Transparency News 12/6/16
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
State and Local Stories
The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council wrapped up a three-year effort to review the state's FOIA law Monday and voted to recommend a draft that eliminates four of about 100 exemptions for public records requests. The council tweaked language throughout the law, producing 130 annotated pages on the proposed changes. They'll likely be presented to the General Assembly's General Laws committee in January, said Del. James M. LeMunyon, R-Fairfax, the council's chairman. The proposed changes drew criticism from reporters at the meeting who said they did not go far enough. Marisa Porto, a council member and publisher and editor-in-chief of Daily Press Media Group, voted in favor of the changes but echoed the reporters' concerns. Kathleen Dooley, a member of the panel and city attorney of Fredericksburg, said she thought the staff and council had made great improvements. One of those, she said, was closing a loophole through which localities could get away with not posting notices for continued meetings. She remembered hearing a story about a locality that would hold public hearings for the budget and vote to continue the meetings without posting a time or date.
Daily Press
After three years of study and initially high hopes for reform, a panel reviewing the Virginia Freedom of Information Act has recommended little in the way of change. In 1968, the law had five exemptions – areas where government officials could choose to withhold records for a narrowly construed, valid reason. There are now about 175 exemptions. Dave Ress, a reporter with the Daily Press in Newport News who attended meetings of the council during the review, spoke on Monday at the council's final meeting of the year. He asked members to think about how much work went into the three-year review and how few recommendations it produced. Rather than look at the difficulties the public has in getting information from government and how other states handle FOIA, he said, the council took a piecemeal approach to exemptions from the perspective of government agencies.
Virginian-Pilot
Members of the Freedom of Information Advisory Council wrapped up three years of work on Monday, but critics say they have little to show for it. The council, a state agency that helps resolve disputes over public records and meetings issues, was tasked three years ago with studying the state’s freedom of information laws. Critics say the draft bills approved Monday do little to increase the public’s access to records or meetings. Dick Hammerstrom, chairman of the FOIA committee for the Virginia Press Association and vice president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, told the council he has been through two previous revisions of freedom of information laws — once around 1989 and again in 1999. “I’m a little disappointed in this one, and I’m disappointed not because I don’t think everyone worked hard, because they did,” Hammerstrom said. “Right now under our current law, Virginia’s police can withhold any record they want to, if they want to.” Virginians should have every opportunity to find out about crime in their communities, he said.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Prosecutors cross examine Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot as public corruption trial wraps up. // A federal prosecutor questioned Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot on Monday afternoon about how a developer came to pay him $1,000 one week before a key City Council vote.
Virginian-Pilot
For 75 years, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point has been studying the Chesapeake Bay, collecting data sets of every kind. Now that wealth of information about long-term fish abundance and diversity, water quality trends, seagrass beds and tidal marsh conditions over time is being added to the state's Open Data Portal, a web clearinghouse for big data. VIMS Associate Dean Mark Luckenbach said marine researchers continue to gather not only ongoing data on the bay, its marine life and ecosystems, but are still accessing decades of old data stored on such low-tech media as notecards stored in shoeboxes to add to the digital database.
Virginian-Pilot
Rolling Stone magazine urged a federal judge on Monday to overturn the verdict of a jury, which found that the publication and a reporter defamed a University of Virginia administrator with their botched story about a gang rape on campus. In a motion filed Monday, attorneys for Rolling Stone said the judge should overrule the jury’s verdict because there is no evidence that Erdely acted with actual malice. They’re also challenging the jury’s finding that the magazine’s December 2014 online version of the article — with an editor’s note acknowledging problems with the story — counted as “republishing” the false statements. Rolling Stone argues that punishing the magazine for trying to warn the public with the editor’s note could prompt other outlets to stay silent when there are errors in an article in the future.
WTOP
The Town of Dumfries has not made available minutes of its regular Town Council meetings. Minutes from Town Council meetings between June 7 and November 15 have not been transcribed, according to Dumfries Town Clerk Dawn Hobgood. Virginia open records law mandates such minutes must be made available to the public. Hobgood suggested Potomac Local view video of the meetings on the town’s website if such video was made available. But that’s not always an option as, for example, there was no audio or video recording of the town’s November 15 meeting due to technical difficulties, Hobgood added.
Potomac Local
National Stories
A top official in the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) testified in private Monday before a D.C. Council committee investigating allegations that he and other mayoral officials tried to steer millions of dollars in construction and demolition work to a prominent political donor. City Administrator Rashad M. Young, appointed by Bowser to oversee the city bureaucracy, spent hours behind closed doors answering questions from council members about his involvement in the contracting controversy. Emerging midafternoon, he declined to comment in detail about what he had discussed with the committee but said there was nothing improper about his actions. Council member Mary M. Chex (D-Ward 3) called the meeting but opted to close the meeting to the public — over the protests of journalists and open-government advocates — because it involves information about the firing of city employees, which under city policy is typically kept confidential.
