Transparency News 2/26/15

Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration tried — and failed — to reverse a House of Delegates vote killing a bill that opponents say would have shrouded state-sponsored executions in unprecedented secrecy, lawmakers said. Several members of the House of Delegates said officials from the state Department of Corrections lobbied them to see if they would change their earlier votes. Those lawmakers asked House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) to hold a second vote on the bill Wednesday. The aggressive lobbying by McAuliffe’s agency to keep drugs used for lethal injection flowing into the state put him at odds with many in his party who oppose capital punishment. Lawmakers from both parties opposed the measure because it would have removed transparency from state-sponsored executions. A spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections did not return several messages. Brian Moran, the governor’s secretary of public safety and homeland security, who oversees corrections, did not return phone calls.
Washington Post

There’s more than one way to kill legislation in the Virginia General Assembly. There’s the straight-up way: Put it up for a vote and lawmakers must go on record, pro or con. Then there’s the stealthy way: Kill it in a subcommittee without a recorded vote, and it vanishes without a trace.It’s a longstanding practice in Virginia’s 400-year-old legislature. But transparency advocates say the public deserves better. A new broad-based coalition of 22 advocacy organizations says the system is undemocratic and should be changed. Throughout the 2015 legislative session, Transparency Virginia has been documenting instances of unrecorded votes, bills killed with no hearings, and failure to provide timely notice of meetings. Most stealthy bill deaths occur in the House of Delegates, where the practice is routine. And no bill is too high-profile to escape such a fate. Redistricting, for instance.
Washington Post

There's a fee increase nestled into the General Assembly's soon-to-be-final budget language, increasing the amount commissioners of accounts can charge to settle timeshare foreclosures. The fee would max out at $150, paid out of the money produced by the foreclosure proceedings. The amendment traces back to Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. "Tommy" Norment, R-James City, who suggested it earlier this year, though his amendment language did not include the $150 cap. The phrases "Tommy Norment" and "commissioner of accounts" may ring a bell together because the Associated Press noted last week that Norment himself is a commissioner of accounts. He has declined to say how much money he makes from the job, and continued to do so Wednesday. He has said the state's Freedom of Information Advisory Council advised him that he doesn't have to. In the past the amount has been at least $120,000 in a year, the AP reported.
Daily Press

Pittsylvania County’s 2015-16 budget could include pay raises for members of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors. Board Chairwoman Brenda Bowman, who is not running for re-election this year, brought up the idea for discussion at the end of a more than three-hour budget work session held by the board’s finance committee Wednesday in Chatham. Banister Supervisor Jessie Barksdale expressed support for an increase for supervisors. “People who serve in public office, there are so many things you do you’re not reimbursed for and that are done for the health, safety and welfare of citizens,” Barksdale said.
Register & Bee

National Stories

Later this morning, the Federal Communications Commission will take a vote on adopting new rules that would keep the Internet neutral. Here's a guide to what all of this means.
NPR

Media organizations are fighting to overturn a gag order and sealing order entered in connection with the criminal trial of Donald Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy. The matter is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, and the Charleston Gazette last week appealed the denial of their request to have the orders overturned. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, on behalf of 29 other media and free speech organizations, filed an amicus brief in support of the media petition. Last November, Blankenship was charged with conspiracy to violate federal mine safety and health standards and securities fraud, among other things, stemming from the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in 2010, which killed 29 people. Immediately following the indictment, U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger issued a gag order preventing anyone connected with the case -- the parties, attorneys, potential witnesses, family members of "actual and alleged victims" and others -- from making “any statements of any nature, in any form, or release any documents to the media or any other entity regarding the facts or substance of this case.” The judge also ordered that access to all filings in the case would be restricted to case participants and court personnel.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Editorials/Columns

It looks like the State Corporation Commission is going to have some free time on its hands over the next five years, now that Gov. Terry McAuliffe and state lawmakers have effectively cut the consumer watchdog from holding Virginia's biggest power company accountable.
Virginian-Pilot

