Transparency News 3/2/15
Monday, March 2, 2015
State and Local Stories
Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors plan to order their longtime county attorney to answer for what they see as his missteps in the handling of the investigation into the 2013 police shooting of an unarmed man. The supervisors said their legal advisers, led by longtime County Attorney David P. Bobzien, failed to keep them apprised of a dispute between police and county prosecutor Raymond F. Morrogh in 2013 as he investigated the shooting, didn’t tell them the county was refusing to provide files to federal prosecutors in 2014, and didn’t tell them that Morrogh wanted to meet with the supervisors to discuss the advice Bobzien’s staff was giving police. The supervisors said they learned of the developments from a series of e-mails from 2013 and 2014 that were published Friday in The Washington Post.
Washington Post
Senate Republicans were ready to sink an ethics reform bill they thought was flawed until House Speaker William J. Howell threatened to shame them publicly if they passed nothing, participants in Friday’s last-minute negotiations said. On the legislature’s front burner since a former governor and first lady were indicted in a gifts scandal in January 2014, ethics reform nearly fell apart in the final hours of the 2015 General Assembly session, according to four people with direct knowledge of the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss private deliberations. Some Republican senators said they wanted more time to work on a bill they considered overly complicated. But they gave in after House leaders, determined to end the session a day early as a symbol of efficient GOP governance, threatened to adopt a resolution just for their chamber, adjourn and leave the Senate hanging as the bad guy.
Washington Post
The city of Richmond is struggling to complete a basic financial report required by state law and is by far the largest of a handful of Virginia localities that have not produced the document months after state-imposed deadlines. For a second straight year, the City Council has not received the city’s comprehensive annual financial report, or CAFR, as it prepares for the yearly budgeting process. Because of the delay, the council is facing the possibility of having to craft a budget without an audited recap of the most recently concluded budget year. The late report also sheds new light on the extent of the damage from prior mismanagement at City Hall related to finance and accounting. The administration of Mayor Dwight C. Jones has acknowledged the problems and says it has worked to address long-standing issues by bringing in new staff.
Times-Dispatch
Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, spearheaded passage of the [ethics] bill in the House of the Delegates and was the lead negotiator from the House in hammering out a final agreement that was almost stymied by last minute objections from the Senate. Gilbert said some senators objected to media coverage that they perceived as painting state lawmakers as a group of crooks and scoundrels. The fate of McDonnell notwithstanding, opponents insisted corruption is not rampant in state government and the ethics crackdown is an overreaction fed by the media. Gilbert said he agreed that most pubic officials are honest but added: “Even though we had a very high profile case of a governor as a public official violating public trust, most public officials don’t behave in a way that requires extra scrutiny, but there are those that will.” Some critics of the bill have said a lobbyist could circumvent the law’s intentions by giving a single lawmaker numerous individual gifts as long each one is $99 or less. Gilbert said he believed transparency provisions in the bill that require online reporting of gifts valued at more than $50 will deter anyone tempted to accept multiple gifts. “If a public official is trying to find ways around the prohibitions in this day and age, they’re either insane or an outright crook,” Gilbert said, adding that, “I don’t think as a practical matter, that is anything for anybody to worry about.”
Northern Virginia Daily
For the editors of the Chantilly High School newspaper, it was deciding to highlight free speech on the cover of the Purple Tide newspaper. For the staff of the high school’s student television newscast, it was a three-minute piece about the demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., concerning racial tensions between citizens and police. And for the teens who oversee the Chantilly High yearbook, it’s the independence to edit the Odyssey without meddling by the administration. “It’s completely up to us,” said Rachel Palmer, 17, a senior and co-editor of the yearbook. “There’s no one to say, ‘You can’t do that.’ ” It’s that kind of authority — to publish whatever the students want to — that earned the high school journalists the Journalism Education Association’s 2015 First Amendment Press Freedom Award. Chantilly was one of seven high schools to receive the honor and the only school in Virginia.
Washington Post
National Stories
Anyone who’s been paying attention to the media business knows that the number of journalists covering state government has been shrinking for at least a decade. It’s not just reporting positions that are being lost; also lost is a wealth of institutional memory, as well as traditions that have supported strong state capitol reporting for decades. But despite the depressing news about the shrinkage of reporting staffs, a few developments suggest reason for optimism. The most recent assessment of the size of the state capitol press corps was published in July 2014 by the Pew Research Center. The report found that the number of newspaper reporters covering state capitols declined by 35 percent between 2003 and 2014. Less than one-third of newspapers today assign even one reporter to the statehouse -- although that’s better than the rate for local TV news stations, which is just 14 percent. Pew found that there are 1,592 statehouse reporters today, of which fewer than half are employed full-time on the state capitol beat; they range from 53 in Texas to two in South Dakota. The makeup of the press corps has changed as well. Non-traditional media -- including non-profit outlets, insider publications and ideologically driven websites -- have expanded to fill some of the void created by decline in newspaper reporters. Non-traditional outlets employ 126 full-time statehouse reporters, which is about one of every six full-time reporters. Meanwhile, journalism students now account for 14 percent of the overall state capitol press corps.
