Transparency News 3/13/17
Monday, March 13, 2017
State and Local Stories
State and Local Stories
Chesterfield County leaders have faced criticism for recent changes to their meeting structures that one open-government advocate called a step back for transparency. Since then, officials have made tweaks in an effort to increase public access, but largely defended their decisions. Earlier this year, the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors moved its twice-monthly 3 p.m. work sessions from the county’s Public Meeting Room to a smaller conference room within the same county government complex off Iron Bridge Road. The move meant that the public lost the ability to hear and listen to supervisors’ work session conversations online in real time. In the new location, work session audio is recorded and posted to the county website within a day. But neither the audio nor video is livestreamed. In addition, the smaller conference room has a capacity of 77 people, compared with the 242-person capacity of the Public Meeting Room.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Chesapeake School Board last month settled a lawsuit in which a family claimed staff at Southeastern Elementary School regularly restrained a young boy with disabilities in a special chair for the sake of convenience. How much was the final settlement? The school system doesn't want the public to know. The financial terms of legal settlements are routinely released in Virginia upon the filing of a Freedom of Information Act request, even when the agreement itself remains confidential. But when The Virginian-Pilot filed a FOIA request Feb. 27 seeking the pay-out amount, attorneys for the school system and the child's family responded the next day by asking the court to permanently seal the agreement and keep the financial details secret.
Virginian-Pilot
Virginia stopped issuing tax refund debit cards almost two years ago. But the program is still causing problems. Nearly 107,000 taxpayers who had refund cards preloaded with a total of $14 million in state income tax refunds haven’t collected their money. They never activated their cards. The Way2Go cards, as they were called, were issued for tax years 2012 through 2014. The cards have been stripped of the refunds — and most of the money is now parked at the Virginia Department of the Treasury as unclaimed property. The remaining refunds will be transferred later this month.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Rep. Scott Taylor had a simple response Friday to the American Civil Liberties Union's argument that he may be violating his critics' free-speech rights when he boots them off his personal Facebook page. ACLU of Virginia does the same thing on its Facebook page, Taylor said in a text message to The Pilot. He included a copy of the group's notification on its page. "Dear pot, this is kettle," wrote the Virginia Beach Republican. Some opponents of Taylor, who have reached out to the ACLU, have argued he's stifling free speech by blocking their comments from his personal page. The congressman said he's within his rights to do so, particularly because opponents can reach him via his congressional Facebook page or other forms of communication.
Virginian-Pilot
Former Giles County Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Dunn is set to press his case against his former boss in federal court after lengthy legal wrangling. Dunn was fired nearly four years ago following a controversy over the county’s animal pound. As a member of the Giles County Board of Supervisors, elected in 2011, Dunn said he raised concerns about the running of the pound with his boss Morgan Millirons at the request of other board members. The board allocates money to the sheriff’s department and funds the pound, which at the time was overseen by Millirons’ office. Dunn alleged that after the conversations about the pound, Millirons retaliated against him, changing the locks to Dunn’s office, cursing at him and deleting allegations of alleged shoddy police work by some deputies from Dunn’s reports. Dunn alleges that in firing him for speaking up about the pound, Millirons violated his First Amendment right to free speech.
Roanoke Times
Gift taking remains way down in the wake of the former Gov. Bob McDonnell's prosecution, and legislative Democrats are more likely to accept gifts from lobbyists and others than their Republican counterparts, a Virginia Public Access Project analysis shows. Just over 40 percent of legislators reported taking at least one gift over the $50 threshold put into law during one of the recent rewrites of Virginia's ethics laws. Split it by party, though, and that's about a quarter of Republican House and Senate members, versus more than 60 percent of Democrats, as VPAP showed this week in a series of graphics.
Daily Press
National Stories
Thanks to new accounting rules, states and localities have to disclose how much revenue they lose to such deals. But a new report finds that most of the nation’s largest local governments fail to reveal other basic information online, like what companies are benefiting, how much money they receive or whether they deliver on promises to create jobs. The Washington-based watchdog group, Good Jobs First, reviewed disclosure practices for 50 of the largest cities and counties and assigned scores based on how much information was made available on public websites. Just 35 of the 85 economic development programs identified the companies receiving incentives, while only 19 listed dollar amounts paid to or claimed by businesses. Researchers also assessed programs’ disclosure of jobs and wage data -- a crucial component in evaluating the return on investment. Only 21 of the 85 programs reported numbers of pledged jobs, while 18 disclosed actual jobs created. Even fewer local governments reported wage data for recipient companies.
Governing
Editorials/Columns
This week is Sunshine Week, the annual observance of what are often called “sunshine laws” – the laws that require most government records to be made public. Sunshine is said to be the best disinfectant, and “sunshine laws” are one way to force government officials to make public things that they usually don’t want made public. The overhaul of the state’s economic development agency wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for a Freedom of Information Act request that this newspaper filed – which produced 2,400 pages of records and exposed how slipshod the agency had been in giving away taxpayer money to what state investigators later deemed was “an illegitimate company.” Sunshine laws, though, aren’t just laws for journalists. They’re laws for everyone.
