Transparency News, 12/22/21
Wednesday
December 22, 2021
December 22, 2021
state & local news stories
Tandem state investigations into a ransomware attack on Virginia’s legislative computer systems won’t reach any initial conclusions until the new year, as the state attempts to prepare for the General Assembly to convene in three weeks. State law enforcement and information technology investigations are underway to determine the scope of the ransomware attack, which affects the IT systems for key General Assembly agencies, including Capitol Police and the Division of Legislative Services. The Virginia State Police is leading the law enforcement investigation, which spokesperson Corinne Geller said is working in tandem with an administrative investigation led by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems, the main agency hit by the attack discovered on Dec. 12. The state still hasn’t identified a ransom demand from the criminal parties behind the attack, which affects only legislative agencies and commissions, not departments in the state’s executive branch of government. The General Assembly will convene on Jan. 12, but the process of drafting legislation was well underway when the ransomware attack crippled legislative IT systems. State officials in the legislative and executive branches are tight-lipped about efforts to work around the attack to allow bill drafting to proceed. The state recognizes the public’s “desire for more details, but we must first ensure that we are protecting the investigative process.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
In the nearly two decades since the New Markets Tax Credits program began, Norfolk lawyer Delphine G. Carnes has marketed her expertise putting together the often-complicated deals that entice investors to projects in low-income areas. While those ventures can serve as a catalyst for private investment in often-neglected neighborhoods and rural regions, they also yield millions in administrative and other fees for community development entities that broker the deals. Carnes, who is the lawyer for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, highlighted that in an April 2017 website post featuring a primer on administering new markets tax credits. For every $39 million in credits, the report said, a community development entity earns $3 million in administrative fees. There could be additional opportunities for profit, according to the post, including collecting an asset management fee for the seven-year duration of the investment, a loan origination fee, and an exit or success fee. The Carnes primer suggests that Hampton Roads Ventures, the for-profit NRHA community development subsidiary, should have earned tens of millions in administration fees for the $360 million in new markets tax credits it has won since 2003. NRHA officials cited the lure of those fees when HRV shifted from investing in Norfolk to backing projects as far away as Texas and Nebraska. But Hampton Roads Ventures hasn’t come close to producing what they promised. As of September, only $1.3 million has been transferred from HRV to NRHA over the years, all since 2016, according to documents obtained through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Virginia Mercury
Author and biographer Blake Bailey sexually assaulted and harassed at least two women while working as a visiting professor at Old Dominion University, and administration leaders who knew of his behavior failed to hold him responsible or help the women he harmed, according to an investigative report released Monday. In addition to substantiating some of the allegations involving Bailey, the document also called out recently retired ODU President John Broderick, describing him as defensive, evasive and combative during two interviews with investigators. The Nixon Peabody investigators said one of their biggest areas of concern was the involvement of senior ODU administration officials in the editing and approval of the university’s statement to The Pilot, which they described as aggressive and dismissive toward Bailey’s accuser, and in some instances was false. The statement was created in response to a list of more than three dozen questions, and a Freedom of Information Act request, The Pilot sent to university officials inquiring about any complaints they received about Bailey while he worked as a visiting professor there. The investigators also found that then-ODU president John Broderick lied when he said he never saw ODU’s statement to The Pilot until after it was published by the newspaper. An email obtained by Nixon Peabody showed he sent a draft of the statement to two staff members and quoted directly from it before it was sent to the paper.
The Virginian-Pilot
The Library of Virginia has awarded the office of Chaz Haywood, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Rockingham County, two grants amounting to over $56,000 to conserve and secure local historic documents, according to a Monday press release from Haywood. Documents that will be conserved and stored securely include the 1872 execution book, judgment book that covers 1787 to 1796, and multiple minute books that cover the years of 1817 to 1824, 1828 to 1830, 1872, 1875 and 1876. The items will be digitized to be accessible to the public.
Daily News Record
The Chair of Virginia’s Parole Board forwarded a press release Tuesday. The subject line: "setting the record straight." In the release, Tonya Chapman details the agency's response to criticisms about who it releases from prison and how those decisions are made. Chapman also comments on what an incoming Republican Governor, who is hostile to the agency, means for board members. State Sen. David Suetterlein (R-Roanoke) has filed a bill to make board member votes public. Last year, the proposal got the support of Democrats in the Senate but stalled in the House. “When someone is arrested, charged by a local prosecutor, found guilty in a court, presided over by a judge, all those people are public. The only people in the entire process that do not have their actions public are the parole board,” he said.
VPM
Charlottesville’s City Council awarded a contract to the Robert Bobb Group, LLC to perform interim city manager services during Monday’s meeting. City Council voted 4-0, with Mayor Nikuyah Walker abstaining. The Robert Bobb Group is a D.C.-based national consulting firm specializing in public and private sector consulting and advisory services. Bobb, a former city manager in Richmond, has provided his services to the city of Petersburg and other localities. City spokesman Joe Rice could not be reached for comment on how much the firm will be paid to perform these duties.
