Transparency News 3/21/14

As Ashland officials are working to balance their budget for next year, they’re also working on making sure that citizens have open access to the town’s books in the digital age. Director of Finance and Deputy Town Manager Joshua Farrar is currently fine-tuning the town’s “OpenGov” online platform. When completed, the portal will display, visually, exactly how the town is spending local tax dollars. The software color-codes both expenditures and revenues, by departments or actual lines within a departmental budget, and can break them down into graphs to display, visually, the town’s inner financial workings. In a related endeavor, the town is in the midst of implementing another software called “Granicus,” which will live-stream town meetings online and back them up as a reference tool.
Herald-Progress

Freedom of speech has always been considered an inalienable right. However, when it comes to public comment at Richmond County public meetings, there is a questionable line that has factions divided by a crucial question: should non-residents be allowed to talk during public comment sessions? According to Supervisor John Haynes (District 3), public comment should be open to any taxpayer in the county, including business and landowners. While agreeing with the premise, fellow member Richard Thomas (District 1) opined that even non-residents, who have been given open access in recent meetings to speak their minds about local issues that affect adjoining counties, should be allowed to also have their voices heard during public sessions. Haynes disagreed. “I don’t want someone who lives in Richmond County to get three minutes to have to compete against someone from Westmoreland, Northumberland, you name it who does not pay taxes here,” Haynes said. “I am a Richmond County Supervisor and this whole concept of us not having sovereignty and other people coming in and telling us how to run our county, I don’t like it and I think it is a really bad idea.”
Northern Neck News

Virginia Beach Del. Scott Taylor on Thursday filed a lawsuit against primary campaign rival Gary C. Byler, claiming that the attorney and several others connected with his campaign intentionally fabricated and spread false information about Taylor during their spring 2013 electoral contest. The $5 million lawsuit, filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, stems from last year's Republican primary election for the 85th House District. The race turned ugly early, with accusations flying between Byler and Taylor, an entrepreneur and former Navy SEAL. Taylor defeated Byler and a third candidate, Regent University administrator Jeremy Waters, and went on to win the seat representing part of Virginia Beach. But Taylor said the accusations made during the race – including that he had a sexual relationship with a prostitute and used illegal drugs – have stayed with him, marring his first legislative session this year and tarnishing his reputation with constituents, neighbors and potential business clients.
Virginian-Pilot

State election officials are ahead of schedule with the multi-stage implementation plan of Virginia's new voter ID law that takes effect July 1. "Our first priority is to make sure our staff and registrars are equally trained on how to provide this free ID for voters who need it," said Don Palmer, secretary of the State Board of Elections, in an interview after a board meeting Wednesday. Officials also are gearing up to educate the public about the law. A flier informing voters of the upcoming changes in the law will be handed to voters as they exit the polls during the May and June primaries.
News Virginian

National Stories

The Reporters Committee, joined by a coalition of 38 other media organizations, filed a friend-of-the-court brief last week in support of a Patch.com reporter in Chicago who was ordered to testify about his confidential source in a murder trial. Reporter Joseph Hosey was ordered to reveal the identity of the source who supplied him with a police report that contained details of the double murder. The judge in the trial court applied the state's shield law to Hosey but nonetheless found that the privilege had been overcome, finding that the identity of the source was relevant, alternative sources had been exhausted, and the information was essential to protect the public interest. Much of that finding hinged on the fact that the court made 500 law enforcement officials swear that they were not the source, and thus finding out if one of them was lying was "relevant" to the proceedings. When Hosey still refused to disclose his source, the judge fined him $1,000 plus $300 a day until he complied. Hosey appealed, and the fines are on hold pending resolution of the appeal.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Changes adopted Wednesday to a Florida House bill expanding the scope of Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law would severely limit access to court records in the self-defense cases. People found to have used justifiable force in a “stand your ground” hearing could apply to have all court records related to their case expunged and made unavailable to the general public, according to an amendment filed by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach. Gaetz said the purpose of the amendment is to provide more privacy for those cleared of charges. “The point is to make sure that someone who appropriately uses the ‘stand your ground’ defense doesn’t have their life ruined by the use of that defense,” Gaetz said.
Governing

