Transparency News, 12/4/20

Sen. Mark Obenshain’s Virginia Parole Board transparency bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support during the 2020 special session, but was ultimately tabled in a House committee along a party-line vote. On Thursday, the legislation aimed to increase transparency and accountability for the state’s Parole Board was officially reintroduced and will be considered during the upcoming General Assembly session. The committee also tabled a bill from Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke, that would have required the individual votes of the Parole Board to be public record and subject to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Suetterlein reintroduced his legislation Thursday alongside Obenshain, saying in a press release that, “It was great to have bipartisan support for this important sunshine reform during the special session and I’m hopeful that we can build on that great support in 2021.” The legislation has been supported by the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, according to a press release.
Daily News Record

The biggest donors to Tidewater Community College’s much-ballyhooed culinary school project in the NEON district say they pulled back their $2.5 million donation because the city of Norfolk had pulled out first, newly obtained documents show. In the letter dated Nov. 2 and addressed to TCC President Marcia Conston, Douglas Perry wrote that his family’s foundation had decided to withdraw its $2.5 million pledge to the culinary school project.This is the first time the amount has been made public. The letter was released Wednesday evening, weeks after The Virginian-Pilot requested it under the state’s public records law. The school gave no reason for the delay in releasing it and in responding to the request, in apparent violation of the law.
The Virginian-Pilot

Suffolk School Board members who want a special meeting to be called will have to get two other board members, plus its chairperson, to agree to it under a proposed policy agreed to by its Policy Review Committee. The committee, made up of board chairwoman Phyllis Byrum and vice chairwoman Dr. Judith Brooks-Buck, received four different options from board attorney Wendell Waller on when board members could request a special meeting.  The committee also deliberated on how much time to give to public comments during the early comment period at board meetings, which allows for comment on items on the board’s agenda. Currently, the board allows for 30 minutes of public comment, with each person receiving no more than five minutes. Brooks-Buck suggested capping the total time for public comment at 45 minutes, but provide for a time range for members of the public to speak, allowing them three to five minutes. Waller said that time range would allow for up to 15 speakers. Byrum said that if speakers went over the allotted time during the early public comment period, then they shouldn’t be able to speak later in the meeting during the time reserved for public speakers on non-agenda topics.
Suffolk News-Herald

 

In the late summer of 2019, following a declaration from D.C. Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn that officials had received six “substantiated” complaints of sexual misconduct involving DC Public Schools employees in the past 20 months, parents encountered great resistance to learning from which six schools those complaints originated. Kihn declined to disclose the information, citing concerns for past victims and a potential chilling effect on future victims. This resistance prompted the D.C. Open Government Coalition to file two Freedom of Information Act requests to learn the names of the six schools. The FOIAs, sent to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education and DCPS, were not seeking “any record of any charge, investigation, conclusions or related personnel action.” After more than a year of going back-and-forth over FOIA appeals, the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel finally ruled in the D.C. Open Government Coalition’s favor. 
Washington City Paper