Transparency News 3/3/15
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
State and Local Stories
NOTE: Yesterday’s Sunshine Report for March included a faulty link to our legislative wrap-up. Many apologies! Here is the corrected link:
http://www.opengovva.org/2015-legislative-wrap
A gag order in the criminal case of the West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 men violates the First Amendment by barring virtually anyone from discussing it publicly, a lawyer for media organizations said Monday. David Schulz told a three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that some victims' relatives believe the sweeping gag order also prohibits them from testifying before lawmakers and regulators. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger's gag order was imposed in January when she said it was needed to protect former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship's right to a fair trial. Blankenship was the head of the company when the Upper Big Branch Mine exploded in 2010. He is charged with conspiring to violate safety and health standards. "The public has a right and a need to know that justice is being done fairly," Schulz said. The panel did not indicate when it would rule. Appeals court Judge Andre Davis said the gag order "has the purpose of taping up people's mouths about something they've been talking about for years." And publicity, he said, does not automatically result in prejudice against a defendant.
Register & Bee
Somebody decided to get cute on Twitter during the recent snow, creating an account in the name of Hampton City Schools Superintendent Linda Shifflette and announcing that schools were closed — before Shifflette had made a decision and tweeted it on her own account. Schools officials quickly posted that an impostor account was making the rounds and asked people to be sure to confirm closings on the school district website and local media. They also reported the situation to Twitter, according to HCS spokeswoman Diana Gulotta. Shifflette, a regular tweeter who had posted numerous photos and comments on Twitter during her rounds to look at snowy roads in the first snow event, was not amused. "Someone has posted a fake account (shame on you!!) — always confirm info with local media and website," she tweeted.
Daily Press
The Prince George County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a process to fill the vacant District 2 seat after the recent death of Henry Parker. At the Feb. 24 meeting, the board chose to accept letters of interest from residents who are interested in filling the unexpired term that ends Dec. 31. The board will then meet at it’s March 3 work session where they will allow candidates to speak on why they feel they are the right candidate for the vacant seat. “I think that’s about as transparent as you can get. The citizens that show up to the board meeting will be able to hear what the candidates have to say and then the board will take it under consideration whether it’s that night or we continue it to another time frame to be able to have time to consider the letters and information they have put forward,” said William A. Robertson Jr., board chairman.
Progress-Index
In the midst of an investigation of a police shooting of an unarmed man, Chairman Sharon Bulova of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors plans to announce a new 25-member police commission on Tuesday. The commission, which will include members from law enforcement, academia, neighborhood organizations and the media, was created to “maintain” public trust, Bulova (D) said, in the wake of the county’s handling the fatal 2013 shooting of John Geer, who was killed by a county police officer in the doorway of his Springfield home. “I want to give everyone an opportunity to make suggestions” on how the commission reviews police procedures, Bulova said.
Washington Post
NOTE: VCOG has been contacted by Bulova’s office to either sit on the commission or to do a presentation to the board.
National Stories
Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record. Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act. It was only two months ago, in response to a new State Department effort to comply with federal record-keeping practices, that Mrs. Clinton’s advisers reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department. All told, 55,000 pages of emails were given to the department.
New York Times
Taser International, the stun-gun maker emerging as a leading supplier of body cameras for police, has cultivated financial ties to police chiefs whose departments have bought the recording devices, raising a host of conflict-of-interest questions. A review of records and interviews by The Associated Press show Taser is covering airfare and hotel stays for police chiefs who speak at promotional conferences. It is also hiring recently retired chiefs as consultants, sometimes just months after their cities signed contracts with Taser. Over the past 18 months, Taser has reached consulting agreements with two such chiefs weeks after they retired, and it is in talks with a third who also backed the purchase of its products, the AP has learned. Taser is planning to send two of them to speak at luxury hotels in Australia and the United Arab Emirates in March at events where they will address other law enforcement officers considering body cameras.
Virginian-Pilot
A federal judge on Monday chastised the Environmental Protection Agency for its “mishandling” of Freedom of Information Act requests. In a bluntly worded opinion, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth declared that the EPA “either intentionally sought to evade” FOIA requests filed by the conservative Landmark Legal Foundation, or “demonstrated apathy and carelessness” toward the requests. “Either scenario reflects poorly on the EPA and surely serves to diminish the public’s trust in the agency,” Lamberth wrote. Technically, Lamberth ruled against the Landmark Legal Foundation, which sought sanctions against the agency. Rhetorically, though, the tart-tongued Lamberth emphasized his “discontent with EPA’s continued disregard for its FOIA obligations.”
McClatchy
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed closely divided Monday as it heard arguments testing how far states may go to prevent political parties from drawing congressional district lines to maximize partisan advantage. In the age of computers, such political gerrymanders can result in state congressional maps that look like a madman's jigsaw puzzle. And even the U.S. Supreme Court has said that these gerrymanders can rig the process to deprive citizens of fair representation. The justices, however, have thrown up their hands when it comes to policing the practice; so more than a dozen states have experimented with independent commissions to draw congressional district lines without regard to party. Now, however, those independent commissions are at risk in a test case from Arizona.
