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At least 16 bills on VCOG’s legislative chart will be heard today, including 7 bills in the Senate subcommittee that hears FOIA matters.
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Virginia’s largest lobby day of the year also happened to be one of its coldest. But yesterday’s hand-numbing chill didn’t stop thousands of people from descending on the state capital to rally around a potpourri of causes and meet their lawmaker. It’s a spectacle that former Republican delegate Chris Saxman doesn’t miss. “I couldn't stand those days,” he said in an interview last week. “If there’s a day to stay away from the General Assembly, that’s the day.” Saxman, who now heads a pro-business group called Virginia Free, says the meetings on MLK Jr. Day happen after most lawmakers have already made up their minds. “You should've done that in the off-season.” Saxman said. “You should’ve have had a cup of coffee or lunch with your legislators and said, ‘Here's our issues. Here's why it's important to us.’”
WCVE
Is there a history of violence at the city’s Community Services Board offices? After one man beat another within an inch of his life in a CSB waiting room in November, the families of the two men raised questions about safety at the facilities that serve residents with addictions, intellectual disabilities and mental health issues. The agency’s director, Sarah Paige Fuller, said days after the beating that there hadn’t been any violence at a CSB facility in a decade. However, police records show that in the past two years, three calls have been made for assaults at CSB offices beyond the November attack. Over the past three months, as The Virginian-Pilot has sought more information about the November incident and others at CSB offices, Norfolk officials have repeatedly refused to discuss the assault, first citing medical privacy laws — only to later admit that they did so incorrectly — and then citing a possible lawsuit. They’ve made statements that directly conflict with the agency’s own policies. Now, they’ve said The Pilot would have to pay more than $56,000 to see documents that could show whether there has been violence at CSB offices.
The Virginian-Pilot
A Freedom of Information Act request to obtain video recordings of public meetings that may have been made by King William Supervisor David Hansen has been denied. At a trial last week in King William County Circuit Court, Judge B. Elliott Bondurant denied King William Economic Development Authority chairman Brian Hodges' Freedom of Information Act request for recordings of public meetings that Hansen supposedly made. Nearly 20 county residents sat in the court audience waiting to hear the decision. The case first went to trial on Aug. 16 at King William County General District Court, where Hansen revealedt here were no tape recordings of the meetings and that he set up the camera to hold other public officials accountable.
Tidewater Review
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