Transparency News 2/1/17
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
State and Local Stories
State and Local Stories
The Senate Local Government Committee yesterday reported on a 9-4 vote SB795, which would require every locality and each school division located within the locality to post on the public government website of the locality a register of all funds expended, showing vendor name, date of payment, amount, and a description of the type of expense, including credit card purchases with the same information.
The House FOIA subcommittee unanimously advanced a bill that would allow an employee to be fired if he or she willfully and knowingly refused to respond to a request sent by certified mail. The same subcommittee tabled (on an unrecorded voice vote) a bill to record closed meeting sessions for use only in possible litigation.
Peninsula Airport Commission officials said they did nothing wrong in using state funds to help repay a loan to a startup airline, despite sharp criticism from the state secretary of transportation. The commission and Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport executives held a special meeting Tuesday to address the $3.55 million in state money used to repay a loan made to now-defunct People Express Airlines, which Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne has called “the largest ever unauthorized use of state aviation funds.” “We did not violate policy,” airport executive director Ken Spirito told the commission after it held a 45-minute closed session. “We did nothing wrong in using entitlement funds.” “I don’t think I’ve misunderstood anything,” Layne said. “I think the misunderstanding is about the fiduciary responsibility of the commission.”
Daily Press
Never say never when it comes to future revisions, but Arlington County Board members for now are sticking with a change in procedure related to the “consent” portion of their monthly meeting. Board members voted 5-0 on Jan. 28 to change past practice and take away the power of the public to remove certain items from the consent agenda for a public airing. Now, in some cases, members of the public will have to convince at least one County Board member to support pulling the item off consent for regular consideration. “This is an effort not to stifle the ability of people to discuss things of importance – we’re just trying to make it more efficient,” County Board member Christian Dorsey said. “Functionally, this doesn’t change anything.” Board members say the change is designed to prevent a small number of vocal activists from monopolizing county staff time responding to inquiries on matters the elected officials deem non-controversial.
Inside NOVA
National Stories
In an apparent bow to critics and to increase transparency in Alaska government decisions, the state's oil-well regulator on Wednesday proposed notifying the public and accepting comments on applications for hydraulic fracturing operations. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission currently does not issue public notices or hold hearings when an operator applies for a permit to drill a well and frack it to increase oil and gas production. Fracking is controversial in the Lower 48, where critics have charged it has led to contamination of well water, but officials in Alaska say it has been done here safely for years. Information about fracking requests is currently made available to the general public after the agency approves the operation, although land owners within a half-mile radius of a planned well-bore must be notified by companies and can request an application. The proposed change follows a letter in September by conservation group Cook Inletkeeper that urged the agency to change its rules to require public notice, hearings and comment periods before applications for fracking can be approved, a request that remains under consideration.
Alaska Dispatch News
Texas court clerks are resisting a state proposal they say would strip them of their constitutional authority by making court documents available online for easy public access. The statewide database, re:SearchTX, holds records from all 254 counties and is backed by the state’s Supreme Court. It currently is used by judges and soon will be available to attorneys and the public — who could search for civil court records and review them, all from the comfort of home. Clerks say surrendering these records to a privately operated database would violate their role as custodians; the other side says this is an overstatement, and that taxpayers, not clerks, own the records. Clerks also say their departments will lose money with the public no longer having to head to a courthouse and pay printing fees of up to $1 a page. However, their opponents point out that the new system is set up so clerks would benefit from online users.
Austin American-Statesman
The FBI on Monday defended its decision to withhold documents on how it unlocked an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, saying the information could be exploited by "hostile entities" if released to the public. The Justice Department earlier this month released heavily censored records in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from The Associated Press, Vice Media and Gannett, the parent company of USA Today. Among the information withheld were details about how much the FBI paid last year to a third party to unlock the work phone of Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife killed 14 people at a holiday party in December 2015, as well as the identity of that entity.
Fox News
The Environment Protection Agency collected about 200 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the first week of the Trump administration, and more than 20 percent of them are about the new president, climate change and social media. Larry Gottesman, director of the national FOIA program at EPA, said his agency receives about 12,000 requests per year. According to FOIAOnline, since the beginning of October, the start of fiscal 2017, the EPA has received roughly 3,200 requests. Gottesman said the uptick is the result of a new administration, and that the FOIA requests his office is collecting range from well wishes of support to questions about the nomination of Rex Tillerson as the new Secretary of State.
Federal News Radio
Editorials/Columns
Sen. Glen Sturtevant Jr. and Del. Terry Kilgore have introduced important legislation in Richmond to protect the free expression and speech of Virginians (SB 1413 and HB 1941, respectively), and they need the support of their colleagues to advance it without delay. Paine’s words resonate now more than ever. Virginia lawmakers have an opportunity to secure one of the most sacred rights: the right to freely express how you feel and say what you believe without fear of reprisal. Without this critical piece of legislation, Virginians can be silenced through a legal mechanism known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (or “SLAPPs”).
Evan Mascagni, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Every Virginian should know who is paying to influence their vote. Virginia Beach citizens were denied that right in the 2016 light rail referendum because state campaign finance law is flawed. The General Assembly can prevent this from happening again. The law now excludes 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations from reporting requirements. That means businesses and people with a financial stake in ballot questions can use such nonprofits as a vehicle to hide the extent of spending to influence voters. This may have happened during the referendum here. Virginia Beach voters simply do not know because the law allowed a nonprofit group supporting extension of the Tide from Newtown Station to Town Center to avoid disclosure requirements for referendum committees. State Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-8th District, seeks to correct the flaw that allowed this to be a possibility. Whatever one’s feelings about light rail, DeSteph’s bill deserves the support of all citizens of Virginia Beach — and, for that matter, every Virginian. This is a bigger issue than the Tide. This is not about transportation but transparency.
