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state & local news stories
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Across the country, law enforcement agencies have adopted different approaches to the issue, and they’re evolving quickly as more departments adopt the technology, which one study showed reduced complaints against officers by 93 percent. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department allows the public to review footage at the department as long as it’s not still part of an investigation. Other departments have policies that specifically address use of force incidents. In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel set a policy of releasing video from police shootings within 90 days of the incident. This month, the Los Angeles Police Department introduced a new policy in which video of “critical incidents” like shootings by officers would automatically become public within 45 days, according to the Los Angeles Times, which reports that police officials had previously resisted making footage public, fearing it would hinder investigations or provide an incomplete snapshot of the event in question. The agency overcame those concerns by allowing the police chief to withhold videos with the support of at least two of the five members of the city’s police commission. In Virginia, state law treats body camera footage the same as every other kind of public record, said Alan Gernhardt, the executive director and senior attorney of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
As lawmakers have been voting on bills and the budget, the public is in the blind about any businesses they've started, jobs they've taken or stocks they've purchased in the past year. In previous years, the forms were released during the General Assembly sessions, which commence in January. But lawmakers pushed back a Dec. 15 filing deadline to Jan. 15 and then to the current Feb. 1. The law says the state ethics council shall make the forms publicly available no later than six weeks after filing - and the executive director plans to wait until March 15, the end of the window, to release them. So why did the General Assembly decide in 2017 move the deadline back two weeks?
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Front Royal Economic Development Authority officials and their lawyer are denying accusations that they conducted a closed session illegally in June. The accusations came Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors regular meeting when Mark Egger, a private citizen and father of former Councilwoman Bébhinn Egger, said the board illegally discussed a Front Royal police investigation into a break-in at the EDA office. County Attorney Dan Whitten said during a Friday interview that no vote was held on whether or not the board should hire an investigator. The four motions for going into closed session were discussion of acquisition of real property, discussion of a potential business or industry, personnel, and legal consultation. While the four exemptions listed for going into closed meeting were valid, only one purpose was identified with a specific related subject and “it would appear that the motion to convene this closed meeting was insufficient,” Executive Director of the Virginia FOIA Council Alan Gernhardt said.
Northern Virginia Daily
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national stories of interest
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That was fast. Within minutes of each of other, Washington House and Senate lawmakers approved a bill Friday that makes some legislative records public starting in July — but shields records that already exist. The votes came about 48 hours after lawmakers announced a sweeping proposal to remove the Legislature from the state Public Records Act and set new guidelines for the disclosure of some laws. Senate Bill 6617 passed the Senate, without debate. Moments later, House lawmakers took it up approved it.
The Seattle Times
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is a hard man to find these days. Unions representing teachers and school service personnel announced Friday that they are continuing their walkout Monday; tensions are high between lawmakers who have been needling one another in floor speeches and debate alike. Meanwhile, Justice sightings have grown infrequent this year. An actual attendance figure is tricky. His administration has denied a Freedom of Information Act request for his calendars and appointment books, citing security and deliberative process exemptions. In an interview Friday, Justice did not directly answer questions regarding his whereabouts during the legislative session. When asked why his administration denied the public records request, he said it’s progress that matters, not attendance.
Charleston Gazette-Mail
The Environmental Protection Agency has experienced a huge surge in open records lawsuits since President Donald Trump took office, an analysis of data reviewed by POLITICO shows — a trend that comes amid mounting criticism of EPA's secrecy about Administrator Scott Pruitt’s travels, meetings and policy decisions. The legal attacks also reflect widespread interest in the sweeping changes Pruitt is enacting. The suits have come from open government groups, environmentalists and even conservative organizations that have run into a wall trying to pry information out of Pruitt’s agency. The documents they’re seeking involve a broad swath of decisions, ranging from EPA’s reversals of the Obama administration’s landmark climate change and water rules to pesticide approvals and plans for dealing with the nation’s most polluted toxic waste sites.
Politico
Newly released tapes and logs of 911 calls show that police had responded to at least two dozen incidents of violent or disruptive behavior over 10 years by the 19-year-old suspect in the fatal shootings of 17 students and staff at a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last week. The records released are logs of 23 separate 911 calls, including 15 calls made by his now-deceased mother, Linda Cruz, reporting disputes and disturbances involving Cruz between November 2008 and June 2014.
NPR
This study draws from a content analysis of the websites of 500 small U.S. city governments from two points in time, 2010 and 2014, and evaluates them on the prevalence of five categories of information communication techologies: information tools, e-services, utility, transparency and civic-engagement features. The study then ranks the cities and observes how those rankings changed over the intervening four-year period. It also evaluates whether a municipality's government structure (council-manager vs. mayor-council) had an effect on the adoption of ICTs. The authors find that, even in 2014, municipal websites still varied greatly in what they offered citizens. "For example, while around 95% of cities post their city council agenda, other cities lag behind with only around 100 city websites mentioning FOIA, about 30% posting employee directories, and 15 who do not offer a single e-service," the authors write. While many of the websites analyzed had job listings, municipal codes, agendas and contact information for the mayor, "they do not demonstrate a fully developed, active, online presence."
Governing
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