Transparency News 3/24/16
National Stories
The City of El Paso will continue to explore the possibility of pushing legislation aimed at redacting phone numbers from public records despite opposition from freedom of information advocates and State Representative Joe Moody. City Council did not take action on the issue on Tuesday but the City’s attorney handling the legislative agenda, Brie Franco, said she would speak to members of the delegation about the possibility of the legislation. The issue stems from City Rep. Emma Acosta’s proposal earlier this month to redact phone numbers of members of the public from documents the city releases through open records requests. “We need to protect the public. I’m not asking that we withhold information. The conversations will still be there. We’ll just cross out the phone numbers,” Acosta said on Tuesday. KVIA News Director Brenda DeAnda-Swann addressed council during the public comment section of the item, saying there seemed to be a lot of misinformation about the Texas Public Information Law. “There has to be a case where you say this person’s identity was subjected to identity theft because their phone number was released due to an open records request and I searched and I just haven’t found any,” said DeAnda-Swann who is also a board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
KVIA
The Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the Chicago Police Department violated state open-records laws by failing to produce emails sent by, received by or copied to former Superintendent Garry McCarthy. The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, asks a judge to order the Police Department to disclose, without improper redaction, the records requested in the Tribune's Freedom of Information Act request. The lawsuit says Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair made a FOIA request to the Police Department Jan. 5 seeking McCarthy emails from the month of December. The department did not respond by the deadline set by the law, and St. Clair's repeated inquiries by email and phone were not answered until she sent an email Jan. 22 to FOIA officer Sgt. Landon Wade and copied several attorneys for the city, according to the lawsuit. Wade then called and promised the documents would be produced on Jan. 26 or 27, but they never arrived, the lawsuit says.
Chicago Tribune
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday told the judge in the Planned Parenthood shooting case to reconsider his sealing of court records in light of recent developments. The high court, however, did not rule on whether news organizations have a First Amendment or Colorado constitutional right to inspect the affidavits of probable cause that El Paso County District Court Judge Gilbert Martinez has kept under seal since last fall. Martinez has defended his decision to keep the affidavits private. But last month, through a filing made by state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, the judge indicated that redacted versions might be made available because the criminal investigation of suspect Robert Lewis Dear is likely over.
Colorado FOI Coalition
Editorials/Columns
A state report finally provides a detailed accounting of the appalling mistakes and bureaucratic blunders that killed Jamycheal Mitchell last summer. The audit, prepared by the Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services, makes for awful reading. It reveals in painful detail how officials failed the mentally ill man as he shed 36 pounds in custody and died in a cell covered in feces and soaked in urine at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. Absent is any call for accountability. The officials who misplaced the court orders and ignored the phone calls, those who left Mitchell wallowing in his own filth, none is identified in the report or reprimanded. The report is heavily censored and even the name of Judge Whitlow is blacked out, even though The Pilot had previously reported his role in the case. Also absent is a case for more comprehensive reform, though that is a task for lawmakers.
Virginian-Pilot
The concept of legislative privilege isn’t a new one or, necessarily, a bad thing. The concept, found in the state constitution, shields legislators from judicial questioning about their votes and other Assembly-related activities that could otherwise bring the legislative process to a standstill. But the broad scope of the privilege asserted by the seven senators and their attorneys is what’s concerning. House of Delegates leaders have already turned over their communications with their consultants after they lost a similar argument about privilege in a federal suit over Virginia’s congressional redistricting. These are outside consultants, paid for with taxpayer dollars, and seven senators want to keep the content of their communications secret? OneVirginia2021’s executive director, Brian Cannon, put it bluntly in an interview with The Daily Press of Newport News: “I think it really begs the question of, ‘What are they hiding?’” What indeed.
News & Advance