Princess Anne Daily
The House FOIA subcommittee unanimously advanced a bill that would allow an employee to be fired if he or she willfully and knowingly refused to respond to a request sent by certified mail. The same subcommittee tabled (on an unrecorded voice vote) a bill to record closed meeting sessions for use only in possible litigation.
Peninsula Airport Commission officials said they did nothing wrong in using state funds to help repay a loan to a startup airline, despite sharp criticism from the state secretary of transportation. The commission and Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport executives held a special meeting Tuesday to address the $3.55 million in state money used to repay a loan made to now-defunct People Express Airlines, which Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne has called “the largest ever unauthorized use of state aviation funds.” “We did not violate policy,” airport executive director Ken Spirito told the commission after it held a 45-minute closed session. “We did nothing wrong in using entitlement funds.” “I don’t think I’ve misunderstood anything,” Layne said. “I think the misunderstanding is about the fiduciary responsibility of the commission.”
Daily Press
Never say never when it comes to future revisions, but Arlington County Board members for now are sticking with a change in procedure related to the “consent” portion of their monthly meeting. Board members voted 5-0 on Jan. 28 to change past practice and take away the power of the public to remove certain items from the consent agenda for a public airing. Now, in some cases, members of the public will have to convince at least one County Board member to support pulling the item off consent for regular consideration. “This is an effort not to stifle the ability of people to discuss things of importance – we’re just trying to make it more efficient,” County Board member Christian Dorsey said. “Functionally, this doesn’t change anything.” Board members say the change is designed to prevent a small number of vocal activists from monopolizing county staff time responding to inquiries on matters the elected officials deem non-controversial.
Inside NOVA
National Stories
In an apparent bow to critics and to increase transparency in Alaska government decisions, the state's oil-well regulator on Wednesday proposed notifying the public and accepting comments on applications for hydraulic fracturing operations. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission currently does not issue public notices or hold hearings when an operator applies for a permit to drill a well and frack it to increase oil and gas production. Fracking is controversial in the Lower 48, where critics have charged it has led to contamination of well water, but officials in Alaska say it has been done here safely for years. Information about fracking requests is currently made available to the general public after the agency approves the operation, although land owners within a half-mile radius of a planned well-bore must be notified by companies and can request an application. The proposed change follows a letter in September by conservation group Cook Inletkeeper that urged the agency to change its rules to require public notice, hearings and comment periods before applications for fracking can be approved, a request that remains under consideration.
Alaska Dispatch News
Texas court clerks are resisting a state proposal they say would strip them of their constitutional authority by making court documents available online for easy public access. The statewide database, re:SearchTX, holds records from all 254 counties and is backed by the state’s Supreme Court. It currently is used by judges and soon will be available to attorneys and the public — who could search for civil court records and review them, all from the comfort of home. Clerks say surrendering these records to a privately operated database would violate their role as custodians; the other side says this is an overstatement, and that taxpayers, not clerks, own the records. Clerks also say their departments will lose money with the public no longer having to head to a courthouse and pay printing fees of up to $1 a page. However, their opponents point out that the new system is set up so clerks would benefit from online users.
Austin American-Statesman
The FBI on Monday defended its decision to withhold documents on how it unlocked an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, saying the information could be exploited by "hostile entities" if released to the public. The Justice Department earlier this month released heavily censored records in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from The Associated Press, Vice Media and Gannett, the parent company of USA Today. Among the information withheld were details about how much the FBI paid last year to a third party to unlock the work phone of Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife killed 14 people at a holiday party in December 2015, as well as the identity of that entity.
Fox News
The Environment Protection Agency collected about 200 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the first week of the Trump administration, and more than 20 percent of them are about the new president, climate change and social media. Larry Gottesman, director of the national FOIA program at EPA, said his agency receives about 12,000 requests per year. According to FOIAOnline, since the beginning of October, the start of fiscal 2017, the EPA has received roughly 3,200 requests. Gottesman said the uptick is the result of a new administration, and that the FOIA requests his office is collecting range from well wishes of support to questions about the nomination of Rex Tillerson as the new Secretary of State.
Federal News Radio
Editorials/Columns
Sen. Glen Sturtevant Jr. and Del. Terry Kilgore have introduced important legislation in Richmond to protect the free expression and speech of Virginians (SB 1413 and HB 1941, respectively), and they need the support of their colleagues to advance it without delay. Paine’s words resonate now more than ever. Virginia lawmakers have an opportunity to secure one of the most sacred rights: the right to freely express how you feel and say what you believe without fear of reprisal. Without this critical piece of legislation, Virginians can be silenced through a legal mechanism known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (or “SLAPPs”).
Evan Mascagni, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Every Virginian should know who is paying to influence their vote. Virginia Beach citizens were denied that right in the 2016 light rail referendum because state campaign finance law is flawed. The General Assembly can prevent this from happening again. The law now excludes 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations from reporting requirements. That means businesses and people with a financial stake in ballot questions can use such nonprofits as a vehicle to hide the extent of spending to influence voters. This may have happened during the referendum here. Virginia Beach voters simply do not know because the law allowed a nonprofit group supporting extension of the Tide from Newtown Station to Town Center to avoid disclosure requirements for referendum committees. State Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-8th District, seeks to correct the flaw that allowed this to be a possibility. Whatever one’s feelings about light rail, DeSteph’s bill deserves the support of all citizens of Virginia Beach — and, for that matter, every Virginian. This is a bigger issue than the Tide. This is not about transportation but transparency.
Princess Anne Daily
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