Washington Post
Congress has passed a law protecting the right of U.S. consumers to post negative online reviews without fear of retaliation from companies. The bipartisan Consumer Review Fairness Act was passed by unanimous consent in the U.S. Senate, a Senate Commerce Committee announcement said.
Ars Technica
A U.S. District Court Judge has denied the Center for Public Integrity’s request for access to a taxpayer-funded study about cybersecurity vulnerabilities at the Federal Election Commission. The court’s decision comes more than 13 months after the Center for Public Integrity sued the FEC for access to the security study, which the FEC commissioned following a Center investigation revealing how Chinese hackers infiltrated the FEC’s computer systems. The 44-page document — known within the FEC as the “NIST study” — in part provides recommendations on how to fix the FEC’s problems and bring its computer systems in line with specific National Institute of Standards and Technology computer security protocols. The study cost $199,500 to produce.
Center for Public Integrity
A Defense Department study that proposed cutting $125 billion in administrative waste from the Pentagon budget was buried amid concerns the findings would give Congress an excuse to further slash defense spending, the Washington Post reported on Monday. The report, issued in January 2015, identified a "clear path" for the Pentagon to save $125 billion over five years by streamlining the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailing the use of contractors and making better use of information technology, the Post said. The proposal was ultimately killed. The department imposed secrecy restrictions on the data and removed a 77-page summary report from its website, the Post said.
Reuters
Editorials/Columns
No one cares about Virginia's Freedom of Information Act — or so government officials keep telling me. That was the sentiment expressed by Sen. Thomas K. "Tommy" Norment, R-James City County, during a meeting a few years ago with the Daily Press Editorial Board. I remember being surprised by his comment that day. I respectfully disagreed with our fine senator then, and I still do. After more than two years of working on a study of the state's FOIA law, [voted yesterday] on an omnibus bill that will be brought before legislators in January. We did little to make public meetings or public records more open to Virginians. And we did not make any changes to make it more difficult for officials who flout the law, a complaint that we heard at almost every council meeting. As a member of the council, I believe that part of the issue is the makeup of the council itself. Membership on the subcommittees and the council are heavily weighted toward government agencies, a reflection of the legislation and the legislators who picked the appointees. Add to this a lack of accountability in the organization itself and in the way it functions. Sometimes information for the meetings was not posted on the council website before the meeting, an issue blamed on staffing shortages and related issues. Other times we could accomplish nothing at meetings because not enough members showed up.
Marisa Porto, Daily Press
Sigh. Here we go again. Accomack has temporarily pulled two American classics, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” from libraries and classrooms because a parent objects to their use of racial slurs. Never mind the greater lessons about empathy and common humanity the books teach; the parent thinks “you can’t get past” the slurs to the deeper message — even though millions of people have done just that. That’s a principal reason the books are taught.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Daily Press
After three years of study and initially high hopes for reform, a panel reviewing the Virginia Freedom of Information Act has recommended little in the way of change. In 1968, the law had five exemptions – areas where government officials could choose to withhold records for a narrowly construed, valid reason. There are now about 175 exemptions. Dave Ress, a reporter with the Daily Press in Newport News who attended meetings of the council during the review, spoke on Monday at the council's final meeting of the year. He asked members to think about how much work went into the three-year review and how few recommendations it produced. Rather than look at the difficulties the public has in getting information from government and how other states handle FOIA, he said, the council took a piecemeal approach to exemptions from the perspective of government agencies.
Virginian-Pilot
Members of the Freedom of Information Advisory Council wrapped up three years of work on Monday, but critics say they have little to show for it. The council, a state agency that helps resolve disputes over public records and meetings issues, was tasked three years ago with studying the state’s freedom of information laws. Critics say the draft bills approved Monday do little to increase the public’s access to records or meetings. Dick Hammerstrom, chairman of the FOIA committee for the Virginia Press Association and vice president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, told the council he has been through two previous revisions of freedom of information laws — once around 1989 and again in 1999. “I’m a little disappointed in this one, and I’m disappointed not because I don’t think everyone worked hard, because they did,” Hammerstrom said. “Right now under our current law, Virginia’s police can withhold any record they want to, if they want to.” Virginians should have every opportunity to find out about crime in their communities, he said.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Prosecutors cross examine Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot as public corruption trial wraps up. // A federal prosecutor questioned Norfolk Treasurer Anthony Burfoot on Monday afternoon about how a developer came to pay him $1,000 one week before a key City Council vote.
Virginian-Pilot
For 75 years, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point has been studying the Chesapeake Bay, collecting data sets of every kind. Now that wealth of information about long-term fish abundance and diversity, water quality trends, seagrass beds and tidal marsh conditions over time is being added to the state's Open Data Portal, a web clearinghouse for big data. VIMS Associate Dean Mark Luckenbach said marine researchers continue to gather not only ongoing data on the bay, its marine life and ecosystems, but are still accessing decades of old data stored on such low-tech media as notecards stored in shoeboxes to add to the digital database.
