Transparency News 2/22/17
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
State and Local Stories
State and Local Stories
The Peninsula Airport Commission has no written records about People Express Airlines' use of a $5 million line of credit the commission guaranteed, the agency disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Daily Press. That guarantee eventually cost Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport $4.5 million, when it had to pay off the sum People Express owed TowneBank. The commission covered that with taxpayer money meant to be used on capital projects. "That money went to get an airline started," said airport executive director Ken Spirito. "Nobody pocketed any. ... It didn't go to pay off old debt or investors; it went for operations." Spirito said airport officials met regularly with People Express executives and received detailed briefings on what the airline was doing with the money. People Express chief executive officer Jeff Erickson said the commission had a full accounting of the use of the money. But there are no documents, notes, spreadsheets or other records detailing that spending, the commission's response to the Daily Press FOIA request said. The commission wanted to charge $1,300 to fulfill the FOIA request. It demanded that the Daily Press pay an $816 advance deposit. It now says it will refund the money.
Daily Press
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s office said late Tuesday that the mayor had accepted the resignation of an executive assistant with a criminal record after it became public that the man had been found guilty of a probation violation for sending threatening text messages. On Monday, Stoney said he hired Steven Hammond Jr., who was convicted of embezzling $240,000 from the state in 2015, because he “believes in redemption.” But Stoney said Tuesday that he was not aware Hammond was called back before U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. in February 2016 after telling the mother of his children in a series of text messages that he was headed to her house and, “The next time I see you, I’m going to punch you in your (expletive) face.” Federal court documents show that the woman obtained an emergency protection order against Hammond in January 2016 after Hammond sent the messages and called her 42 times over the course of about 40 minutes.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Franklin County Board of Supervisors was presented Tuesday with the requirements document it requested as a precursor to more in-depth planning for a new career and technical educational center. After members of a stakeholder committee tasked with making the case for the project presented their findings to the board of supervisors during its December meeting, they made a plea for funding for a feasibility study. But the board wasn’t ready to take that step, and asked for a requirements document instead. School officials responded with a request made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act seeking similar documents for other county projects, a move that upset several supervisors and school board members who were unaware of the request.
Roanoke Times
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors held its first public hearing for this year’s budget process, receiving the first round of public feedback regarding the interim county executive’s proposed budget. But only three people spoke, with the majority commenting in favor of funding for a capital project in the proposed budget.
Daily Progress
Working from an office suite behind a Burger King in southern Virginia, operatives used a web of shadowy cigarette sales to funnel tens of millions of dollars into a secret bank account. They weren’t known smugglers, but rather agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The operation, not authorized under Justice Department rules, gave agents an off-the-books way to finance undercover investigations and pay informants without the usual cumbersome paperwork and close oversight, according to court records and people close to the operation. The secret account is at the heart of a federal racketeering lawsuit brought by a collective of tobacco farmers who say they were swindled out of $24 million. A pair of A.T.F. informants received at least $1 million apiece from that sum, records show.
New York Times
National Stories
A bill that would exempt from public disclosure information about people who report or respond to wolf attacks has cleared a Washington state House committee. Supporters including the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife cite death threats received by state employees, ranchers and others. They say the measure is needed to protect those who deal with wolves. Opponents say it makes it impossible for the public to know who is involved in the state's wolf management programs.
KPTV
A whistleblower lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County, N.C., alleges that two North Carolina district attorneys conspired to hire each other's wives and allow them to collect salaries while performing little work. The State Bureau of Investigation last summer began investigating the offices of Wallace Bradsher, the district attorney in Person and Caswell counties, and Rockingham County District Attorney Craig Blitzer. The SBI's findings were turned over to the North Carolina Attorney General's Office in December, but no charges have been filed in the case so far. Debra Halbrook, who tipped the SBI off to the alleged scheme, said Bradsher fired her last month when he surmised she was assisting in the investigation. She filed suit seeking damages for her lost back pay, lost future earnings, lost health and retirement benefits, as well as punitive damages and triple damages allowed under the state Whistleblower Act. The lawsuit alleges that Bradsher hired his wife, Pam Bradsher, as a legal assistant when he was elected in 2011, despite a memo from the state Administrative Office of the Courts that judicial branch employees couldn't hire their spouses. Wallace Bradsher promoted his wife to an investigator role in the office after he won re-election in 2014, according to the lawsuit.
WRAL
The Oklahoma attorney general's office said Tuesday it is complying with a judge's order to surrender documents related to new Environmental Protection Agency leader Scott Pruitt's communications with energy companies while he served as the state's attorney general. The office had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to comply with District Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons's order to turn over emails and other documents to the Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy, which requested the documents more than two years ago under Oklahoma's Open Records Act. A spokesman for the office, Lincoln Ferguson, said it turned over records related to the January 2015 request to the watchdog agency and that other records were turned over to the judge to determine if they are privileged and not subject to release under the law.
McClatchy
Editorials/Columns
NORFOLK TREASURER Anthony Burfoot’s forced exit from City Hall on Monday — even if temporary — represents a wildly overdue moment of probity in one of the tawdriest cases in Norfolk’s modern memory. Burfoot, a former vice mayor, was found guilty of what Norfolk Circuit Judge Everett Martin, in a bout of judicial understatement, described as “crimes of dishonesty.” These transgressions were unprecedented in the region, brazen in their accumulation and a hazard to citizen trust in government. Burfoot should have had the good grace to step down when he was indicted in federal court, and surely after the jury rendered its verdict on the six charges in December. Incredibly, state law offered no remedy to force from office an official convicted of such behavior. But Burfoot’s insistence on staying put was enough to inspire an immediate change in the code of Virginia.
Virginian-Pilot
Daily Press
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s office said late Tuesday that the mayor had accepted the resignation of an executive assistant with a criminal record after it became public that the man had been found guilty of a probation violation for sending threatening text messages. On Monday, Stoney said he hired Steven Hammond Jr., who was convicted of embezzling $240,000 from the state in 2015, because he “believes in redemption.” But Stoney said Tuesday that he was not aware Hammond was called back before U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. in February 2016 after telling the mother of his children in a series of text messages that he was headed to her house and, “The next time I see you, I’m going to punch you in your (expletive) face.” Federal court documents show that the woman obtained an emergency protection order against Hammond in January 2016 after Hammond sent the messages and called her 42 times over the course of about 40 minutes.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Franklin County Board of Supervisors was presented Tuesday with the requirements document it requested as a precursor to more in-depth planning for a new career and technical educational center. After members of a stakeholder committee tasked with making the case for the project presented their findings to the board of supervisors during its December meeting, they made a plea for funding for a feasibility study. But the board wasn’t ready to take that step, and asked for a requirements document instead. School officials responded with a request made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act seeking similar documents for other county projects, a move that upset several supervisors and school board members who were unaware of the request.
Roanoke Times
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors held its first public hearing for this year’s budget process, receiving the first round of public feedback regarding the interim county executive’s proposed budget. But only three people spoke, with the majority commenting in favor of funding for a capital project in the proposed budget.
Daily Progress
Working from an office suite behind a Burger King in southern Virginia, operatives used a web of shadowy cigarette sales to funnel tens of millions of dollars into a secret bank account. They weren’t known smugglers, but rather agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The operation, not authorized under Justice Department rules, gave agents an off-the-books way to finance undercover investigations and pay informants without the usual cumbersome paperwork and close oversight, according to court records and people close to the operation. The secret account is at the heart of a federal racketeering lawsuit brought by a collective of tobacco farmers who say they were swindled out of $24 million. A pair of A.T.F. informants received at least $1 million apiece from that sum, records show.
New York Times
National Stories
A bill that would exempt from public disclosure information about people who report or respond to wolf attacks has cleared a Washington state House committee. Supporters including the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife cite death threats received by state employees, ranchers and others. They say the measure is needed to protect those who deal with wolves. Opponents say it makes it impossible for the public to know who is involved in the state's wolf management programs.
KPTV
A whistleblower lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County, N.C., alleges that two North Carolina district attorneys conspired to hire each other's wives and allow them to collect salaries while performing little work. The State Bureau of Investigation last summer began investigating the offices of Wallace Bradsher, the district attorney in Person and Caswell counties, and Rockingham County District Attorney Craig Blitzer. The SBI's findings were turned over to the North Carolina Attorney General's Office in December, but no charges have been filed in the case so far. Debra Halbrook, who tipped the SBI off to the alleged scheme, said Bradsher fired her last month when he surmised she was assisting in the investigation. She filed suit seeking damages for her lost back pay, lost future earnings, lost health and retirement benefits, as well as punitive damages and triple damages allowed under the state Whistleblower Act. The lawsuit alleges that Bradsher hired his wife, Pam Bradsher, as a legal assistant when he was elected in 2011, despite a memo from the state Administrative Office of the Courts that judicial branch employees couldn't hire their spouses. Wallace Bradsher promoted his wife to an investigator role in the office after he won re-election in 2014, according to the lawsuit.
WRAL
The Oklahoma attorney general's office said Tuesday it is complying with a judge's order to surrender documents related to new Environmental Protection Agency leader Scott Pruitt's communications with energy companies while he served as the state's attorney general. The office had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to comply with District Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons's order to turn over emails and other documents to the Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy, which requested the documents more than two years ago under Oklahoma's Open Records Act. A spokesman for the office, Lincoln Ferguson, said it turned over records related to the January 2015 request to the watchdog agency and that other records were turned over to the judge to determine if they are privileged and not subject to release under the law.
McClatchy
Editorials/Columns
NORFOLK TREASURER Anthony Burfoot’s forced exit from City Hall on Monday — even if temporary — represents a wildly overdue moment of probity in one of the tawdriest cases in Norfolk’s modern memory. Burfoot, a former vice mayor, was found guilty of what Norfolk Circuit Judge Everett Martin, in a bout of judicial understatement, described as “crimes of dishonesty.” These transgressions were unprecedented in the region, brazen in their accumulation and a hazard to citizen trust in government. Burfoot should have had the good grace to step down when he was indicted in federal court, and surely after the jury rendered its verdict on the six charges in December. Incredibly, state law offered no remedy to force from office an official convicted of such behavior. But Burfoot’s insistence on staying put was enough to inspire an immediate change in the code of Virginia.
Virginian-Pilot
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