Transparency News 1/6/16

State and Local Stories

HB 308 (Del. Morris)
Requires that any person elected, reelected, appointed or reappointed to any public body not excepted from FOIA must use only official government-provided email accounts to conduct public business The bill also provides that public officers, appointees, and employees shall use only official government-provided email accounts to conduct public business. However, if a public officer, appointee, or employee inadvertently uses a nongovernment email account to conduct public business, then the email and email address shall be forwarded to the appropriate official for retention as designated by the public body. The bill contains a technical amendment.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB308

HB 334 (Del. Pogge)
Provides that in an enforcement action, if the court finds the public body violated certain meeting notice requirements, the court may invalidate any action of the public body taken at such meeting.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB334

HB 336 (Del. Pogge)
Protects from mandatory disclosure library records that can be used to identify any library patron under the age of 18 years. The bill provides that access shall not be denied to the parent, including a noncustodial parent, or guardian of such person, unless the parent's parental rights have been terminated or a court of competent jurisdiction has restricted or denied such access. For records of persons under the age of 18 years who are emancipated, the right of access may be asserted by the subject thereof. Any parent or emancipated person under the age of 18 years who is the subject of the record may waive, in writing, the protections afforded by the bill. If the protections are so waived, the public body shall open such records for inspection and copying.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+HB336

SB 202 (Sen. Stuart)
Provides that public access to records of the official salaries or rates of pay of public employees whose annual rate of pay is the annual equivalent of twice the federal minimum wage or less is not required under FOIA. Currently, public access to salary information is required for public employees whose annual rate of pay is more than $10,000. The bill also provides that publicly available databases of public employees' salaries shall not include the name of any public officer, appointee, or employee. The bill contains a technical amendment.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+sum+SB202
 
 Follow these and other bills on VCOG's annual legislative chart 

House Speaker Bill Howell issued a statement Tuesday saying he's ending the practice of allowing lawmakers to hold committee hearings at their House of Delegates seats. The move is among several changes being enacted by House Republicans this year to increase transparency, the statement said. A group of policy organizations called Transparency Virginia last year critiqued the General Assembly for holding certain committee hearings at lawmakers' desks, and other issues they said hindered open government. Those hearings are done in the House, Howell said.  "While they are convenient for legislators and often involve only procedural issues, holding committee meetings at member’s desks denies legislators, the media and the public the opportunity to be fully apprised of the committee’s actions," Howell, R-Stafford County, said in the statement. “I will now ask committee chairs to hold these meetings in House Room 1, a fully equipped committee room where legislators, the media and the public can participate without impediment."
Virginian-Pilot

Culpeper Town Council — unlike the county board in nearby Greene County — is opting for a hands-off approach to regulating public comments at its meetings. The Culpeper council voted unanimously Monday night not to enact new rules of procedure that would have prohibited insulting remarks from citizens during the public comment session held at the beginning of each regular meeting, and also allowed for at committee meetings. “They were overkill,” said Councilman Jon Russell of the proposed rules that would have prevented citizens from using vulgar language, demeaning anyone or disrupting the meeting. “The mayor already has the power to control the meeting.” He said he was glad council decided to let people speak at meetings without piling on a bunch of unnecessary rules.
Star-Exponent

For the second time in less than a year, Culpeper will be looking for a new county administrator. Ernie Hoch, who took over the job May 1 following Frank Bossio’s retirement, submitted his resignation Tuesday. According to Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Alexa Fritz, that resignation came during a closed session at which Hoch’s job performance was being discussed. Fritz would not say whether Hoch resigned under pressure, but it is no secret that high-ranking county employees have complained about his leadership in recent weeks.
Free Lance-Star

The James City County board of supervisors spent time discussing its public comment sessions, which were revamped at the start of last year. Public comment under the current format is stopped at 7 p.m., and speakers who wish to address an item not under consideration for a public hearing - an issue being considered by the board- have to wait until the conclusion of the meeting. Onizuk showcased a plan that would have meetings begin with a public caucus, one where board members could discuss issues among themselves and with the public before meetings began, allowing for more interaction and dialogue. The public comment portion would then take place before the consent agenda is passed, which contains items generally deemed to be non-controversial. The move was tabled for more consideration.
Virginia Gazette

National Stories
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Hillary Clinton’s top aide was closely involved in vetting a politically sensitive document requested under public information laws, according to emails from the Department of State released on Thursday. Public records officials at the State Department sought clearance from Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, in 2012 before releasing a memo related to the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation program. The email corroborates a Wall Street Journal article last May that reported that Mills had been involved in vetting documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act, a process that is typically expected to be independent of political influence.
Washington Free Beacon

On his last day in office, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway issued a ruling that said public officials can use their private cell phones to conduct public business, such as sending text messages. But Louisville attorney Jon L. Fleischaker, who operates a hotline for members of the Kentucky Press Association, called the ruling "wrong. It's simplistic. I think it's a really, really bad decision." Fleischaker said the opinion ignores part of the Kentucky Open Records Act that defines public records as those used by public officials while relying only on whether the records are in the possession of the agency.
Courier-Journal

Editorials/Columns

Transparency in government is not only about accountability. It is also about trust. That point was brought home recently when the Virginia Retirement System decided to change the way it handled retirement accounts of about 13,000 past and present state college and university staff. The uproar that resulted led VRS to reverse its decision to cancel its relationship with a national retirement fund — TIAA-CREF — that's been handling school teachers' and college staff savings across the country for nearly a century. As part of that move, VRS wanted to move those savings into a fund of its own, and it wanted to turn over administrative work to a firm where its former chief executive just moved. To say "trust us" is not enough when there are close relations over time between public and private entities and when individuals move easily from one to the other.
Daily Press

Hasty and begrudging tweaks were made to ethics rules last winter in the aftermath of the McDonnell scandal. Tone-deaf state lawmakers groused that they were doing it only to get members of the press corps off their backs. Now we learn their work was even sloppier than we feared. While legislators did reluctantly agree to limit the value of gifts they could accept, they tweaked the State and Local Conflict of Interests Act in a way that it provides many politicians with a snug insurance policy protecting them from prosecution over votes that present a conflict of interest. Memo to the General Assembly: Get that ridiculous caveat out of the law ASAP. Strengthen Virginia’s pitiful prohibitions on conflict of interests by public officials. Don’t water them down.
Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot