In a letter to the Faculty Senate sent Nov. 14, former University President Jim Ryan shared his account of the events which led to his resignation, and said that now-Rector Rachel Sheridan had hired a lawyer to represent the Board and speak to him regarding his resignation. An engagement letter between the Virginia attorney general’s office and Wilkinson Stekloff law firm, obtained by The Cavalier Daily from an anonymous source, confirms that the firm was retained to represent the Board in the days leading to Ryan’s resignation. The engagement letter, dated June 23, was sent to partner Beth Wilkinson and retained Wilkinson Stekloff to serve as special counsel to the Commonwealth of Virginia and the University’s Board of Visitors for the purpose of an “employment matter.” The firm was hired three days prior to Ryan’s resignation June 26, and Ryan said in his letter that Wilkinson spoke with him June 24 and encouraged him to resign. … The engagement letter outlines billing for the first month of work, which was set at a fixed fee of $75,000.

An attorney representing former Martinsville City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides has raised new questions about the legality of the city’s attorney arrangement and the conduct of a city council member. According to an email sent last week to Interim City Manager Rob Fincher, Paul Goldman, one of the attorneys representing Ferrell-Benavides in a possible lawsuit against the city, sent the email Dec. 11 and provided a copy to the Bulletin. In it, Goldman questioned whether the city properly appointed a city attorney under the Martinsville City Charter and whether City Councilman Aaron Rawls had improperly disclosed confidential information….Goldman referenced a press conference held by Rawls earlier that week and accused the councilman of repeatedly making public allegations based on information discussed in executive session, including what Goldman described as a “secretively mysterious” report prepared by Sands Anderson, the law firm representing the city….Goldman further argued that although the city charter was amended in 2024 to allow for the appointment of an attorney from a law firm, there is no public record showing that the council ever formally appointed an individual attorney to the position.

If you’re curious about what’s going on at construction sites in Stafford County, or what a posted public hearing notice is all about, there’s a new tool that can help you. The county earlier this month debuted an interactive map of pending and approved development projects. “The County frequently fields questions from residents who spot a new construction site or a public hearing site and inquire about activity,” a press release from the county government states. “This digital solution was developed to help residents easily identify what may be built near where they live, work and play. The digital mapping tool provides a comprehensive visual representation of all pending developments in an accessible and easy-to-use format.”

The Suffolk School Board voted on Dec. 11 to award a $175,000 contract to Cherry Bekaert to conduct a forensic audit of Suffolk Public Schools’ finances, a decision that followed a divided debate over whether the public should be given a formal opportunity to comment before the contract was approved. Details regarding the selection of Cherry Bekaert were discussed during a closed meeting. In the original motion, Board member Tyron Riddick moved to award the contract pending results of a public hearing about the audit….Riddick said he is concerned about not allowing the public to comment on the audit. He argued that, since the funds for the audit must be added to the budget, it should be treated as a budget transfer and placed on the agenda to allow citizens to comment publicly.

Richmond City Council voted to approve a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Library this week that had been proposed by the Avula administration after ignoring a similar proposal from City Council even after it was amended to narrow the original scope. But a library is only as good as the books that are in it; the fewer the books and access to information, the less informed the patrons. What’s worse is, if you stock the library only with information specifically selected by the librarian, the amount of knowledge you can glean or gain from those books will always be limited; and that is what was approved this week…. [T]his was not really a debate about transparency or the public good, but a move about power and politics and scoring points over who gets to determine who sees what. Libraries are community spaces, not oracles. The maneuvering to outflank [the original] proposal for a FOIA Library was just about checking a political box for the Mayor to be able to talk about making strides in transparency.

In the first nearly seven months of President Donald Trump’s return to office, according to data obtained by The Washington Post via a Freedom of Information Act request, the EPA spent more than $86.5 million to compensate more than 2,600 employees who were placed on administrative leave. The payment data, which covers the period between Jan. 20 and Aug. 4, represents an early indication of what it has cost to downsize the federal workforce and the limits of Trump’s initiative to reduce waste across the federal government.