NPR
When our now 20-something son was in high school, he announced that he learned best when he was being “entertained.” Into our minds popped visions of history being taught by a man on stilts, and physics lessons being sung to the tune of “The Impossible Dream.” We were dubious. It’s only now that we’ve begun to understand what he was talking about -- and that he’s very much in line with a significant trend in government. Simple statements of fact supplemented by statistics isn’t enough when communicating with the public. Storytelling is the key to getting a message across not only to the public, but also to managers, legislators and public-sector employees.
Governing
Two Iowa lawmakers are working behind the scenes at the Iowa Capitol in a bid to block the public from obtaining the names of people who hold permits to carry weapons and purchase handguns. The proposed legislation is intended to make personally identifiable information on gun permits, such as names, addresses, and dates of birth, confidential. Under current Iowa law, permits to carry weapons are open records that can be requested and disclosed to the public.
USA Today
Editorials/Columns
I serve on the city council in Greenwood Village, Colo., a suburb of Denver, and I have asked myself this question: "Who is the city's primary customer?" The answer I came up with may surprise you. Most people would say a city's primary customer is its citizenry. It's called a city for a reason, after all. Not surprisingly, most elected officials may drill down further and say the primary customer should be the voters. I want to present the case that in most cities, the primary customer should be the business community, and maybe even a segment within that category. But the primary customer should not automatically be the citizens or voters.
Jerry Presley, Governing
Measured from where Virginia stood a couple of years ago, the ethics reforms passed by the General Assembly — the second in a row — qualify as another modest step forward. Measured from the ideal, they fall far short. Last year lawmakers approved a $250 cap on gifts from lobbyists — a limit that did not apply to the “intangible” gifts so many legislators receive, such as tickets to big-time sporting events. They also approved an ethics advisory board with all the power and reach of a middle school student council. This year they took another run at the issue, albeit amid much prodding and with no small amount of griping. They lowered the gift cap to $100 and extended it to intangible items — albeit without making it cumulative, which leaves the door open to an endless supply of gifts worth that amount. The bill also makes an exception for “widely attended events,” which can mean free tickets to all sorts of things: NASCAR races, football games, the Masters golf tournament, special guest appearances by famous strippers at the grand opening of a new gentlemen’s club ... perhaps even a Shakespeare play.
Timres-Dispatch
State and Local Stories
NOTE: Yesterday’s Sunshine Report for March included a faulty link to our legislative wrap-up. Many apologies! Here is the corrected link:
http://www.opengovva.org/2015-legislative-wrap
A gag order in the criminal case of the West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 men violates the First Amendment by barring virtually anyone from discussing it publicly, a lawyer for media organizations said Monday. David Schulz told a three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that some victims' relatives believe the sweeping gag order also prohibits them from testifying before lawmakers and regulators. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger's gag order was imposed in January when she said it was needed to protect former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship's right to a fair trial. Blankenship was the head of the company when the Upper Big Branch Mine exploded in 2010. He is charged with conspiring to violate safety and health standards. "The public has a right and a need to know that justice is being done fairly," Schulz said. The panel did not indicate when it would rule. Appeals court Judge Andre Davis said the gag order "has the purpose of taping up people's mouths about something they've been talking about for years." And publicity, he said, does not automatically result in prejudice against a defendant.
Register & Bee
Somebody decided to get cute on Twitter during the recent snow, creating an account in the name of Hampton City Schools Superintendent Linda Shifflette and announcing that schools were closed — before Shifflette had made a decision and tweeted it on her own account. Schools officials quickly posted that an impostor account was making the rounds and asked people to be sure to confirm closings on the school district website and local media. They also reported the situation to Twitter, according to HCS spokeswoman Diana Gulotta. Shifflette, a regular tweeter who had posted numerous photos and comments on Twitter during her rounds to look at snowy roads in the first snow event, was not amused. "Someone has posted a fake account (shame on you!!) — always confirm info with local media and website," she tweeted.
Daily Press
The Prince George County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a process to fill the vacant District 2 seat after the recent death of Henry Parker. At the Feb. 24 meeting, the board chose to accept letters of interest from residents who are interested in filling the unexpired term that ends Dec. 31. The board will then meet at it’s March 3 work session where they will allow candidates to speak on why they feel they are the right candidate for the vacant seat. “I think that’s about as transparent as you can get. The citizens that show up to the board meeting will be able to hear what the candidates have to say and then the board will take it under consideration whether it’s that night or we continue it to another time frame to be able to have time to consider the letters and information they have put forward,” said William A. Robertson Jr., board chairman.
