Transparency News 1/28/15
State and Local Stories
Thank you Peter Vieth at Virginia Lawyers Weekly for the alert to this bill, which I had missed.
SB1217 has passed the Senate and it would make private police departments subject to certain public records requirements. These are the affected departments:
Aquia Harbor Police Department
Babcock and Wilcox Police Department
Bridgewater Airpark Police Department
Carilion Police and Security Services Department
Kings Dominion Park Police Department
Kingsmill Police Department
Lake Monticello Police Department
Massanutten Police Department
Wintergreen Police Department.
Full day of bills today. In addition to the bills highlighted in yesterday’s Transparency News, there are ones on mandatory training — to include FOIA — for school boards, a blanket FOIA exemption for licensee information within a proposal to implement industrial hemp; and a couple of bills in the courts committees that are of interest. I will try my best to update VCOG’s bill chart in real time.
AND…don’t forget the feedback session for DLAS to talk about the Legislative Information Systems website.
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The City of Chesapeake will pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a 70-year-old woman who said two police officers violated her constitutional rights inside her home last March. Attorneys for Ruth Davenport and the city initially declined Monday to comment on the terms of the settlement. Her lawsuit accused an officer of slamming the 5-foot-4-inch, 140-pound woman to the floor of her home. City Attorney Jan Proctor said the settlement is confidential. But after The Pilot contacted several Chesapeake council members, Proctor released the amount. She also indicated in a statement that the settlement is "not an admission or a concession that Ms. Davenport's rights were violated." Video from the body camera one of the officers was wearing corroborated his client's version of events, Dawson said. Police declined to release a copy of the video to The Virginian-Pilot. Dawson said the city showed him the video after he filed the lawsuit.
Virginian-Pilot
Portsmouth taxpayers don’t know what perks they’re paying for the new school superintendent. Details about a car or housing allowance, health insurance and retirement – items typically spelled out in a contract – also are unknown to the general public. That’s because the School Board has yet to provide a copy, despite repeated requests from The Pilot for more than a month. At the December meeting, Chairman James Bridgeford said Bracy would be paid $184,000 in base salary annually as part of a four-year contract that will expire in 2018. Bridgeford didn’t provide a public copy of the contract at that time, saying the board still had to negotiate a housing allowance and moving costs. Bridgeford later said he was awaiting estimates for those items. The board didn’t meet for several weeks over the winter break. After the board’s next meeting on Jan. 15, Bridgeford showed a Pilot reporter a copy of the contract, saying he had just gotten a signed contract and would direct the board’s clerk to send it out. He also said there would later be an addendum related to the items still being negotiated. The Pilot never received a copy. On Jan. 22, The Pilot again asked Bridgeford for a copy of the contract. He said he told the clerk not to release the contract because there was a mistake related to the addendum and that the board would likely have to make changes in the base contract. He declined to provide a copy of the contract as-is. He said it would be ready in a couple of days.
Virginian-Pilot
Barely a third of Virginians think the state's politics are clean, a new survey by Christopher Newport University's Wason Center for Public Policy shows. Some 64 percent of voters surveyed by the Center's student pollsters in the past several days say the the state’s political culture only somewhat or not very honest. Almost all -- 85 percent -- support banning gifts of more than $250 to state and local officials. Nearly three-quarters --71 percent -- support creating an independent ethics commission to monitor those officials.
