Transparency News 1/30/18 – Virginia Coalition for Open Government

		Tuesday January 30, 2018
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	state & local news stories
Follow the bills we follow on VCOG annual legislative chart.	At yesterday’s Senate General Laws & Technology Committee meeting, two bills VCOG opposed were defeated with the recommendation that the FOIA Council study them. One was SB730, which would have exempted some social media accounts of General Assembly members, and one was SB876 tried to add a definition to FOIA for the term “custodian.” Passing with amendments were SB336 on public comment periods and SB630, adding penalties for premature destruction of records and improperly certifying a closed meeting. Advancing intact were SB512, exempting access to student cell phone numbers, SB657, exempting certain Commercial Space Flight Authority records that have been deemed sensitive but unclassified by the federal government, and SB858, adding William & Mary to an exemption for certain investment information. A subcommittee of the House Courts of Justice Committee defeated HB1309, which would have created a journalists’ shield law. VCOG testified in support of the measure. The House subcommittee that hears FOIA bills will meet today. Here is a chart of VCOG’s positions on various bills on the docket. (Note, HB1247 was stricken from the docket after VCOG prepared its chart.) You can see the entire docket here, and you can watch the subcommittee online at EyesonRichmond.org + + + + + + + + Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors members voiced their support Monday of bylaws that allow residents to speak up and know about the business conducted at meetings. One potential amendment would be to axe the requirement to have public comments when changing the bylaws. Supervisors also tried to figure out whether to remove a rule requiring public commenters to be residents of Pittsylvania County. The rule was instituted years ago after an outside person made disruptive comments, Hunt said. Register & Bee

national stories of interest
On Monday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and three media organizations submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the Georgia Supreme Court urging it to reverse a decision by the Court of Appeals that would make it mandatory for state agencies to withhold any record that falls under an exemption to the Georgia Open Records Act from the public. The Georgia Press Association, Georgia First Amendment Foundation, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution also signed on to the brief. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press The Pentagon has ordered an independent federal auditor to stop providing the public with key information about U.S. war efforts in Afghanistan, accelerating a clampdown on data, such as the size of the Afghan military and police forces, that indicate how the 16-year-old stalemated war is going. The crackdown on information comes just months after President Donald Trump announced a new Afghanistan strategy aimed at breaking a battlefield stalemate by accelerating Afghan-led operations against the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country. Virginian-Pilot	*Georgia case tests whether exemptions are mandatory or discretionary.*

editorials & columns

“It’s remarkable that federal authorities can find months of missing text messages between FBI agents in just a few days but HUD can’t seem to find the papers sitting on a bureaucrat’s desk.”

It has come to this: Doug Middleton, a deputy county manager in Henrico, is now posting a sign on his office door showing the number of days since he submitted a request for information from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development without getting a reply. As of Monday, the tally stood at 90. As one trenchant observer noted recently, it’s remarkable that federal authorities can find months of missing text messages between FBI agents in just a few days but HUD can’t seem to find the papers sitting on a bureaucrat’s desk. The county’s request is not outlandish. Nor is it complex. Nor is it difficult. The county simply wants to know what sort of plans the new owner of the infamous Essex Village apartments has for renovations, along with basic information such as standard organizational paperwork and filings.
Richmond Times-Dispatch