Transparency News, 12/22/20

Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock sent out a department-wide email detailing salary reductions on December 2 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The university put out a press release publicly announcing the cutbacks the following day, but Babcock’s letter to employees reveals new details about Tech’s plan. The university provided The Roanoke Times with the memo in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Roanoke Times

The General Assembly convenes for the upcoming session on Jan. 13, but the decision was announced last month by House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn that House members would not be meeting in Richmond. Just as the annual Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce pre-legislative session was conducted virtually, so will the business of the commonwealth. “The nature of virtual governing doesn’t work, quite frankly,” State Del. Charles Poindexter (R-Franklin) said. “The people’s representation is just not there.” To be present and in-person is “the essence of government,” Poindexter said. “It’s a travesty.”
Martinsville Bulletin

 

From a young age, maritime and shipping lawyer Mark P. Schlefer liked to challenge authority. His willingness to ask questions of people in power carried over to his professional life and led to his role in the development of the Freedom of Information Act, the landmark legislation providing citizens with a tool to keep the government open and honest. Mr. Schlefer, a former Washington resident, died Nov. 2 at his home in Putney, Vt. The cause was cardiorespiratory arrest, said a daughter, Katharine Schlefer Dodge. He was 98. He scheduled a meeting with the American Bar Association to suggest the drafting of a bill to gain access to government documents. He soon joined two lawyers affiliated with the ABA who had already begun working on such a bill and, together, they drafted the original version of the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, Mr. Schlefer recounted in a 2016 Washington Post opinion column. After the bill won the ABA’s endorsement at its convention in Chicago, Mr. Schlefer met with Rep. John Moss (D-Calif.), who had been campaigning against government secrecy for more than a decade.
The Washington Post

When the city of Pasadena, Calif., approved the police department’s request to purchase three new automatic license plate readers, Commander Jason Clawson promised the city’s public safety committee the department wouldn’t share any data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Robust policies and procedures are in place to prevent the system and the information it gathers from being used inappropriately or differently from its intended purpose,” Clawson told the City Council’s public safety committee at the time. The department reiterated its pledge to limit data-sharing at a Sept. 21 meeting, when Pasadena City Council voted to authorize the purchase of new license plate readers from Vigilant Solutions in Livermore, Calif., so long as the contract included provisions prohibiting the sharing of data for monetary reasons and limiting data sharing to police agencies only.  But documents show Pasadena police have been passing license plate data directly to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations arm. The documents, obtained by the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union through a public records request and shared with The Times, show that as of Nov. 2, Pasadena police shared data with Homeland Security Investigations through its Bulk Cash Smuggling Center, which provides real-time information to law enforcement agencies investigating attempts to smuggle more than $10,000 in cash or monetary instruments into the U.S.
Governing

Nine Vermont municipalities, including Northfield and Shrewsbury, are being sued because of a claim they have been prohibiting or restricting access to public government records, citing COVID-19 concerns, according to a lawsuit filed in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington. The lawsuit has major statewide implications because the final ruling could impact how taxpayers can get proper access to all kinds of public records stored in town halls across Vermont. It also could determine how more than 240 municipal clerks and their staffs will be required to provide service during the pandemic.
Eagle Times