It’s pop quiz time here in column land. Today’s question concerns quotes from a famous Virginian and Founding Father. Which of the following comes from Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wartime governor of Virginia and third president of the United States? a) “That government is best which governs least.” b) “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” c) “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” d) “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” e) All of the above. f) None of the above. If you answered “f,” give yourself a gold star. Because despite what you may have heard, there’s no evidence Thomas Jefferson ever wrote or uttered any of those nuggets. For this we can thank the scholars at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization set up in 1923 to preserve and protect Monticello, Jefferson’s plantation outside Charlottesville. The foundation’s public face online is the website Monticello.org. This is no laughing matter because sometimes the counterfeit quotes, such as “d” above, wind up in history texts used in our public schools.
Dan Casey, Roanoke Times

I read with interest the opinion on  Feb. 16,  written by Zhina Kamali: “If a delegate votes and no one counts it, does it make a sound?” I commend Kamali for seeking answers to the concerns as an intern with the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Apparently, Kamali had experienced some frustration with the voting process, having indicated in the closing section the seeking of “some outside sources for guidance.” State governments are complicated, but crucial instruments of governing in this so great a people and commonwealth. All three branches of our government (both on the state and national level) have rules that cover a vast number of topics. Kamali, along with other interns, may want to review the Constitution of Virginia, the Rules of the House of Delegates and the Rules of the Senate. These documents are tedious reading. There are several different methods of voting and rules concerning division of the house, appeal to the chair, and other extenuating circumstances. I would hope the leaders would be educating all the interns about the various rules involved. Here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the rules, along with traditions, have come down to us through the ages and eventually became codified.
Roanoke Times letter to the editor, Jennie Sue Murdock
(NOTE: The rules on recording votes in committees in the House have not been handed down through the ages. They are implemented (or reimplemented) each year. The most recent version of the unrecorded voice vote option began with House rules adopted in 2006. Further, Kamali's piece stresses the point that there is what is legal and what is right. Allowing important (and sometimes not so important) bills to be killed without going on record is not right.)

The House of Delegates Privileges and Elections Committee is where redistricting reform bills go to die. It is not selective. It kills bills the Senate already passed, and bills introduced in its own chamber. It kills bills introduced by Republicans and bills introduced by Democrats. At least it doesn’t discriminate. Del. Mark Cole, a Spotsylvania County Republican, chairs the committee and sits on the subcommittee that routinely sticks a fork in redistricting-related measures. He is the rare Virginian who apparently doesn’t see a need to fix the procedure under which congressional and legislative boundaries are redrawn every 10 years. Given the dozen or so bills and joint resolutions introduced by members of both chambers and both parties this year alone, Cole’s view is not widely shared.
Free Lance-Star

We are deeply troubled by the Oklahoma House Public Safety Committee action Thursday approving House Bill 1361 (supposedly on dash cam records). The decision-making process was perverted and flawed, and some content of the bill — especially a broad, new part never made public in advance and never discussed at the hearing — is really bad policy from a government transparency perspective. Let us first explain the process. Public Safety Chairman Mike Christian manipulated the process and rammed through this bill by: • Rushing onto the agenda a bill by freshman Democrat Claudia Griffith just a few hours before the committee meeting. Then, offering an amendment that deleted Griffith’s entire bill and substituting the chairman’s own language entirely. • Not filing or posting the new bill language before the meeting. Only a paper copy was provided during the meeting — nothing online — allowing no chance to read it in advance. • Adding substantially new content to the bill, a section dealing with the state Open Records Act applying to all public bodies, not just dash cam records. • Allowing just one person to testify (and he made no mention of the broad amendment to the Oklahoma Open Records Act). • The chairman shutting off discussion and forcing a vote almost immediately by “pressing his motion.” Committee members apparently trusted their chairman as to the content they had little/no opportunity to read.
Enid News