Transparency News, 12/3/20

The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council on Wednesday declared its support for loosening state laws on electronic meetings, backing legislation to give members of local boards more leeway to call in to public meetings instead of attending in person. Supporters of the change, which still has to be approved by the General Assembly, say it would help more people juggle their private lives with the duties of serving on public boards. Many proponents say it could be particularly helpful for women, who often act as primary caregivers for children or family members who are elderly or sick. But skeptics, including the Virginia Coalition for Open Government and the Virginia Press Association, warned against a sharp departure from the state’s longstanding preference for in-person meetings, which allow face-to-face accountability to the public in a way virtual gatherings can’t.
Virginia Mercury
Working remotely started as an experiment but is now a permanent option for some U.S. companies. Now, the trend may be coming for public meetings. Virtual public meetings began in the spring after an emergency order from Gov. Ralph Northam authorized them. Normally, according to Virginia code, in-person meetings are required. Existing law lets officials attend up to two meetings virtually, if a majority is present in-person, and they must state for the record their reason for staying away. For a group of women in public life from Arlington County to Spotsylvania, these rules represent barriers to equal participation.
ARLnow.com

After weeks of dodging the question, Tidewater Community College has confirmed the namesake donors behind its proposed culinary and visual arts center in downtown Norfolk have withdrawn their pledge. President Marcia Conston shared the news in an email to faculty and staff Tuesday, saying Patricia and Douglas Perry’s family foundation was pulling its donation, the amount of which was never disclosed, because of “a specific condition of their pledge not being met.” That the Perrys had pulled out of the project was an open secret fueled by reports of a letter from the family, but TCC refused multiple times last month to say whether the foundation had withdrawn its donation. A spokeswoman said only that TCC “appreciates our relationship with the Perry Foundation.” The Pilot asked for a copy of the Perrys’ letter on Nov. 13, but the college hadn’t provided it as of Wednesday morning or even responded to the request at all, a violation of the state’s Freedom of Information Act. By law, TCC has up to five days to either provide the records, cite an exemption that allows them to withhold them or request additional time to fulfill the request. A second records request, for board meeting minutes, also is overdue.
The Virginian-Pilot

A ransomware attack on the Hampton Roads Sanitation District’s computer network is affecting all of its customers because the billing system is down. The attack, which occurred on Nov. 17, resulted in the entire network being taken offline, which included suspending the billing system, said HRSD spokeswoman Leila Rice. She couldn’t offer a lot of details on the ransomware attack because it’s still an active investigation.
Daily Press

The Charlottesville Police Department has hired an analyst to examine its stop-and-frisk data. Police Chief RaShall Brackney recommended creating the post when she first presented the department’s monthly stop-and-frisk data to the City Council in October 2018. The press release announcing the hiring said it is part of the department’s continued effort to respond to the community’s demands for greater transparency, legitimacy and trust.
The Daily Progress

 

Kalamazoo city commissioners met in small groups via the Zoom online meeting platform Monday, Nov. 30, to talk about a number of topics, including the issue of ending the small-group meetings themselves. The city denied access to a Kalamazoo Gazette reporter who requested to attend the Nov. 30 meetings. The city administration says the small-group meetings, held for many years in Kalamazoo, are not public meetings as defined by the Michigan Open Meetings Act, which mandates public access. A segment of Monday’s meetings, each of which were attended by three or fewer commissioners, focused on the idea of ending the small group meetings, and a proposal to switch to a public committee of the whole style meeting instead.
MLive

A court ruling made public Tuesday indicates that federal prosecutors have been pursuing an investigation into potential bribery in connection with an effort to secure a pardon from President Donald Trump, although details of the inquiry remain murky. The opinion issued by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell in August and released in a heavily redacted form Tuesday shows that Howell granted prosecutors permission to examine emails involving lawyers and an effort to seek a pardon for someone whose name was deleted from the public version of the opinion. Prosecutors opposed releasing the memo, even in redacted form, but Howell — an appointee of President Barack Obama — overruled their objections. 
Politico
 

DO THE Virginia State Police and local police departments have the right to collect data about where you go, and store it in a database for up to a year if you are not accused or even suspected of breaking any laws? Yes, according to the Virginia Supreme Court, which ruled that the police are allowed to use Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR), which can photograph over 1,800 license plates per minute, and store the tag numbers, times and locations where the photos were taken in a searchable database that is shared with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies. Police departments claim they need ALPR to help them locate stolen vehicles and fugitives from the law, but it should be easy enough to program the system to immediately discard any tag numbers that are not on the stolen vehicle or most-wanted lists. The obvious remedy is for the General Assembly to amend the text of the Data Act so that any collection of information in a government database is subject to its restrictions. During this year’s special session, lawmakers introduced several bills to expunge former inmates’ criminal records. How about first expunging the tag numbers of Virginians who haven’t committed any crimes?
The Free Lance-Star