality. Some hire collection agencies, and while the City of Richmond does do that, Tammy Hawley with the Mayor's office explained the city is trying a different avenue so people don't get hit with extra charges from those collection agencies. The following letter was sent to those employees and included this bit: “Employees should also be aware that delinquent personal property tax records are considered public information under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act regulations and must be disclosed if the records are requested.”
NBC12


National Stories

A jury found the executive director of the Metropolitan Housing Alliance in Little Rock innocent Friday in his appeal of a previous criminal conviction of violating the state's Freedom of Information Act. As soon as the verdict was read Friday -- after the jury deliberated for more than 2½ hours at the end of the three-day trial -- housing alliance director Rodney Forte jumped up from his chair and raced out the door, even before the jury members had a chance to file out of the Pulaski County Circuit Court. Forte had been accused of failing to respond to information requests from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette within three working days, as mandated by state law. "Justice was done. This was not an attack on the Freedom of Information Act," defense attorney Marion Humphrey said in an interview after the trial. "Mr. Forte did his best to comply with the requests. I very much appreciate the work the jury did on this case."
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Indiana acted properly in forbidding a police officer from using a vanity license plate that said "0INK," the state's highest court decided on Friday, reversing a lower court ruling. The Indiana Supreme Court said the state's personalized license plates are government speech. As a result, it said the Bureau of Motor Vehicles does not violate drivers' free speech and due process rights under the U.S. Constitution by denying applications for plates or revoking previously issued plates. Friday's decision followed the U.S. Supreme Court's June 18 ruling that Texas did not violate the First Amendment by rejecting plates bearing the Confederate flag. The Indiana case was brought on behalf of drivers including Rodney Vawter, a corporal in the Greenfield, Indiana police department. He had used the "0INK" plate for three years, but when the motor vehicle bureau in 2013 rejected another plate that read "O1NK," its computers flagged Vawter's plate as too similar, leading to its revocation.
Reuters

The FBI has denied the existence of the reference manual its officials use to process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, even though previous versions of the document have been publicly available for at least three years. The FBI’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts (FOIPA) Reference Manual, commonly known as the “Green Book,” is a set of guidelines for agency officials in charge of responding to FOIA requests, specifically about the proper procedures for processing requests for FBI documents or documents from any other agency under the purview of Department of Justice. The Green Book also contains volumes of numbered memos from directors and other officials in the agency’s FOIA department, instructing FOIA officials on how to respond to requests regarding certain procedures the FBI conducts, organizations under surveillance by the agency, and other persons and events of interest.
The Public Record

Another reason e-government has not lived up to its full promise is that many state IT systems are woefully out of date, especially compared to the systems the corporate sector uses. But if CIOs and other advocates of modern digital government are going to be able to make their case effectively for resources to bring their technology into the 21st century, they will need to make a more convincing bottom-line case to appropriators. This argument should be about saving money, including through workforce reduction.
Governing

Twitter rolled out a new page aimed at disclosing where the company stands on critical policy issues to users and Twitter’s political endeavors – including donations and Twitter’s PAC involvement. The social networking platform has strengthened its policy division in the last several years, adding people like former FCC staffer Colin Crowell and former Google and U.S. State Department veteran Katie Jacobs Stanton. “Because Twitter stands for open communication, we’re pleased to unveil policy.twitter.com, our new site covering the most critical policy issues facing our users, as well as providing an unprecedented level of transparency into how and with whom we engage politically in the U.S.,” reads a statement on Twitter’s blog.
Tech Crunch

Editorials/Columns

Reporting about FOI matters through the years shows that public officials often do not release documents because they don’t know the law requires it. And they mistakenly believe that government records belong to the agency holding them. That, of course, is not the case. Those records belong to the public; public officials work for the taxpayers. The presumption is and should always be that such records must be released, barring a serious reason. Vague claims about “investigations” and “personnel” are dogs that just won’t hunt, and the decision from the Supreme Court in the death penalty case will worsen things. That’s why the proposed revision of Virginia’s law is so important, not just to journalists but to the public, and why this area’s legislators should support the liberalization of the FOI law. And if Virginians want open government, they should join the journalists and push their elected representatives to support FOI reforms. Otherwise, public information will get harder and harder to come by.
Daily News Record

VIRGINIA BEACH waited nearly a year to learn the results of the investigation into conflicts of interest on the City Council. The findings announced last week - five misdemeanor summonses against Mayor Will Sessoms - revealed no concerted effort by him to profit personally. But the case highlights Virginia's porous conflict-of-interest laws and shows how a city's credibility suffers when public officials fail in their due diligence.
Virginian-Pilot

Ethically, [Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms’] actions support the criticism that elected officials are too chummy with businessmen, developers and others holding power. Council members with business ties bring expertise, but also baggage. They must be above reproach. In a variation on comments he's made since the scandal broke, Sessoms said Friday: "I've never done one thing for the benefit of me (or) my former employer to hurt this city - period." That may be true. But he still should have abstained from votes involving TowneBank. "The Conflict of Interest Act is there for the transparency of government," special prosecutor Michael Doucette noted Thursday. Public officials "are required to know what is in it."
Roger Chesley, Virginian-Pilot

Last week, my film buff son scored two tickets to a sneak peek of "Spotlight," a film based on The Boston Globe's sweeping 2002 investigation into rampant pedophilia by Catholic priests. Newspaper reporters. As heroes. How could I resist? Doctors famously find fault with films about medicine. Lawyers nitpick legal dramas. I figured I'd find a host of flaws in this newspaper tale. Not this time. The filmmakers not only captured the gritty technique of investigative reporting, they peppered the film with authentic details - from the farewell cake the reporters wolf down in the opening scene to the pained persistence they employ while trying to coax embarrassing details from traumatized victims. Turns out, this is much more than a movie about a stunning slice of real-life shoe-leather reporting, like "All The President's Men." This film goes deeper. It gets to the meat of why newspapers - especially local ones - matter.
Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot