Transparency News, 2/24/21

Virginia House Democrats approved a late change to a bill Tuesday that an open-government advocate said could result in more electronic General Assembly meetings even when the pandemic is under control. The change, pushed by Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, was controversial, drawing rebukes from Republicans. Six Democrats didn’t vote, and what had been an innocuous Senate bill on electronic meetings nearly died. “We’re disappointed that this bill that had so much bipartisan support and had been worked out by the people it was going to help — mainly local and regional governments — [has] been turned into a political football,” said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. “The potential implications are that the General Assembly would have more opportunities for its floor sessions and subcommittee meetings to be held either all or partially electronically.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch

An inspector general report on the Vincent Martin case that was released last July was six pages long. Initially, that version was heavily redacted, with more text blacked out than text that was legible. Now, we’ve learned it was heavily edited as well, and was less than half its original length. CBS-6 has obtained that original report, which is 13 pages long, and loaded with details about violations of parole board policy and the law.
WTVR

On Monday, the Senate approved three bills impacting higher education in Virginia. One bill that passed unanimously requires college governing boards meet a higher level of transparency. The bill requires universities publish the names of their board members, the dates of upcoming meetings, instructions for accessing those meetings and an archive of agendas. It also requires them to post a single email address or an email address for each member in which the public can submit comments. This was a point of contention in committee meetings. Megan Rhyne, head of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, asked a subcommittee why college boards shouldn’t be required to post the email addresses of their members when so many other public bodies already do so. Peter Blake, head of SCHEV, responded that the bill carefully threads the needle between transparency and practicality. Del David Reid, D-Loudoun, has proposed a budget amendment that would require boards to list the individual email addresses of each member.
The Daily Progress

As part of an overhaul of its meeting scheduling and procedures, the Front Royal Town Council was poised to approve the separation of the “Public Correspondence” or “comments” portion of meetings, along with not live broadcasting those comments as part of planned changes. But after Gary Gillespie’s initial motion to approve a change to the “Order of Business” for regular council meetings a rift appeared. Two newly elected councilmen, first Scott Lloyd and then Joseph McFadden expressed opposition to the “Public Comments” aspect of the changes. Those changes would include moving the public input on matters of concern to 6:30 p.m., a half-hour prior to the start of the meeting.
Royal Examiner

Franklin officials say an equipment failure, coupled with a delay in receiving replacement parts, is the reason the Feb. 8 and 22 City Council meetings weren’t live streamed to the city’s YouTube channel. The city expects to have an after-the-fact recording of the Feb. 22 meeting available via YouTube later this morning, and to be able to resume live streaming by the Council’s March 8 meeting.
The Tidewater News
 

We don’t have to. So we ain’t gonna. That’s been the response by law-enforcement agencies in Virginia to requests for records and details from the public, virtually all of the time. The state’s feckless Freedom of Information Act provides an easy escape hatch for many government agencies, including police.  Unless FOIA requires police departments to release information, the departments have used their “discretionary” authority to say “no,” time and time again. It’s a default posture that’s maddening — and ultimately erodes trust in the people in uniform.Police cases that have wrapped up deserve public examination. Citizens should be able to judge for themselves how law enforcement investigated their own members, homicides and other crimes. The switch would go a long way in bolstering trust among the populace. And it would go a long way in boosting credibility in our police departments, too. 
Roger Chesley, Virginia Mercury

Freedom of the press stands alongside freedom of religion, speech, assembly and petition as the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That makes the upcoming trial of a Des Moines Register reporter who was doing her job covering a protest last spring all the more troubling. Andrea Sahouri is scheduled to stand trial starting March 8 on charges of failure to disperse and interference with official acts.
Des Moines Register