Transparency News 12/22/16
Thursday, December 22, 2016
State and Local Stories
Outgoing Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones lacked the authority to unilaterally authorize $1.9 million worth of bonuses for city employees as an “end of term thank you,” according to City Attorney Allen Jackson. “Only the City Council may authorize bonuses,” Jackson wrote in a memo to council members Tuesday, citing a state law that requires a locality’s governing body — in Richmond’s case the council — to pass an ordinance authorizing any such payments.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The newly-appointed members of the Franklin City Public Schools school board held their first meeting Monday evening in the council chamber of city hall. The meeting began at 6 p.m. in closed session and then went into open session, during which time the board elected a new chair and vice chair.
Tidewater News
National Stories
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released nearly 3,000 pages of emails from his personal account on Wednesday. The move was part of a settlement that the Better Government Association and Chicago Tribune reached with the city. Approximately 30,000 city employees are banned from using private email accounts while on the job. Any email referencing work issues must be forwarded from the personal account to a work account so that it can be archived. The mayor's private email account will be reviewed every three months as part of the settlement. Any messages that reference city affairs will be saved and made available to the public. Other public employees who do not follow the policy will be disciplined, though it's unclear how the city will enforce the policy.
Washington Examiner
A law firm representing law enforcement agencies across Oklahoma has issued advice to at least several of the agencies that they have the right to withhold many records from public view, including agency budgets, payroll, contracts and inventory. An attorney for Oklahoma City-based Collins, Zorn & Wagner cited as a basis for refusing to release such records, as well as case documents, a portion of the state Open Records Act that lists law enforcement records subject to public disclosure. Attorney Ammon Brisolara said if a document is not specifically listed in the statute, the law enforcement agency doesn’t have to make it public. The list of records under the law enforcement section of the Open Records Act is increasingly being cited by agencies to deny requests for public records, said Joey Senat, a journalism professor at Oklahoma State University and a board member of Freedom of Information Oklahoma, which advocates for transparency in government. Oklahoma Watch is a member. “As a public agency we don’t have to show you anything unless it’s listed in there? That would be nonsense,” Senat said. The list in the statute delineates investigative records that law enforcement agencies must provide. “But it seems it’s being misused more and more frequently. Now we’re getting to a point where a public agency is saying we don’t have to give you our budget,” Senat said.
The Norman Transcript
Despite decades of repeated sex abuse scandals — from the Roman Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts to scores of news media reports identifying problem teachers — America’s public schools continue to conceal the actions of dangerous educators in ways that allow them to stay in the classroom. A year-long USA TODAY Network investigation found that education officials put children in harm’s way by covering up evidence of abuse, keeping allegations secret and making it easy for abusive teachers to find jobs elsewhere.
USA TODAY
Editorials/Columns
Just about every local public body has those one or two individuals who speak at every public comment period. Sometimes, their topics vary; others speak on the same issue meeting after meeting after meeting. Can it be irritating for an elected official? Sure. Can it get under their skin if the comments hit close to home? Absolutely. But it is their job, as public servants, to actually serve the public, and that involves hearing their concerns ... and listening to them. Citizens have the absolute right to speak, and elected public officials have the absolute duty to listen to them. Ironically, just around the corner from City Hall on the Downtown Mall is Charlottesville’s Freedom of Speech Wall, a living monument to America’s first, and most important, political right. That it took a federal judge to remind Charlottesville’s elected leaders of the importance of free speech in a democracy is a sad sign of how our civic life has degraded.
News & Advance
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The newly-appointed members of the Franklin City Public Schools school board held their first meeting Monday evening in the council chamber of city hall. The meeting began at 6 p.m. in closed session and then went into open session, during which time the board elected a new chair and vice chair.
Tidewater News
National Stories
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released nearly 3,000 pages of emails from his personal account on Wednesday. The move was part of a settlement that the Better Government Association and Chicago Tribune reached with the city. Approximately 30,000 city employees are banned from using private email accounts while on the job. Any email referencing work issues must be forwarded from the personal account to a work account so that it can be archived. The mayor's private email account will be reviewed every three months as part of the settlement. Any messages that reference city affairs will be saved and made available to the public. Other public employees who do not follow the policy will be disciplined, though it's unclear how the city will enforce the policy.
Washington Examiner
A law firm representing law enforcement agencies across Oklahoma has issued advice to at least several of the agencies that they have the right to withhold many records from public view, including agency budgets, payroll, contracts and inventory. An attorney for Oklahoma City-based Collins, Zorn & Wagner cited as a basis for refusing to release such records, as well as case documents, a portion of the state Open Records Act that lists law enforcement records subject to public disclosure. Attorney Ammon Brisolara said if a document is not specifically listed in the statute, the law enforcement agency doesn’t have to make it public. The list of records under the law enforcement section of the Open Records Act is increasingly being cited by agencies to deny requests for public records, said Joey Senat, a journalism professor at Oklahoma State University and a board member of Freedom of Information Oklahoma, which advocates for transparency in government. Oklahoma Watch is a member. “As a public agency we don’t have to show you anything unless it’s listed in there? That would be nonsense,” Senat said. The list in the statute delineates investigative records that law enforcement agencies must provide. “But it seems it’s being misused more and more frequently. Now we’re getting to a point where a public agency is saying we don’t have to give you our budget,” Senat said.
The Norman Transcript
Despite decades of repeated sex abuse scandals — from the Roman Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts to scores of news media reports identifying problem teachers — America’s public schools continue to conceal the actions of dangerous educators in ways that allow them to stay in the classroom. A year-long USA TODAY Network investigation found that education officials put children in harm’s way by covering up evidence of abuse, keeping allegations secret and making it easy for abusive teachers to find jobs elsewhere.
USA TODAY
Editorials/Columns
Just about every local public body has those one or two individuals who speak at every public comment period. Sometimes, their topics vary; others speak on the same issue meeting after meeting after meeting. Can it be irritating for an elected official? Sure. Can it get under their skin if the comments hit close to home? Absolutely. But it is their job, as public servants, to actually serve the public, and that involves hearing their concerns ... and listening to them. Citizens have the absolute right to speak, and elected public officials have the absolute duty to listen to them. Ironically, just around the corner from City Hall on the Downtown Mall is Charlottesville’s Freedom of Speech Wall, a living monument to America’s first, and most important, political right. That it took a federal judge to remind Charlottesville’s elected leaders of the importance of free speech in a democracy is a sad sign of how our civic life has degraded.
News & Advance
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