Thursday
March 2, 2023
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state & local news stories
VCOG’s annual conference
FOI Day — March 16
Charlottesville
Info and registration here
Pick up your copy of the March issue of Richmond Magazine for my offering for the “My Take” column: “Transparency in government should be bipartisan; it’s not.”
The Supreme Court of Virginia heard arguments yesterday in a FOIA meetings case against the Suffolk City School Board. The case stems from an in-person work session the board held where they required the public to watch from another room via electronic feed rather than be in the room with them, where there was ample seating. One woman refused to leave the meeting room and was then escorted out of the building by police. The school board’s attorney argues here that the public has to have access to the meeting, but not necessarily the meeting room.
Listen to the audio of the oral arguments on the Supreme Court’s website
The Portsmouth City Council will no longer pursue a forensic audit into the city’s federal pandemic relief funds and other concerns raised by former City Manger Tonya Chapman before her departure. A request from Councilman Mark Whitaker for a report on the status of the audit toward the end of Tuesday’s meeting evolved into an agenda item being added to rescind the ordinance authorizing the audit. After a divisive discussion marred by jabs among council members and a reprimand from the public for their infighting, the ordinance was revoked on a 5-2 vote, with Councilman De’Andre Barnes and Whitaker voting against.
The Virginian-Pilot
In case you missed yesterday’s monthly newsletter, here’s VCOG’s quick-hit wrap-up of the General Assembly session — what passed, what didn’t.
VCOG on Substack
stories of national interest
“The Washington Sunshine Committee has tired of their recommendations getting ignored by lawmakers, the governor and the attorney general whose office requested the 2007 bill establishing the committee.”
The National FOI Coalition announced yesterday that Jeff Roberts of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition will be the group’s next president. He succeeds Dave Cuillier of Arizona State University, who recently accepted the job as director of the Brechner FOI Center at the University of Florida, and who will remain on the NFOIC board. Pennsylvania attorney Terry Mutchler was named vice president.
NFOIC
NOTE: VCOG is the administrator for NFOIC. I am an ex officio, non-voting member of the board.
The National Archives and Records Administration has allocated $600,000 to transfer digitized veterans’ records from the Department of Veterans Affairs as it continues to work through a backlog of document requests, according to details set out in a strategic plan. The funding will be used to move files to NARA’s cloud workspace from the VA, which the Archives says will allow staff to access images and conduct day-to-day processing of veteran requests. Details of the funding were included in a strategic plan, revealed through a Freedom of Information Act Request, and follow sustained scrutiny of the backlog by lawmakers.
Fed Scoop
A Georgia Senate committee approved two bills Monday afternoon designed to protect public employees’ private information, but some fear the measures could have unintended consequences. Senate Bill 215 would allow workers employed by local, state or federal government entities to request their information be removed from local property records. Richard Griffiths, president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation said the bills may lead to less transparency if government entities pull down public databases for fear of violating the law by accidentally including a police officer or judge’s information.
Fox5
Those tasked with helping ensure Washington state government operates in the light are finding little interest in their ideas for doing so. Frustrations among members of the Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee — AKA the Sunshine Committee — spilt out at their meeting Tuesday. They even discussed taking the unusual step of disbanding. Crosscut’s Joe O’Sullivan has this account. Here’s the situation. Panelists have dutifully reviewed exemptions to the state’s public records law and suggested if they should be kept, discarded or retooled. They’ve tired of their recommendations getting ignored by lawmakers, the governor and the attorney general whose office requested the 2007 bill establishing the committee.
HeraldNet (2nd item down)
editorials & columns
A criminal case is now proceeding against the five men charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, with a trial scheduled for August. But there still is no ruling on whether discovery evidence against the defendants will be accessible to the public. As it stands, a motion by the state to seal these records is under consideration by 13th Circuit Court Judge Charles Hamlyn. A hearing on this matter is set for March 17. We find it rather odd, alarming even, that evidence, some of which has already been presented on screen in open court, could now be withheld from public scrutiny.
(Escanaba, Michigan) Daily Press