Transparency News 1/30/14

The House Rules Subcommittee on Studies will hear HJ96 today at 4:30 — the bill (sponsored by LeMunyon) would direct the FOIA Council to study over the next two years all of FOIA’s 172 exemptions. FOIA has not had a comprehensive review since 1999.Please contact the subcommittee members TODAY to voice your support.
• Del. Barry Knight (chair)
• Del. Steve Landes
• Del. Lee Ware
• Del. Bobby Orrock
• Del. Johnny Joannou
• Del. Algie Howell

A proposal to add sexual battery and other sex crimes to a list of convictions — such as drug possession and hate crimes — that could unseat a public official cleared the House of Delegates without opposition Wednesday. The bill, filed by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, seeks to close a loophole in state code thrust into the spotlight last year by the case of former Albemarle Supervisor Christopher J. Dumler.
Daily Progress

The Leesburg Town Council voted Jan. 28 to hire Kaj Dentler as the new Town Manager. Dentler, the current Deputy Town Manager, will replace John Wells, who retires Oct. 3. Wells, who has served as town manager for nearly a decade, announced his retirement last October. The council voted 6-1 to approve a two-year contract for Dentler, effective Oct. 4.  The lone dissenter was councilman Thomas Dunn, who offered a scathing opposition. "This has been a closed process from the beginning to the end. It was predetermined by Council that Dentler would be the Town Manager," Dunn stated in a press release. " There was no work session to set the guidelines, there was no national or regional search and there was no public input sought."
Loudoun Times-Mirror

Democrats’ views on power sharing in the state Senate have come a long way. Each political party controls 20 seats in the state Senate, just like they did two years ago. But the the Democrats senators’ view has hardened now that they have the tie-breaking vote. The Democrats’ reorganization plan was authored by McEachin — the same person who called the GOP takeover two years ago "an arrogant power grab." McEachin said his change of view this year is rooted in the GOP’s actions two years ago. During debate, he frequently repeated Norment’s 2012 line about "a rearticulation of Senate rules." Saslaw, in a written statement after the vote, said time have changed. "We now have a majority and we have a responsibility to use that majority to work on the issues voters care about," he wrote. No doubt, the Senate Democrats have U-turned on power sharing. We rate it a "Full Flop."
Politfact

On its face, the question seems simple: Can former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife talk to their friends and family members while the federal corruption case against the couple moves through court? The answer, though, is apparently going to require serious litigation. In their Wednesday request for a hearing, McDonnell’s defense attorneys wrote that restrictions on the couple’s ability to discuss the case with the family over dinner — or to personally appeal to friends to serve as character witnesses — would be “draconian.” They had earlier requested that a judge’s order restricting contact with possible witnesses exempt family members and apply only to those people specifically identified by prosecutors. Prosecutors responded that they did not mind a change in the order but that it should not let the governor or his wife discuss the case with anyone or contact friends or business associates who could testify.
Washington Post

National Stories

The U.S. Department of Agriculture can't use an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act to hide how much money businesses get through participation in the food stamp program, a federal appeals court said. The (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader had requested information on annual payments for hundreds of thousands of businesses nationwide enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, including 622 South Dakota vendors that range from grocery stores to gas stations.
USA Today

Judges in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals grappled Wednesday with the question of when a lawyer involved in high-profile litigation crosses the line to becoming a "public figure" herself. Washington lawyer Susan Burke of Katz, Marshall & Banks sued anonymous Wikipedia editors she believed were responsible for posting defamatory information about her online. One of the editors appealed after unsuccessfully fighting Burke's motion to unmask his identity. One point of contention during arguments today before a three-judge panel was whether Burke should be considered a "public figure." The D.C. law barring strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, offers anonymous speakers early protection against unmasking if the speech involved "issues of public interest." The trial judge, in denying the Wikipedia editor's effort to quash Burke's subpoena, found Burke was not a public figure.
LegalTimes

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden’s office wants to force Facebook to identify the creators of an anonymous page that often excoriates Wilmington and New Castle County officials, saying the identities are needed in an ongoing criminal investigation. The American Civil Liberties Union has intervened on behalf of the owners of the Facebook page “Peaceful Rioters for Wilmington, Delaware,” seeking in a Superior Court filing to quash Biden’s subpoena.
Wilmington News Journal

A legislative proposal could clear the way for Idaho's smallest school districts and charter schools to hire the spouses of their board members. Rep. Marc Gibbs, a Republican lawmaker from Grace, said Tuesday that smaller schools face problems when the only qualified applicant for a position is married to a board member. A district or charter school that wants to hire a board member's spouse must have less than 1,200 students to qualify, and must first advertise the position for 60 days, or for 15 days if the vacancy crops up during the school year.
Idaho Statesman

While no one is saying specifically how state legislators will respond to the Columbus schools data-scrubbing scandal, one thing is clear: The issue is not going to fade from their radar anytime soon. “This is something you have to move on,” said Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, adding that he planned to take a closer look at the audit and talk to Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman as soon as today. An 18-month investigation by state Auditor Dave Yost found that district administrators on several levels participated in a massive data-scrubbing effort to artificially boost academic results.
Columbus Dispatach

The (Toledo) Blade yesterday sued to force the Ohio inspector general to publicly release his report of the so-called Coingate scandal nine years after the investigation was launched. The lawsuit, filed in the Ohio Supreme Court, noted it’s been two years since Inspector General Randall J. Meyer’s office reversed position and announced it would complete the report after initially saying it would not. It also notes that annual reports issued in recent years by the office have stopped mentioning any ongoing investigation of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. In December 2008, former Toledo area coin dealer Tom Noe, 59, now “Inmate A589407,” began serving an 18-year sentence for stealing $13 million from a $50 million rare-coin and collectibles investment fund he operated for the state-run insurance fund for injured workers.
Toledo Blade
 

Editorials/Columns

Times-Dispatch: Two years ago Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling cast the tie-breaking vote to organize the state Senate in favor of Republicans. Democrats argued that he lacked the authority to give the GOP a majority in a chamber with a 20-20 split.

Virginian-Pilot: Two years ago, Virginia Republicans used parliamentary maneuvers and the lieutenant governor's tie-breaking vote to stack Senate committees, install Republican chairmen and give the party control of the chamber. The power grab was deliriously cheered by partisans. It allowed Republicans, who held the House of Delegates and governor's office, to push through priorities including new restrictions on abortion and fewer restrictions on gun ownership. Democrats responded by complaining and killing a budget proposal that satisfied many of their own priorities. Democrats' desire to retaliate may be understandable. In one respect, Republicans are reaping what they sowed, and most appeared to recognize as much Tuesday. But this kind of governance doesn't serve the interests of Virginians. Neither does the next step in retaliation by Democrats, which threatens to further transform Richmond into Washington. Tuesday, Democrats shifted discretion over whether Senate bills amended by the House would go to committee or the full Senate.