C-SPAN marked 35 years of live coverage of the U.S. House on Wednesday, and like everything else in Washington, its effect on Congress is a matter for debate. "It's probably the worst thing that happened to the Congress," declared Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, in an interview with USA TODAY. Young concedes his view is the minority opinion in a city of devoted C-SPAN watchers, but he argues that television coverage of floor debates and committee hearings has contributed to the coarsening of debate and the polarization between the parties. He is one of eight remaining House members who served in the chamber before the first C-SPAN broadcast began airing gavel-to-gavel House coverage on March 19, 1979. Stephen Hess, who studies media and government at the Brookings Institution, said he did not see a correlation between enhanced transparency and decreased congressional popularity.
USA Today
 

Editorials/Columns

The Daily Press Editorial Board gives the Open Door Award each month to a public official or organization in recognition of dedication to transparency and public access. This month, we turn our gaze to James City County, where a bylaw change by the planning commission caught our eye. At its March 5 meeting, the commission voted to make a fairly significant amendment which, at first blush, looked like a deliberate attempt to skirt Virginia's open meeting law. Any applicant requesting to meet with a planner outside of a public meeting or hearing will now be required to meet with at least two commission members as well. The change could be seen as an attempt to discuss public business without a quorum, and to do so beyond the view of citizens. It turns out commissioners were meeting with only one member present, and the additional eyes and ears will allow for more complete and accurate reports of the meetings — for other commissioners and the public alike.
Daily Press

Under a proposal approved this month by the General Assembly, Virginia's ethics and financial-disclosure rules would get stronger. That is as much a positive outcome of legislative negotiations as it is an indictment of the inadequate system already in place.
Virginian-Pilot

This Sunshine Week, the National Security Archive is reporting that 50 out of 101 agencies have not updated their FOIA regulations since the OPEN Government Act of 2007. Even fewer have updated since President Obama committed to improving the FOIA in 2009. One, the Federal Trade Commission, hasn’t updated its regulations since 1975! Luckily, the House of Representatives and the White House are, belatedly, taking up the case. Up-to-date FOIA regulations are the most important tool FOIA officers must have — literally at their fingertips — to ensure they are processing requests correctly. As such, it’s extremely frustrating that such a basic and rudimentary step has been ignored by many agencies, and described as “not required” by the highest FOIA official in the U.S. government.
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

With Virginia’s last governor sitting atop a reeking heap of federal corruption charges, you would expect his successor to be scrupulous about never appearing to trade access to his office for donations. But you would be wrong. This is, after all, Terry McAuliffe we’re talking about. McAuliffe, who was once described by Larry Sabato, U.Va.’s eminent political expert, as a “bag man for the Clintons.” McAuliffe, who was reportedly involved in the raffling of nights in the Lincoln bedroom during the Clinton years. Now, after just two months in Richmond, McAuliffe is part of what’s been characterized as a legal pay-to-play scheme for wealthy folks who want to canoodle with the Virginia governor. No need to write messy personal checks to this chief executive. Or shower him with luxury gifts. McAuliffe’s plan allows swells to simply stroke a check to his political action committee and be guaranteed quality time with Richmond’s newest party animal.
Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot

You would think politicians would pay more attention to how things look. For example, whether or not it was legal for former Gov. Bob McDonnell to take gifts from Jonnie Williams, it looked bad. It smelled like sold access and it reeked of tackiness. Similarly, Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s launching of a new political action committee, one with special access for high-dollar donors, the week before he needs to persuade Republican lawmakers to his side on Medicaid expansion, looks bad.
Free Lance-Star

Around late March of last year, the first stories regarding “Giftgate” began to appear. As the tale unspooled, Virginians learned that Gov. Bob McDonnell had accepted a lot of swag from Jonnie Williams Sr., then the CEO of Star Scientific. In return, Williams got — well, that’s what federal prosecutors and McDonnell’s lawyers are debating in court. McDonnell made an appearance at an Executive Mansion function for Star Scientific; Williams got access to the governor in other ways as well. The tawdry tale led to national headlines and a meek stab at ethics reform by the General Assembly this year. But it has not led a leopard to change its spots. Just about a year after the Giftgate story broke, Gov. Terry McAuliffe — onetime fundraiser extraordinaire for the Democratic Party — announced the formation of a new political action committee, Common Good VA. McAuliffe unveiled it with the usual heaping of political claptrap, claiming that he formed the PAC “to make sure that the ideas that led us to victory in November don’t get lost in the partisan battles being waged in Washington” and yadda yadda yadda.
Times-Dipsatch