Roanoke Times
IT WAS WITH an uncommon absence of drama that the Virginia General Assembly passed two bills amending the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The omnibus measures emerged from a three-year study, ordered by the legislature in 2014, to examine the commonwealth’s most important open government law, with an eye toward making it more functional for citizens. Passed unanimously by both the House and Senate, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has yet voiced no opposition to either and is likely to sign them in the coming days. What should be hailed as a triumph of bipartisan cooperation and a victory for transparency in government is, naturally, anything but.
Virginian-Pilot
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Chesapeake School Board last month settled a lawsuit in which a family claimed staff at Southeastern Elementary School regularly restrained a young boy with disabilities in a special chair for the sake of convenience. How much was the final settlement? The school system doesn't want the public to know. The financial terms of legal settlements are routinely released in Virginia upon the filing of a Freedom of Information Act request, even when the agreement itself remains confidential. But when The Virginian-Pilot filed a FOIA request Feb. 27 seeking the pay-out amount, attorneys for the school system and the child's family responded the next day by asking the court to permanently seal the agreement and keep the financial details secret.
Virginian-Pilot
Virginia stopped issuing tax refund debit cards almost two years ago. But the program is still causing problems. Nearly 107,000 taxpayers who had refund cards preloaded with a total of $14 million in state income tax refunds haven’t collected their money. They never activated their cards. The Way2Go cards, as they were called, were issued for tax years 2012 through 2014. The cards have been stripped of the refunds — and most of the money is now parked at the Virginia Department of the Treasury as unclaimed property. The remaining refunds will be transferred later this month.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Rep. Scott Taylor had a simple response Friday to the American Civil Liberties Union's argument that he may be violating his critics' free-speech rights when he boots them off his personal Facebook page. ACLU of Virginia does the same thing on its Facebook page, Taylor said in a text message to The Pilot. He included a copy of the group's notification on its page. "Dear pot, this is kettle," wrote the Virginia Beach Republican. Some opponents of Taylor, who have reached out to the ACLU, have argued he's stifling free speech by blocking their comments from his personal page. The congressman said he's within his rights to do so, particularly because opponents can reach him via his congressional Facebook page or other forms of communication.
Virginian-Pilot
Former Giles County Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Dunn is set to press his case against his former boss in federal court after lengthy legal wrangling. Dunn was fired nearly four years ago following a controversy over the county’s animal pound. As a member of the Giles County Board of Supervisors, elected in 2011, Dunn said he raised concerns about the running of the pound with his boss Morgan Millirons at the request of other board members. The board allocates money to the sheriff’s department and funds the pound, which at the time was overseen by Millirons’ office. Dunn alleged that after the conversations about the pound, Millirons retaliated against him, changing the locks to Dunn’s office, cursing at him and deleting allegations of alleged shoddy police work by some deputies from Dunn’s reports. Dunn alleges that in firing him for speaking up about the pound, Millirons violated his First Amendment right to free speech.
Roanoke Times
Gift taking remains way down in the wake of the former Gov. Bob McDonnell's prosecution, and legislative Democrats are more likely to accept gifts from lobbyists and others than their Republican counterparts, a Virginia Public Access Project analysis shows. Just over 40 percent of legislators reported taking at least one gift over the $50 threshold put into law during one of the recent rewrites of Virginia's ethics laws. Split it by party, though, and that's about a quarter of Republican House and Senate members, versus more than 60 percent of Democrats, as VPAP showed this week in a series of graphics.
Daily Press
National Stories
Thanks to new accounting rules, states and localities have to disclose how much revenue they lose to such deals. But a new report finds that most of the nation’s largest local governments fail to reveal other basic information online, like what companies are benefiting, how much money they receive or whether they deliver on promises to create jobs. The Washington-based watchdog group, Good Jobs First, reviewed disclosure practices for 50 of the largest cities and counties and assigned scores based on how much information was made available on public websites. Just 35 of the 85 economic development programs identified the companies receiving incentives, while only 19 listed dollar amounts paid to or claimed by businesses. Researchers also assessed programs’ disclosure of jobs and wage data -- a crucial component in evaluating the return on investment. Only 21 of the 85 programs reported numbers of pledged jobs, while 18 disclosed actual jobs created. Even fewer local governments reported wage data for recipient companies.
Governing
Editorials/Columns
This week is Sunshine Week, the annual observance of what are often called “sunshine laws” – the laws that require most government records to be made public. Sunshine is said to be the best disinfectant, and “sunshine laws” are one way to force government officials to make public things that they usually don’t want made public. The overhaul of the state’s economic development agency wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for a Freedom of Information Act request that this newspaper filed – which produced 2,400 pages of records and exposed how slipshod the agency had been in giving away taxpayer money to what state investigators later deemed was “an illegitimate company.” Sunshine laws, though, aren’t just laws for journalists. They’re laws for everyone.
Roanoke Times
IT WAS WITH an uncommon absence of drama that the Virginia General Assembly passed two bills amending the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The omnibus measures emerged from a three-year study, ordered by the legislature in 2014, to examine the commonwealth’s most important open government law, with an eye toward making it more functional for citizens. Passed unanimously by both the House and Senate, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has yet voiced no opposition to either and is likely to sign them in the coming days. What should be hailed as a triumph of bipartisan cooperation and a victory for transparency in government is, naturally, anything but.
Virginian-Pilot
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