Progress-Index
In the midst of an investigation of a police shooting of an unarmed man, Chairman Sharon Bulova of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors plans to announce a new 25-member police commission on Tuesday. The commission, which will include members from law enforcement, academia, neighborhood organizations and the media, was created to “maintain” public trust, Bulova (D) said, in the wake of the county’s handling the fatal 2013 shooting of John Geer, who was killed by a county police officer in the doorway of his Springfield home. “I want to give everyone an opportunity to make suggestions” on how the commission reviews police procedures, Bulova said.
Washington Post
NOTE: VCOG has been contacted by Bulova’s office to either sit on the commission or to do a presentation to the board.
National Stories
Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record. Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act. It was only two months ago, in response to a new State Department effort to comply with federal record-keeping practices, that Mrs. Clinton’s advisers reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department. All told, 55,000 pages of emails were given to the department.
New York Times
Taser International, the stun-gun maker emerging as a leading supplier of body cameras for police, has cultivated financial ties to police chiefs whose departments have bought the recording devices, raising a host of conflict-of-interest questions. A review of records and interviews by The Associated Press show Taser is covering airfare and hotel stays for police chiefs who speak at promotional conferences. It is also hiring recently retired chiefs as consultants, sometimes just months after their cities signed contracts with Taser. Over the past 18 months, Taser has reached consulting agreements with two such chiefs weeks after they retired, and it is in talks with a third who also backed the purchase of its products, the AP has learned. Taser is planning to send two of them to speak at luxury hotels in Australia and the United Arab Emirates in March at events where they will address other law enforcement officers considering body cameras.
Virginian-Pilot
A federal judge on Monday chastised the Environmental Protection Agency for its “mishandling” of Freedom of Information Act requests. In a bluntly worded opinion, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth declared that the EPA “either intentionally sought to evade” FOIA requests filed by the conservative Landmark Legal Foundation, or “demonstrated apathy and carelessness” toward the requests. “Either scenario reflects poorly on the EPA and surely serves to diminish the public’s trust in the agency,” Lamberth wrote. Technically, Lamberth ruled against the Landmark Legal Foundation, which sought sanctions against the agency. Rhetorically, though, the tart-tongued Lamberth emphasized his “discontent with EPA’s continued disregard for its FOIA obligations.”
McClatchy
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed closely divided Monday as it heard arguments testing how far states may go to prevent political parties from drawing congressional district lines to maximize partisan advantage. In the age of computers, such political gerrymanders can result in state congressional maps that look like a madman's jigsaw puzzle. And even the U.S. Supreme Court has said that these gerrymanders can rig the process to deprive citizens of fair representation. The justices, however, have thrown up their hands when it comes to policing the practice; so more than a dozen states have experimented with independent commissions to draw congressional district lines without regard to party. Now, however, those independent commissions are at risk in a test case from Arizona.
NPR
When our now 20-something son was in high school, he announced that he learned best when he was being “entertained.” Into our minds popped visions of history being taught by a man on stilts, and physics lessons being sung to the tune of “The Impossible Dream.” We were dubious. It’s only now that we’ve begun to understand what he was talking about -- and that he’s very much in line with a significant trend in government. Simple statements of fact supplemented by statistics isn’t enough when communicating with the public. Storytelling is the key to getting a message across not only to the public, but also to managers, legislators and public-sector employees.
Governing
Two Iowa lawmakers are working behind the scenes at the Iowa Capitol in a bid to block the public from obtaining the names of people who hold permits to carry weapons and purchase handguns. The proposed legislation is intended to make personally identifiable information on gun permits, such as names, addresses, and dates of birth, confidential. Under current Iowa law, permits to carry weapons are open records that can be requested and disclosed to the public.
USA Today
Editorials/Columns
I serve on the city council in Greenwood Village, Colo., a suburb of Denver, and I have asked myself this question: "Who is the city's primary customer?" The answer I came up with may surprise you. Most people would say a city's primary customer is its citizenry. It's called a city for a reason, after all. Not surprisingly, most elected officials may drill down further and say the primary customer should be the voters. I want to present the case that in most cities, the primary customer should be the business community, and maybe even a segment within that category. But the primary customer should not automatically be the citizens or voters.
Jerry Presley, Governing
Measured from where Virginia stood a couple of years ago, the ethics reforms passed by the General Assembly — the second in a row — qualify as another modest step forward. Measured from the ideal, they fall far short. Last year lawmakers approved a $250 cap on gifts from lobbyists — a limit that did not apply to the “intangible” gifts so many legislators receive, such as tickets to big-time sporting events. They also approved an ethics advisory board with all the power and reach of a middle school student council. This year they took another run at the issue, albeit amid much prodding and with no small amount of griping. They lowered the gift cap to $100 and extended it to intangible items — albeit without making it cumulative, which leaves the door open to an endless supply of gifts worth that amount. The bill also makes an exception for “widely attended events,” which can mean free tickets to all sorts of things: NASCAR races, football games, the Masters golf tournament, special guest appearances by famous strippers at the grand opening of a new gentlemen’s club ... perhaps even a Shakespeare play.
Timres-Dispatch
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