Transparency News 1/22/18

The former executive director of Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport is suing the Peninsula Airport Commission and three current and former airport employees, accusing them of defaming him last year. Ken Spirito — who led the airport from early 2009 until his termination in May — contends that two current employees, one former employee and a commissioner defamed his character when they exchanged text messages about Spirito shredding documents while the state was conducting an audit of the airport. Those exchanges, Spirito contends, intentionally conveyed “the false implication” that he was shredding evidence related to the Virginia Department of Transportation examination of a $5 million line of credit to People Express Airlines almost three years earlier.
Daily Press

Arlington’s County Board chairman says that, win or lose, the local government is willing to provide residents with an accounting of any incentives it dangles in an effort to lure Amazon to the local area. Provide it eventually, that is, though not immediately. “There’s nothing in there that couldn’t ultimately be made public,” Katie Cristol surmised during a “Meet the Chair” event held Jan. 18, the day that Amazon announced Northern Virginia was among 20 localities on its short list for what’s being called its “HQ2” – a secondary headquarters that would bring an estimated 50,000 jobs to the community that nails it. Responding to a question about Amazon tax incentives from local Republican activist Matthew Hurtt, Cristol suggested there had been little focus yet by Arlington economic-development officials in crafting potential incentives, since the first round of the Amazon selection process was more about getting to know specific communities.
InsideNoVa

Some parents in Bedford County are raising concerns after a local advocacy group claims dozens of people were blocked from the public school’s social media accounts.  Now, the American Civil Liberties Union is getting involved. Virginia Families LLC says the Bedford County School system is blocking parents and students from commenting on the school’s Facebook page. They call it a violation of the First Amendment. “It is unique to Bedford, even comparing with cities like Lynchburg or Richmond or even Roanoke, they don’t have this, they don’t block people,” explained Christian Raymond with Virginia Families LLC. The Virginia ACLU says they are “looking into the details of the situation.” They issued a statement to WDBJ7, saying: “Just because a government agency doesn’t like what someone has to say doesn’t mean they have the right to block the speaker.”
WDBJ7

The 2018 General Assembly could produce a blueprint for giving lawyers, and the general public, unprecedented access to state court case records. A court decision seen as a setback for open government has spawned at least five proposals to allow or encourage statewide search capability. One of those measures turned its sponsor into a lightning rod.
Virginia Lawyers Weekly

At its annual retreat last week, the Charlottesville City Council developed a proposed new framework for its regular meetings and discussed the upcoming fiscal year budget, which, according to recent expenditure and revenue estimates, is currently facing a $2.8 million deficit. The budget, council initiatives, meeting procedures and the recent tenor of public discourse at meetings were the subject of multi-session discussions at the council’s two-day retreat at Morven Farm in Albemarle County on Thursday and Friday. Council meetings soon could begin 30 minutes earlier and include 16 speaker slots during a new “community matters” period in which people can address the council and expect an immediate, albeit brief, response from the city manager or any of the councilors.
The Daily Progress

Roanoke City Councilman John Garland acknowledged he might have run afoul of the spirit of the city charter, if not the letter of it, by contacting city staff directly with concerns about the legitimacy of a local nonprofit. Over the summer, Garland sent a series of emails to the city’s code enforcement staff and the finance director raising questions about whether the Hope Center, a small, struggling nonprofit seeking to aid the poor run by the councilman’s one-time political allies, was in compliance with all city regulations. Garland’s concerns helped trigger a full review of the Hope Center’s 11th Street Northwest building in August by a range of city inspectors. The review identified the lack of a certificate of occupancy as the center’s only issue. The city’s charter forbids the mayor and council members from giving orders to subordinates of the city manager.
The Roanoke Times

A federal judge last week tossed a lawsuit over the removal of a “slew’ of inspection and licensing documents related to animal research facilities from a federal website, holding that since most of them have now been put back, no controversy exists. In the underlying lawsuit, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed the Department of Agriculture’s removal of the documents on Feb. 3, 2017 was unlawful and in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, among other statutes. But U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said Thursday that the by reposting most, though not all, of the material that had previously been on the page, the department has complied with the FOIA reading room provision.
Courthouse News

President Donald Trump may have skipped a trip to his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort ahead of the government shutdown, but all his other trips are starting to add up on the taxpayer’s dime. Judicial Watch released its report on January 19. The reports looked at Trump’s recent flight costs and found that the president has cost American taxpayers about $3.2 million since June, making his travel costs total more than $13.5 million. The conservative group filed a Freedom of Information request with the U.S. Department of the Air Force to obtain Trump’s million dollar travel costs including his travels to his golf club in New Jersey and to his campaign rallies.
Newsweek

Alaska public records reveal that the state Department of Law has been failing to disclose when it taps the phone of a resident. The Juneau Empire reported Sunday that records it has obtained show the department hasn’t filed an annual wiretap report in the 25 years since the Alaska Legislature began allowing the state to conduct them. Department spokeswoman Cori Mills says that with budget cuts and tightening of resources, the Criminal Division has fallen behind. The state’s failure to produce a report means Alaska residents have no idea how frequently the state taps their phones.
McClatchy