Acknowledging that his bill to exempt administrative records of the judiciary from FOIA was controversial, the patron moved to strike it from the Senate floor on Wednesday. “We use a term around here to say that a bill’s got a fever,” said patron Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Stafford. “Well I think this one caught on fire.” Stuart told senators his bill was to “clarify” that administrative records of the courts are exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act. The bill also said the Supreme Court’s Office of the Executive Secretary would be exempt from FOIA. “I do believe that they are exempt from FOIA,” Stuart said. “However, some people didn’t.” Among those who don’t are a District Court judge in Accomack County, who last year found that the Office of the Executive Secretary was in violation of the FOIA for not responding to some letters from a citizen who has been seeking access to records of the office’s long-distance phone calls as well as records of expense accounts used by judges. Part of that case remains on appeal in Richmond Circuit Court.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Very glad that he withdrew the bill today,” said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. “I will still be watching to make sure that other bills aren’t amended to include this same kind of information.” Rhyne, who said her group has been very vocal about this bill since it was proposed, said that any further conversation about exempting the judiciary from FOIA should include clear rules over records access, and they must be “in place and accessible and knowable to the public.”
Daily Press
The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors will do some strategic planning and team building in South Boston this weekend thanks to funding from a local nonprofit foundation. It’s all part of a Friday through Saturday retreat that would be paid for with a $25,000 grant from the Danville Regional Foundation, which targets quality-of-life projects throughout the region. All seven supervisors, as well as five executive staff, will stay at the Berry Hill Resort and Conference Center. Public bodies holding a retreat away from their locality is legal, said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Williamsburg-based watchdog group Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Still, there are concerns about it being inaccessible to the general public the political body represents.
Register & Bee
(see related op-ed below)
The Virginia General Assembly is one step closer to closing a loophole that allows students’ personal contact information to be public information. By a vote of 62-35, the House of Delegates passed HB 1 by Del. Tony Wilt, R-Rockingham, that would exempt student contact information from publicly available records unless students or their parents explicitly say otherwise. All of the “no” votes came from Democrats. Del. Chris Hurst, D-Blacksburg, who introduced his own legislation to close the same loophole, opposed Wilt’s bill. Hurst’s bill failed in a House subcommittee last month.
The Roanoke Times
The Virginia House of Delegates passed legislation Wednesday to shield students’ personal contact information after a political group used cellphone numbers to urge college students to vote in last year’s election. The Republican-controlled chamber voted 62-35 to approve House Bill 1, with 35 Democrats voting against the legislation and 12 Democrats voting for it.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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“I didn’t believe those records should have been touched or changed while the accident is under investigation.”
“That it made it as far as it did is shameful.”