Daily Press
At a staff briefing Monday, while loudly voicing his disagreement with an article written by a News Leader government reporter, Augusta County Supervisor Tracy Pyles said to him, "You got it wrong, boy — uh, son." Although Pyles tried at the last minute to take back his use of the word "boy" by replacing it with "son," the word slipped out. With about 30 minutes left of the three-and-a-half hour meeting, Pyles addressed the board and News Leader reporter Calvin Trice, 43, saying that an article about a closed meeting "defamed him" and that he was reacting to being called improper and having his picture on the front page. "Made it seem as if I'm unethical, and I'm trying to tell them that they shouldn't have done that," Pyles said of his reaction Monday. "So, it came out and it was immediately followed by 'son.' "
News Leader
Heightened attention to ethics has made Gov. Terry McAuliffe into Virginia’s regifter-in-chief. Taking office last year as predecessor Robert F. McDonnell was on the verge of a federal indictment stemming from $177,000 in gifts and loans from a wealthy businessman, McAuliffe (D) imposed a $100 gift limit on himself, his family and executive staff. But the urge to shower a visiting governor with gifts has proved hard to resist. Sometimes the givers observe the $100 limit. McAuliffe gave all of those gifts away, according to data compiled and released Tuesday by the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan tracker of money in politics. The recipients were not indicated. Coy said the gifts were donated to the Library of Virginia, as were the $118.15 “Mt. Rushmore hydrostone sculpture” and a few pieces of framed art.
Washington Post
National Stories
Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf got starkly different messages from the Republican-controlled chambers of the General Assembly on Monday. Senate Republicans announced they had filed suit in Commonwealth Court against the governor over his decision to fire the director of the office of open records. Meanwhile, newly-elected House Majority leader David Reed (R., Indiana), in his first public comments on Wolf, said he believed Republicans could find common ground with the Democrat's administration. In the court case, attorneys speaking on behalf of ousted director Erik Arneson and the Republican caucus said the open records office is quasi-judicial, and therefore Wolf was acting beyond his authority when he terminated Arneson. "If it is supposed to be a watchdog agency . . . it has to be an independent agency," said attorney Matt Haverstick, who is representing Senate Republicans.Governing
Two police officers were injured by a gunman outside a New Hope City, Minnesota, Council meeting on Monday night. The gunman was fatally shot by police, authorities said. The incident happened outside the council chambers after two new officers were sworn in. The new officers, and a number of their veteran colleagues, had just left the chambers about 7:15 p.m. when they were confronted by the gunman. Cable-access video from inside the council chambers was later posted to YouTube. The video shows council members taking cover behind their desks as multiple shots are heard outside the chambers. In the video, council member John Elder, who is a public information officer for the Minneapolis Police Department, brandishes a handgun and orders everyone in the room to take cover.
Governing
When Laura Bistok snapped cellphone photos of public documents in the Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Recorder of Deeds office, she set in motion a series of events that would end with her being jailed on a disorderly conduct charge. Bistok, 37, of Indiana County violated a longstanding but unposted policy against photographing documents in the public records office that handles deeds and mortgages, authorities said. When she refused to put away her phone, office clerks called security. Policies that bar photographing public documents and those that permit photos — for a per-page fee — are drawing challenges across the country as high-quality cellphone cameras and handheld scanners grow in popularity. Some government officials entrusted to maintain documents owned by the public insist they have a right to bar citizens' digital devices and demand fees for copies to underwrite office costs.
Tribune-Review
In a public advisory, the FCC said it is “aggressively investigating and acting” against businesses that illegally interfere with Wi-Fi. The agency’s Enforcement Bureau said it has noticed a “disturbing trend” in which hotels and other businesses block personal Wi-Fi hot spots.
National Journal
Politicians holding any kind of office can get themselves into legal trouble. Lately, though, state House speakers have been especially prone to indictment. Facing federal corruption charges, Democrat Sheldon Silver of New York on Sunday agreed to relinquish his duties as Assembly speaker. Silver, who is accused of accepting bribes in the form of legal fees, was the fourth speaker indicted over the past 10 months. “It’s not all 50 states, but four out of 50 is pretty bad,” said Brendan Nyhan, an expert on political scandals at Dartmouth College. Each case is different, but all concern allegations of corruption or ethical abuses. This cluster of indictments opens up the question of whether there is something in the nature of the job of speaker that makes corruption more likely to occur. Here are five potential explanations as to why some speakers may find themselves in hot water:
Governing
