Transparency News 3/29/16
State and Local Stories
The Richmond City Council on Monday night decided to delay action on a measure that would require city officials to post documents and contracts for costly city projects on a centralized website. The council unanimously voted to take the matter up again on June 27 following further discussion and research after some city officials initially balked because of the estimated cost. Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, who sponsored the measure, participated in the meeting via telephone from Florida. Charles Todd, interim director of the department of information technology, told the council that the measure may require project managers to streamline the way they present information in order to be uploaded, which could be burdensome. “It’s not a technology issue,” Todd said. “The challenge that these agencies face is in the variance and the difference of ways they have kept information today. So, the assistance they need isn’t necessarily true technology or development assistance. They need clerical assistance.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Gov. Terry McAuliffe rejected a plea Monday by advocacy groups to force the immediate release of a report into the death of a mentally ill man in a Portsmouth jail last year. Four advocacy organizations asked the governor in a letter to demand the Office of the State Inspector General immediately release results of its investigation into the death of 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell. The letter was signed by the leaders of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Virginia, the Portsmouth NAACP, Voices for Virginia’s Children and the Virginia Organization of Consumers Asserting Leadership. McAuliffe’s spokesman, Brian Coy, said it wouldn’t be proper for the governor to interfere with the investigation. “The report’s going to be released,” Coy said. “He’s pleased about that, and he hopes it will be done in the most timely manner possible, but obviously what is most important here is thoroughness and accuracy.” That department released a report last week detailing several clerical missteps leading up to Mitchell’s death, but it did not address why more was not done about his rapidly deteriorating health while in jail.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Hopewell native and creator of Hopewell Citizens for Good Government Janice Denton’s name has recently been associated with Hopewell City Council and a year-long lawsuit that resulted in an appropriation of $14,872 by city council for the payment of Denton’s attorney. Though it may seem as though Denton "won,” she said that the last thing she wanted was for the lawsuit to come off as anything personal. “The thing I want to get across is this has nothing to do with any person on City Council,” Denton said. “We are all different. We all have different ideas, different goals and I respect every one of them on there. I would not want anything, personally, to happen to any of them. They’re all good people, but I think they could take some lessons on how to run our city.That’s my only thing. I just disagree with some of the tactics that they use and I think to some of them it became personal and I’m sorry about that.”
Progress-Index
The Alexandria commonwealth's attorney today issued an opinion saying he found no evidence of criminal activity by Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman (R) during last year's election season. Alexandria's Bryan Porter (D) was asked in September by Loudoun Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Plowman to investigate accusations that Chapman illegally obtained and published his primary opponents' private emails and illegally concealed the real source of his campaign donations. Chapman's Republican opponent was veteran law enforcement officer Eric Noble. Noble is now the chief of police in Haymarket. Former sheriff and 2015 independent candidate Steve Simpson and 2011 primary opponent Ron Speakman filed the complaints in Loudoun County Circuit Court that led to Porter's appointment. It was alleged that Chapman committed computer trespassing by obtaining emails from a former Loudoun employee who now works at Fairfax County after the sheriff learned that “supervisory deputy sheriffs planned to run against him in the 2015 Republican primary for Sheriff.” The former employee used his Fairfax email to send messages to Chapman's supervisory deputy about the sheriff and the upcoming election. The investigator, according to Porter, made it clear he was making a Freedom of Information Act request for these emails. A Fairfax County employee gave up copies of the emails within two days. Porter found no criminal violations in how Chapman obtained these emails, but did note that some of the emails contained the supervisory employee's personal email address.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
Editorials/Columns
I’m a bit late to this, but during Sunshine Week earlier this month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation presented the 2016 Foilies, the awards for the worst government abusers of open records laws. Among the winners: Hillary Clinton, Kim Davis, the state of Georgia, the city of Inglewood, the TSA, and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. The U.S. Department of Defense has the dishonor of winning twice. Meanwhile, open records ninja Jason Leopold details how the Obama administration destroyed FOIA reform — a story he could only tell by way of FOIA requests, naturally.
Radley Balko, Washington Post
