Transparency News 1/21/14

Senate Bill 212 will be heard Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.

This bill seeks to narrow the scope of the exemption already provided for the working papers and correspondence of the Virginia General Assembly. Under the proposal, the exemption would now be only for matters related to the “drafting and amending of legislation.”

VCOG supports this bill: it is an important check on our lawmakers, and it attempts to bring the exemption back to its originally intended purpose, which, in the words of the late Delegate Chip Woodrum — who helped rewrite the working papers exemption in 1999 — was to permit withholding when releasing records would interfere with a government function. It was not intended to give officials an excuse to deny all requests for records, he said, a privilege not afforded to lawmakers at the local or school level.

If you’d like to express your support, contact the members of the #1 subcommittee of the Senate General Laws & Technology Committee.
Sen. Mamie Locke (Chair): (804) 698-7502; district02@senate.virginia.gov
Sen. George Barker: (804) 698-7539; district39@senate.virginia.gov
Sen. Richard Black: (804) 698-7513; district13@senate.virginia.gov
Sen. Tom Garrett: (804) 698-7522; district22@senate.virginia.gov
Sen. Stephen Martin: (804) 698-7511; district11@senate.virginia.gov

The VCOG newsletter is online! Click on the image at left to go to VCOG’s website, where you can download the PDF of our annual print newsletter.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Monday that he has not made any calls on behalf of former Gov. Bob McDonnell. Last week Speaker of the House Bill Howell, R-Stafford County — joined by Senate Democratic Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County — called the U.S. Attorney’s Office at McDonnell’s request, hoping to vouch for McDonnell’s character. The prosecutors’ office returned Howell’s call and declined to discuss the matter. Asked Monday if he would make such a call if it were requested, McAuliffe said: “I would not make any calls, no.”
Roanoke Times

A proposal to add sexual battery and other sex crimes to a list of convictions — such as drug possession and hate crimes — that could unseat a public official has cleared its first legislative hurdle. The bill filed by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, and an identical measure from Del. Richard Anderson, R-Woodbridge, sailed through a House Privileges and Elections subcommittee meeting Monday with unanimous support. Bell targeted changes to close a loophole laid bare last year by the case of former Albemarle Supervisor Christopher J. Dumler. “I’m choosing not to call this [the Dumler bill],” Bell said, “but it’s no secret what prompted this.”
Daily Progress

Legislation is advancing in the House of Delegates that would prevent another wholesale shake-up of the Virginia Port Authority's Board of Commissioners. Former Gov. Bob McDonnell sacked 10 of the board's 11 members in 2011, causing "turmoil and uncertainty" in the local maritime community, Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, told a House subcommittee Monday.
Virginian-Pilot

Focus on a Virginia Republican autopsy over the causes of party defeats in November has given way to a new controversy roiling the GOP: rancorous divisions over bills that could ban political conventions for both parties. The bills stipulate that no political party can choose candidates for statewide office or the General Assembly by a method that excludes active-duty military, reservists and other defense personnel unable to attend because of service-related injuries.
Virginian-Pilot

National Stories

Maryland has joined the host of other jurisdictions — including Colorado, Wyoming, Boston and Los Angeles, to name just a few — that have made the jump to Google. The state's switch to Google, which it's using for email, calendars and document sharing, includes the transition of around 54,000 state employees, making it the largest state in the nation to do so, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Governing

As many as 383 Medicaid enrollees in Maryland received welcome packets in the mail this month that contained the names and birth dates of strangers, health officials announced Sunday evening. They blamed the mix-up on a “programming error” caused by the chief IT contractor hired to build a health-insurance marketplace for the state. Officials at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said they learned of the problem Friday after a customer contacted a Medicaid enrollment broker and reported receiving the wrong packet in the mail.
Governing
 

Editorials/Columns

Roanoke Times: State leaders must tighten ethics rules more than a smidgen to wipe away the smudge on Virginia's reputation left by former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his former buddy, Jonnie Williams Sr. It's going to take more elbow grease than what a bipartisan group of legislators proposed in their initial effort at reform. If lawmakers decline to make more than minor tweaks to the rules that apply to them, they'll find themselves in a rather awkward position. More rigorous rules have already been imposed on the executive branch, including lower-level state government workers. It will be hard to explain to constituents why elected legislators deserve greater leniency.

Times Dispatch: Virginians might not be aware just how much police departments know about their movements. License-plate cameras are mounted both on patrol cars and at fixed locations and can take up to 1,800 pictures per second. When former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued an advisory opinion last year concluding that state and local law enforcement agencies lacked the authority to store data collected by license-plate readers, the Virginia State Police responded appropriately. The agency now purges the data after 24 hours.