Governing
The former director of technology for Steubenville (Ohio) City schools was sentenced Friday after entering a guilty plea to part of his charges. William Rhinaman pled guilty to obstructing official business after deleting information from the computer of former superintendent Michael McVey. His remaining charges have been dismissed. Judge Patricia Cosgrove sentenced Rhinaman to 90 days in jail with 10 days suspended and approved work release. He will also get credit for time served. The judge also ordered probation and community service. “Although you may not have comprehended the ramifications requested of you by your employer in terms of altering certain things, still there must be some punishment,” Cosgrove said. Rhinaman is one of was one of six people indicted by the special grand jury that investigated the Steubenville teen rape case.
WTOV
A formal opinion from Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge says that most of former state treasurer employee Sam Swayze's records should be released as the office custodian of records intended to do. Swayze is Treasurer Dennis Milligan's first cousin. He was hired despite a state law prohibiting Milligan from hiring his first cousin. Milligan has said he didn't know of the law and dismissed Swayze from his $63,000 job after learning it was illegal. Freedom of Information Act requests were made for Swayze's personnel records. Swayze objected. By law, the attorney general reviewed. The review concluded that the records should be released. It said some permissible information had been redacted, but the office said it disagreed with one small decision — to redact the amount of leave time Swayze had accrued in his month on the job.
Arkansas Times
The village of Oakley (Michigan) has released 13 pages of names and financial information in response to a Saginaw News request for the names of donors to the Oakley Police Department. However, at least some of those listed, including Saginaw County 911, deny donating to the department. The village of Oakley sent the documents, which identify roughly 150 entities, in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request from The Saginaw News seeking the names, amounts and dates of donors to the police fund. The Michigan Court of Appeals ordered the names of donors to be released on Jan. 22. The Appeals Court has yet to issue an order regarding the release of reservist names, which also has been requested in separate Freedom of Information Acts requests submitted by the Saginaw News and an Oakley resident.
MLive
Representatives of the University of Connecticut Foundation made an impassioned argument at a legislative hearing Thursday that any law forcing them to open their records to the public — even if donors' name are excluded — would impede their efforts to raise money. And it seemed from the response of the legislators on the higher-education committee that most — though not all — agreed with that argument. Daniel Toscano, a member of the foundation board and a donor, said the legislation under consideration, which would make the foundation subject to the state Freedom of Information Act, "will most definitely have a chilling effect on the philanthropy that is essential to building and maintaining a top-notch flagship university. "As someone who has given significantly to UConn for more than a decade, I can attest to the fact that treating the foundation like a state agency will deter people like me from giving. Even if that is not your intention, I can assure you that it will be perceived very negatively by the very people you want and need to support this great institution."
Hartford Courant
To combat the problem [of fraudulently filed tax returns], state revenue and tax agencies are using software programs to sift through mounds of data and detect patterns that would indicate when a return is not valid. Just about every state with a tax fraud detection program already compares tax return data with information from other state agencies and private firms to spot incorrect mailing addresses and stolen identities. Because so many returns are filed electronically, fraud spotting systems look for suspicious Internet protocol (IP) addresses. For example, tax auditors in New York noticed that similar IP addresses in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., were submitting a series of returns for refunds. When the state couldn’t match the returns with any employer data, they were flagged for further scrutiny and ultimately found to be fraudulent. High-tech analytics is one way states keep up with the war on fraud. The other is accurate data. The third component is well trained staff. But it takes time and money to put together the technology and the expertise to combat the growing sophistication of fraudsters. “I would like to say that we are at least in step with the fraudsters, if not ahead of them,” says Manion. “But we have to keep investing in technology in order to be both fast and accurate.”
Governing
The Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments that it’s unconstitutional for a state to isolate its legislature from the redistricting process, citing the federal constitution’s Election Clause. And if the court sides with the plaintiffs, it could upend political districts and election laws from coast to coast before 2016. Hundreds of congressional districts might have to be redrawn before the next election — and several other election laws could be at stake — depending on how broadly the high court rules in a much anticipated case brought by the GOP-controlled Arizona state legislature against the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission. The legislature is claiming that the Constitution — which states that “the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof” – prohibits voters from taking the redistricting process out of the political arena. But the case could do more than just dismantle the independent redistricting commissions that good-government groups have been championing for decades — it could invalidate some state election laws such as those related to voter identification, regulation of primaries and residency requirements passed through ballot initiatives.
