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All Access
All Access is taking a break. We will return on December 29.
5 items
Here is a further story about the 4th Circuit ruling saying the Loudoun County School Board did not violate the First Amendment rights of a speaker during the Oct. 8, 2024, school board meeting when the board chair shut the comment period down when the speaker refused to stop talking about the alleged gang affiliation of a student. The case was a review of the district judge’s denial of a preliminary injunction. Because the decision is “a narrow one” that addresses “a discrete category of speech: commentary at School Board meetings that targets, criticizes, or attacks individual students,” I would slightly disagree with the news story’s assertion that the ruling extends to criticism of school division employees. That is, the same analysis may be applied to naming division employees — and the outcome may end up being the same — but this ruling is specific to criticism of students. “[T]he question is whether the School Board violated Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights by applying a facially constitutional policy to prevent them from making these particular statements in this specific, limited forum. It did not.” (Note, too, that the word “employee” does not appear in the majority or partial dissent, and the word “staff” only appears in two quoted passages.)
Read the opinion on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals website
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Local
The Southampton County School Board (SCSB) voted unanimously on Thursday, Dec. 11, to establish an ad hoc committee for the promotion of transparency and accountability. Board Chair Dr. Deborah Goodwyn indicated that she had put together a resolution and description of the committee based on notes taken from a discussion that occurred at a Nov. 24 board work session. … She noted that the board decided that the committee would be composed of two School Board members, the superintendent or the superintendent’s designee, a building-level administrator that will be selected by the superintendent, and four community members. … In conclusion, she said, “This committee is advisory, that it operates only in that advisory capacity, that it does not possess any decision-making authority and that the committee will conduct all work in alignment with applicable Virginia laws and Southampton School Board policies.”
(Note: With that makeup, the committee would not be subject to FOIA’s rules for open meetings. They CAN hold open meetings, they just wouldn’t be required to.)
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Local
Purcellville Vice Mayor Carl “Ben” Nett has been accused of altering a document subject to a Freedom of Information Act request in the latest court document filed by Special Prosecutor Eric Olsen. Nett, who previously worked for the town’s police department, is the subject of a recall petition submitted by Purcellville residents. He was elected to the Town Council in November 2024. Olsen, who is the Stafford County’s commonwealth’s attorney, was appointed to the case. In November, he announced that he would advance the case against Nett. A three-day jury trial is scheduled for March. The recall case is separate from criminal charges brought against Nett and Town Manager Kwasi Fraser alleging commercial fraud and bid rigging. Nett is also facing four additional charges for misuse of a law enforcement database. In a document filed Dec. 22 by Olsen, he alleges seven grounds for removal from office including that Nett altered a document when responding to a Freedom of Information Act request in violation of state code.
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Local
Martinsville Mayor L.C. Jones said Tuesday that the forensic audit into the city’s spending has been completed. In a late afternoon email, Jones wrote, “I have received communications from Brown Edwards that the forensic audit is finally complete.” Brown Edwards is a certified public accounting firm with offices in Roanoke and a dozen other locales, including Bristol, Lynchburg and Richmond. The city hired it to conduct the forensic audit at a cost of $20,000. Jones shared with Cardinal News an email he sent to Brown Edwards partner Chris Banta in which he said that the auditing process was not as transparent as he would have liked. “As you are aware, the council, myself included, has been kept uninformed throughout the process, which has been a concern for me,” Jones wrote in the Tuesday email to Banta, who Jones described as having “oversight” over the audit. “Your invoice for $20,000 is the first communication we’ve received from Brown & Edwards since we, following Sands Anderson’s legal advice, engaged your firm in August.” Sands Anderson is the Richmond-based law firm currently representing Martinsville. The city council hasn’t announced if it will review the audit in a closed or special session prior to its upcoming regular session on Jan. 13.
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Local
A recent audit found that more than $880,000 in purchases made by Roanoke city employees over a recent six-month period lack approved expense reports, a delay that city officials blame on staffing shortages and problems with new financial software. The 946 charges, totaling $884,283, were made using city purchasing cards between December 2024 and June 2025. The program provides city credit cards for employees to use to pay for certain types of work-related expenses. The expense reports aren’t missing, according to municipal auditor Drew Harmon; they were filed but still have not been signed off on by the employees’ immediate supervisors or the finance department. Nor did the audit identify any misappropriation or theft, he said.
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VCOG’s annual FOI awards nomination form is open.
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“Democracies die behind closed doors.” ~ U.S. District Judge Damon Keith, 2002
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