Transparency News 1/7/14

A program for lawyers to judge judges could be making a comeback. The 2014 General Assembly will consider proposals to revive a moribund judicial performance evaluation program designed to help Virginia judges improve their courtroom skills and give legislators a way to gauge their performance. The program, in which lawyers filled out forms to critique the work of judges at all levels of the court system, was discontinued in 2009 amid tension over control of the information provided to legislators. The proposal for a renewed JPE program expressly provides for making public the reports to legislators about judges who are up for reelection. Del. G. Manoli Loupassi, R-Richmond, who introduced enabling legislation, said the proposal reflects the input of Chief Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, who worked with him on plans to reestablish the program.
Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Republican and Democratic leaders in the House of Delegates have reached a tentative agreement on a wide-ranging package of reforms to the state’s ethics, transparency and disclosure laws. The reforms, a legislative outgrowth of the ongoing gift investigations of Gov. Bob McDonnell, would include:
• prohibiting elected officials from soliciting gifts and placing a $250 limit on gifts they can receive from lobbyists and individuals with business before the state;
• requiring the reporting of gifts to elected officials’ spouses and immediate family members, while clarifying definitions on gifts that officials can accept from friends;
• requiring elected officials to file financial disclosure forms twice a year, on a schedule that is synchronized with the filing requirements of lobbyists and lawmakers; and
• establishing a State Ethics Advisory Commission of legislator and citizen appointees to oversee Virginia’s disclosure system, and putting all disclosure forms online.
Times-Dispatch

Outgoing Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R), who battled the White House over health-care reform, will continue to fight the Obama administration when he steps down at the end of this week. Cuccinelli will assist U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) with a class-action suit against the National Security Administration over its surveillance of Americans’ phone records.
Washington Post

National Stories

Three or four years of nonprofit disclosures are now fully and instantly text-searchable, out of 7 million PDFs and that number will continue to grow. You can not only pull up 990s by typing in an organization’s name a lot faster (and freer) than Guidestar, but you can search across the inside text of all nonprofits. Because nonprofits often disclose who they give to, but not who they get from, searching an organization’s name turns up the filings of other, seemingly unaffiliated groups–essentially uncovering the previously secret donors to the first organization. You can also type a person’s name to see what boards they’re on and what groups they’re drawing a salary from. And a simple CTRL-F can navigate you to the part of the document you’re interested in, as opposed to reading through dozens or even hundreds of pages.
CitizenAudit.org (VCOG's page with information from 2002 to 2012)

Burglars who broke into an F.B.I. field office in 1971 and stole files that revealed the extent of the bureau’s surveillance of political groups are only now revealing their identities.
New York Times

While the nation’s attention was focused on the troubled rollout of the federal health care site under the Affordable Care Act, the problems with the Florida unemployment sites have pointed to something much broader: how a lack of funding in many states and a shortage of information technology specialists in public service jobs routinely lead to higher costs, botched systems and infuriating technical problems that fall hardest on the poor, the jobless and the neediest.
Governing

Federal prosecutors are fighting a request by convicted lobbyist Kevin Ring to unseal plea negotiation documents in his case. Ring's lawyers at Miller & Chevalier in December asked a federal trial judge in Washington to unseal portions of a PowerPoint presentation prosecutors showed him before he was indicted in 2008 on corruption charges. The defense lawyers contend the documents would bring "greater transparency to, and public scrutiny of, the daily workings of the criminal charging, plea and sentencing process." Ring's attorneys said in their petition that the information would shed light on the so-called "trial penalty"—the harm that flows from insisting on one's right to stand trial.
Blog of LegalTimes

The Connecticut Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether police in Connecticut can withhold arrest reports from the public and just issue press releases instead, while prosecutions are pending. Journalists are calling the case critical for reporters being able to get arrest reports quickly, and for the public’s right to know how their police departments operate. Justices are set to hear the case Thursday.
New Haven Register
 

Editorials/Columns

Rick Sincere,  Bearing Drift: Two bills submitted for the upcoming session of the General Assembly — one in the House, one in the Senate — are designed to restrict the public’s access to information about wrongdoing by public officials. These restrictions will make it more difficult for taxpayers to learn about misuse of their money by local governments, school boards, and state-run colleges and universities.

Dels. Kirk Cox and David Toscano, Times-Dispatch: For government to be effective, citizens must have faith in their leaders and their leaders’ integrity. That faith can be easily undermined if the public perceives that elected officials are unduly influenced by money and special interests. Until recently, Virginia has largely escaped this criticism. It has become clear, however, that changes are necessary to restore public trust lost due to recent events. Consequently, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has been working to review and revise Virginia’s ethics, transparency and disclosure laws. At a press conference today in Richmond, we will announce a bipartisan agreement on a series of comprehensive reforms that will increase accountability, promote greater transparency and preserve the integrity of state government and those who serve the citizens of our commonwealth. While we recognize the difficulty in legislating ethical behavior among elected officials, we believe it is important to set clear standards of conduct that the public can understand, and that we should sanction those who violate the public trust. The citizens of Virginia demand nothing less.

News & Advance: At the root of most legislation or legislative programs — programs designed to improve life in the localities or programs to improve the future of Virginia — is the expense of the programs. How much will they cost? Where will the money come from? In light of the news last week that Gov. Bob McDonnell is shelling out more than $780,000 for legal bills associated with investigations connected with gifts from Star Scientific, it is more than fair to ask where is the money coming from?