Politico
Editorials/Columns
With a decisive 56-42 vote on Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates defeated a bill that would have shielded manufacturers of lethal injection drugs from public view. Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, who sponsored the legislation, said it drew opposition from two potent constituencies: opponents of capital punishment and open-government advocates. That's true. We opposed the legislation since it proposed to conceal a procurement process undertaken by state government. But defeat of this legislation sets aside, for now, the more difficult question about the future of capital punishment in Virginia. And we firmly believe this is a discussion the state should undertake in a frank and straightforward manner.
Daily Press
A measure that aimed to seal information on the drugs used to execute prisoners failed this week, after a bipartisan bloc of delegates picked it apart on the House floor. SB1393, introduced by Democratic Sen. Dick Saslaw, sailed through the Senate with strong Republican support but hit an unexpected roadblock in the House. That's where Democrats and Republicans complained about the lack of public transparency, noted that no executions were even scheduled this year and pointed to pending court cases on the matter. Gov. Terry McAuliffe's administration, which supported the measure, tried to persuade lawmakers to reconsider but failed. The outcome marked a fitting end for a legally questionable, and morally indefensible, proposal.
Virginian-Pilot
One matter that came as a surprise to many this past week was the defeat of SB1393 on the House floor, after easily passing the Virginia Senate. This bill, introduced at the request of Governor McAuliffe, would have made secret virtually all information about the lethal injection drugs and suppliers of such drugs used to administer Virginia’s death penalty. The aim of the bill was to ensure a reliable of supply of lethal injection drugs, with a view that many suppliers would not want to provide such drugs to the state if their names became available to the public. But the bill was so sweeping in its scope that it would have prevented the public from knowing if any future supply problems existed. It would have even prevented the public from knowing whether Virginia remains in compliance with state and federal law, including Supreme Court decisions that govern lethal injection. A bipartisan coalition of open government-minded legislators that I led on the House floor with Del. Scott Surovell (D-Mr. Vernon) defeated this measure 56-42. Since there are no executions scheduled in Virginia for at least a year, the executive branch will have an opportunity to develop another approach to procuring lethal injection drugs without violating the principles of government transparency and accountability.
Del. Jim LeMunyon
A powerful chairman need only ignore any bill he doesn’t like that is sent to his committee. The proposal never even receives the courtesy of a vote. This is called a “pocket veto,” from the image of a chairman putting a bill in his pocket instead of on the table for discussion. That’s what happened to the redistricting bill. Additionally, although legislation is supposed to be sent to committees with expertise in the topic at hand, sometimes proposed laws legitimately can be referred to one of several committees. And sometimes lawmakers deliberately send a bill to a committee where they know it will be killed. Are you angry yet? It gets worse. Lawmakers have a couple of other tricks to make sure voters have a hard time following what’s going on in Richmond. Sometimes legislation does make it to a vote — rather than a pocket veto — in subcommittee. But there are no records kept of such decisions. The public has no way of tracking how the subcommittee members voted or why.
Daily Progress
Every now and then, a Virginia attorney general makes news for issuing a legal opinion. This post explores why the AG does that and what it means when an AG opines on something. The second part, coming soon, will address the question “What if an AG opinion is wrong?” Why does the AG issue opinions? What’s the significance of an AG opinion? What effect does an AG opinion have in court? Where it winds up agreeing with the AG, the Court will almost always add discussion of how the General Assembly failing to make any changes is presumed to show agreement or acquiescence to the AG’s view. It’s this presumption that gives AG opinions much of their legal significance. There are several important things to note about the presumption of legislative acquiescence: It’s a legal presumption / fiction, not a factual issue.
Open Virginia Law
The Federal Communications Commission has voted along partisan lines to impose so-called net neutrality on the Internet. The result will be to raise costs for millions of users to fix a nonexistent problem. Net-neut advocates fear that without a “referee on the field,” major Internet service providers could give preferential treatment to some kinds of content — mainly that provided by large companies — while shunting off smaller players onto slower lanes, and thereby stifling innovation. Better to treat the Internet as a regulated utility, they say, and ensure equal treatment for all. Really? The Internet has remained free of net neutrality rules for years now, and online innovation has been chugging along quite nicely, thank you.
Times-Dispatch
We have long argued that broadband Internet access is as important in the America of 2015 as access to electricity and the telephone was in the America of 1935. In other words, broadband today is as much a public utility as electricity and the telephone were the drivers of 20th century America 80 years ago. Much has been written about “net neutrality” in the year since the FCC announced it would study whether to tackle the issue. Some of it true, but a lot of utterly false. Classifying the Internet as a public utility is decidedly not a government “takeover” of the Web or, as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas infamously said, “Obamacare for the Internet.” Nor will it result in state and local governments taxing Internet access or imposing fees, as is the case with phone service; there are federal laws in place that forbid that. What the FCC’s decision, however, will do is equalize the cyber-playing field for all businesses and individuals.
News & Advance