Virginian-Pilot
Rolling Stone magazine urged a federal judge on Monday to overturn the verdict of a jury, which found that the publication and a reporter defamed a University of Virginia administrator with their botched story about a gang rape on campus. In a motion filed Monday, attorneys for Rolling Stone said the judge should overrule the jury’s verdict because there is no evidence that Erdely acted with actual malice. They’re also challenging the jury’s finding that the magazine’s December 2014 online version of the article — with an editor’s note acknowledging problems with the story — counted as “republishing” the false statements. Rolling Stone argues that punishing the magazine for trying to warn the public with the editor’s note could prompt other outlets to stay silent when there are errors in an article in the future.
WTOP
The Town of Dumfries has not made available minutes of its regular Town Council meetings. Minutes from Town Council meetings between June 7 and November 15 have not been transcribed, according to Dumfries Town Clerk Dawn Hobgood. Virginia open records law mandates such minutes must be made available to the public. Hobgood suggested Potomac Local view video of the meetings on the town’s website if such video was made available. But that’s not always an option as, for example, there was no audio or video recording of the town’s November 15 meeting due to technical difficulties, Hobgood added.
Potomac Local
National Stories
A top official in the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) testified in private Monday before a D.C. Council committee investigating allegations that he and other mayoral officials tried to steer millions of dollars in construction and demolition work to a prominent political donor. City Administrator Rashad M. Young, appointed by Bowser to oversee the city bureaucracy, spent hours behind closed doors answering questions from council members about his involvement in the contracting controversy. Emerging midafternoon, he declined to comment in detail about what he had discussed with the committee but said there was nothing improper about his actions. Council member Mary M. Chex (D-Ward 3) called the meeting but opted to close the meeting to the public — over the protests of journalists and open-government advocates — because it involves information about the firing of city employees, which under city policy is typically kept confidential.
Washington Post
Congress has passed a law protecting the right of U.S. consumers to post negative online reviews without fear of retaliation from companies. The bipartisan Consumer Review Fairness Act was passed by unanimous consent in the U.S. Senate, a Senate Commerce Committee announcement said.
Ars Technica
A U.S. District Court Judge has denied the Center for Public Integrity’s request for access to a taxpayer-funded study about cybersecurity vulnerabilities at the Federal Election Commission. The court’s decision comes more than 13 months after the Center for Public Integrity sued the FEC for access to the security study, which the FEC commissioned following a Center investigation revealing how Chinese hackers infiltrated the FEC’s computer systems. The 44-page document — known within the FEC as the “NIST study” — in part provides recommendations on how to fix the FEC’s problems and bring its computer systems in line with specific National Institute of Standards and Technology computer security protocols. The study cost $199,500 to produce.
Center for Public Integrity
A Defense Department study that proposed cutting $125 billion in administrative waste from the Pentagon budget was buried amid concerns the findings would give Congress an excuse to further slash defense spending, the Washington Post reported on Monday. The report, issued in January 2015, identified a "clear path" for the Pentagon to save $125 billion over five years by streamlining the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailing the use of contractors and making better use of information technology, the Post said. The proposal was ultimately killed. The department imposed secrecy restrictions on the data and removed a 77-page summary report from its website, the Post said.
Reuters
Editorials/Columns
No one cares about Virginia's Freedom of Information Act — or so government officials keep telling me. That was the sentiment expressed by Sen. Thomas K. "Tommy" Norment, R-James City County, during a meeting a few years ago with the Daily Press Editorial Board. I remember being surprised by his comment that day. I respectfully disagreed with our fine senator then, and I still do. After more than two years of working on a study of the state's FOIA law, [voted yesterday] on an omnibus bill that will be brought before legislators in January. We did little to make public meetings or public records more open to Virginians. And we did not make any changes to make it more difficult for officials who flout the law, a complaint that we heard at almost every council meeting. As a member of the council, I believe that part of the issue is the makeup of the council itself. Membership on the subcommittees and the council are heavily weighted toward government agencies, a reflection of the legislation and the legislators who picked the appointees. Add to this a lack of accountability in the organization itself and in the way it functions. Sometimes information for the meetings was not posted on the council website before the meeting, an issue blamed on staffing shortages and related issues. Other times we could accomplish nothing at meetings because not enough members showed up.
Marisa Porto, Daily Press
Sigh. Here we go again. Accomack has temporarily pulled two American classics, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” from libraries and classrooms because a parent objects to their use of racial slurs. Never mind the greater lessons about empathy and common humanity the books teach; the parent thinks “you can’t get past” the slurs to the deeper message — even though millions of people have done just that. That’s a principal reason the books are taught.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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