Transparency News 2/27/15
State and Local Stories
The judge who must approve Augusta County's request to have voters decide on whether to move the circuit court out of downtown denied the county's petition because the referendum wouldn't have included all the costs citizens should have to cast informed ballots. Circuit Judge Victor Ludwig, who has said he prefers for the county to renovate its existing building in Staunton, wrote in a ruling filed Wednesday that the $11.5 million the county proposed for the cost on its referendum question wouldn't reflect the true cost of moving circuit court. State law requires that voters approve moving the circuit court because it's the seat of the county government.
News Leader
If Gov. Terry McAuliffe signs a bill likely headed to his desk, anytime Attorney General Mark Herring’s office hires outside counsel to represent a state agency, the OAG will have to put that contract online for the world to see. It’s a move that would add transparency for taxpayers who might want to know why their hard-earned dollars are going towards $720-an-hour attorney fees to represent the Virginia Retirement System, or how the state spent $16 million on outside counsel in fiscal year 2013. State Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, who narrowly lost the race for attorney general to now-Attorney General Mark Herring, is pushing for the OAG to post all special counsel contracts online, and state in writing why hiring outside help is cost effective and in the public’s best interest.
Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau
Last school year, Stephanie Mayle, a junior at Hanover High School, watched a movie that caused a big upset in the community just months ago. But after Mayle and her classmates watched the documentary, “Searching for the Roots of 9/11” by Thomas Friedman in their history class, they discussed the perspectives and points of view that were presented in the film without the controversy that emerged this past fall. Friedman’s video and the uproar it caused led the school board to review and alter its policies on controversial instructional materials, which generated media coverage. That’s how Mayle discovered what was going on in her school district, though she already knew that the Friedman video was controversial and had upset some community members. At the beginning of the month, many students like Mayle started sharing news articles about the school board’s actions and then created a Facebook group where they talked about their common dislike of the decisions being made about their education. As a result, they decided that they would step up and take some action, forming the student-run group Hanover Students for Freedom of Information and Learning.
Herald-Progress
Fairfax County’s chief prosecutor called for the Virginia State Police to investigate a Fairfax police shooting outside a church in September because he had lost confidence in the county police department’s ability to cooperate fully with him, newly released e-mails show. Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh took the extraordinary step of requesting an outside agency after he had been stonewalled by Fairfax police in the August 2013 police shooting of John B. Geer in Springfield, the e-mails indicate. Morrogh had sought the internal affairs records of the officer involved in the Geer case, but Chief Edwin C. Roessler, on the advice of the county attorney, refused to turn over the files, the e-mails show. Morrogh also was disturbed that the Fairfax county attorney had advised the police internal affairs bureau “to avoid taking statements from officers accused of employing excessive force,” to eliminate the possibility of an inconsistent statement being used “later in civil proceedings,” according to the e-mails, released by Morrogh. Morrogh and the county attorneys met Sept. 15 and “developed a protocol for handling requests” for internal affairs files “that satisfied both sides’ legal obligations.” But the county attorneys continued to resist turning over internal affairs files in the Geer case. An e-mail written by Deputy County Attorney Karen L. Gibbons in January 2014 explained the county’s reasoning: that “internal investigations are confidential” under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act. The state law allows law enforcement agencies to withhold “administrative investigations relating to allegations of wrongdoing by employees of a law-enforcement agency.” But it also states that such records “may be disclosed by the custodian, in his discretion.” Gibbons wrote: “Chief Roessler will not voluntarily provide you with the internal affairs files regarding the officer who shot and killed Mr. Geer.”
Washington Post
Citing security concerns, the military has removed external newspaper dispensers from Pentagon property. All boxes that used to hold copies of papers, popular with commuters, such as The Washington Post's Express and the Washington Examiner are gone from walkways around the building. Officials are "continuously looking for ways to improve security at the Pentagon," Air Force Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, a Pentagon spokesman, said in e-mail. "No specific threat has been identified, but the Pentagon Force Protection Agency is being proactive in removing newspaper dispensers that could potentially contain unsafe items." Several major newspapers are available at concessions inside the building, he said. But the thousands of people who travel daily through the Pentagon property's subway and bus hubs will have to get their news elsewhere.
USA Today
National Stories
Investigators said Thursday they have recovered 32,000 emails related to a former IRS official at the heart of the agency's tea party scandal. But they don't know how many of them are new. The emails were to and from Lois Lerner, who used to head the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. Last June, the IRS told Congress it had lost an unknown number of Lerner's email when her computer hard drive crashed in 2011. At the time, IRS officials said the emails could not be recovered. But at a congressional hearing Thursday evening, IRS Deputy Inspector General Timothy Camus said investigators recovered thousands of emails from old computer tapes used to back up the agency's email system. "We recovered quite a number of emails but until we compare those to what's already been produced we don't know if they're new emails," Camus told the House Oversight Committee.
Virginian-Pilot
With the feds in hot pursuit of Albany corruption, the Cuomo administration has quietly implemented a policy that automatically deletes state workers’ e-mails after 90 days — a move that critics say could erase important or even incriminating information. The policy was put in place in June 2013 — a month before Cuomo created the anti-corruption Moreland Commission panel, which he disbanded in March 2014. But compliance was sporadic, and the mass deletions only started this week after Maggie Miller, the state’s chief information officer, sent out a memo Friday enforcing the policy, which was billed as a move to improve efficiency. “Whether intentional or not, the 90-day deletion policy creates a new loophole: State employees can ‘forget’ to save potentially embarrassing e-mails knowing they will be automatically destroyed,” John Kaehny of Reinvent Albany said. “A state employee doesn’t have to actively destroy an e-mail — and risk potential charges of destroying evidence or obstruction of justice — they can just forget to save that e-mail, which is not a crime.”
New York Post
A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants presidential libraries to be required to disclose their donors. The Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2015 sponsored by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., .Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H, would require organizations that raise funds for presidential libraries to disclose information to the National Archives about donors making contributions over $200. “Presidential libraries can help us learn about the American presidency and provide insight into how our past presidents directed their administrations,” Carper said in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation will provide transparency into the private donations presidents rely on to build their libraries and bring sunlight to the presidential library fundraising process, helping to eliminate even the appearance of impropriety.” Under current law, there are no restrictions on fundraising for the libraries. Money can be raised while the president is still in office and contributors do not need to be disclosed.
McClatchy
It's official. The Internet will now be regulated as a public utility. After months of anticipation and weeks of frenzied last-minute lobbying on both sides of the political aisle, the Federal Communications Commission has adopted Net neutrality regulations based on a new definition of broadband that will let the government regulate Internet infrastructure as it could the old telephone network. At the FCC's monthly meeting Thursday the agency reinstated open Internet rules in a 3-2 vote split along party lines. The new rules replace regulations that had been thrown out by a federal court last year. The new rules prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing down traffic on wired and wireless networks. They also ban Internet service providers from offering paid priority services that could allow them to charge content companies, such as Netflix, fees to access Internet "fast lanes" to reach customers more quickly when networks are congested. The crux of the new rules is the FCC's reclassification of broadband as a Title II telecommunications service under the 1934 Communications Act. Applying the Title II moniker to broadband has the potential to radically change how the Internet is governed, giving the FCC unprecedented authority. The provision originally gave the agency the power to set rates and enforce the "common carrier" principle, or the idea that every customer gets equal access to the network. Now this idea will be applied to broadband networks to prevent Internet service providers from favoring one bit of data over another.
CNET News