The Daily Progress
The Isle of Wight County School Board’s appointing three interim members without first soliciting community input is legal, despite recent criticism from citizens, according to lawyers for the county and its school system. Volpe Boykin, during public comments at the School Board’s Dec. 9 meeting, threatened to file for a “writ of mandamus” in the county’s Circuit Court to compel the board to hold after-the-fact public hearings on the appointees. All three interim appointments were made via a majority vote by the remaining board members following closed-session discussions, without first soliciting community input via a public hearing. Several emails appointee Michael Vines has received since taking office have concerned “religious beliefs and my stand on certain issues as a minister,” particularly LGBTQ rights and protections, he said. The Smithfield Times submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to Isle of Wight County Schools on Dec. 17 to obtain copies of the emails Vines referenced, and for any correspondence between the school system and the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office concerning an investigation of the alleged threats. IWCS spokeswoman Lynn Briggs acknowledged the request the same day, but stated via email that because the school system is already on its two-week winter break, the requested records would not be available until Jan. 7.
The Smithfield Times
Richmond Times-Dispatch
In the nearly two decades since the New Markets Tax Credits program began, Norfolk lawyer Delphine G. Carnes has marketed her expertise putting together the often-complicated deals that entice investors to projects in low-income areas. While those ventures can serve as a catalyst for private investment in often-neglected neighborhoods and rural regions, they also yield millions in administrative and other fees for community development entities that broker the deals. Carnes, who is the lawyer for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, highlighted that in an April 2017 website post featuring a primer on administering new markets tax credits. For every $39 million in credits, the report said, a community development entity earns $3 million in administrative fees. There could be additional opportunities for profit, according to the post, including collecting an asset management fee for the seven-year duration of the investment, a loan origination fee, and an exit or success fee. The Carnes primer suggests that Hampton Roads Ventures, the for-profit NRHA community development subsidiary, should have earned tens of millions in administration fees for the $360 million in new markets tax credits it has won since 2003. NRHA officials cited the lure of those fees when HRV shifted from investing in Norfolk to backing projects as far away as Texas and Nebraska. But Hampton Roads Ventures hasn’t come close to producing what they promised. As of September, only $1.3 million has been transferred from HRV to NRHA over the years, all since 2016, according to documents obtained through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Virginia Mercury
Author and biographer Blake Bailey sexually assaulted and harassed at least two women while working as a visiting professor at Old Dominion University, and administration leaders who knew of his behavior failed to hold him responsible or help the women he harmed, according to an investigative report released Monday. In addition to substantiating some of the allegations involving Bailey, the document also called out recently retired ODU President John Broderick, describing him as defensive, evasive and combative during two interviews with investigators. The Nixon Peabody investigators said one of their biggest areas of concern was the involvement of senior ODU administration officials in the editing and approval of the university’s statement to The Pilot, which they described as aggressive and dismissive toward Bailey’s accuser, and in some instances was false. The statement was created in response to a list of more than three dozen questions, and a Freedom of Information Act request, The Pilot sent to university officials inquiring about any complaints they received about Bailey while he worked as a visiting professor there. The investigators also found that then-ODU president John Broderick lied when he said he never saw ODU’s statement to The Pilot until after it was published by the newspaper. An email obtained by Nixon Peabody showed he sent a draft of the statement to two staff members and quoted directly from it before it was sent to the paper.
The Virginian-Pilot
The Library of Virginia has awarded the office of Chaz Haywood, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Rockingham County, two grants amounting to over $56,000 to conserve and secure local historic documents, according to a Monday press release from Haywood. Documents that will be conserved and stored securely include the 1872 execution book, judgment book that covers 1787 to 1796, and multiple minute books that cover the years of 1817 to 1824, 1828 to 1830, 1872, 1875 and 1876. The items will be digitized to be accessible to the public.
Daily News Record
The Chair of Virginia’s Parole Board forwarded a press release Tuesday. The subject line: "setting the record straight." In the release, Tonya Chapman details the agency's response to criticisms about who it releases from prison and how those decisions are made. Chapman also comments on what an incoming Republican Governor, who is hostile to the agency, means for board members. State Sen. David Suetterlein (R-Roanoke) has filed a bill to make board member votes public. Last year, the proposal got the support of Democrats in the Senate but stalled in the House. “When someone is arrested, charged by a local prosecutor, found guilty in a court, presided over by a judge, all those people are public. The only people in the entire process that do not have their actions public are the parole board,” he said.
VPM
Charlottesville’s City Council awarded a contract to the Robert Bobb Group, LLC to perform interim city manager services during Monday’s meeting. City Council voted 4-0, with Mayor Nikuyah Walker abstaining. The Robert Bobb Group is a D.C.-based national consulting firm specializing in public and private sector consulting and advisory services. Bobb, a former city manager in Richmond, has provided his services to the city of Petersburg and other localities. City spokesman Joe Rice could not be reached for comment on how much the firm will be paid to perform these duties.
The Daily Progress
The Isle of Wight County School Board’s appointing three interim members without first soliciting community input is legal, despite recent criticism from citizens, according to lawyers for the county and its school system. Volpe Boykin, during public comments at the School Board’s Dec. 9 meeting, threatened to file for a “writ of mandamus” in the county’s Circuit Court to compel the board to hold after-the-fact public hearings on the appointees. All three interim appointments were made via a majority vote by the remaining board members following closed-session discussions, without first soliciting community input via a public hearing. Several emails appointee Michael Vines has received since taking office have concerned “religious beliefs and my stand on certain issues as a minister,” particularly LGBTQ rights and protections, he said. The Smithfield Times submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to Isle of Wight County Schools on Dec. 17 to obtain copies of the emails Vines referenced, and for any correspondence between the school system and the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office concerning an investigation of the alleged threats. IWCS spokeswoman Lynn Briggs acknowledged the request the same day, but stated via email that because the school system is already on its two-week winter break, the requested records would not be available until Jan. 7.
The Smithfield Times
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