Transparency News, 3/3/2022
Thursday
March 3, 2022
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state & local news stories
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of talking with two dozen department managers, including the interim city manager, in Charlottesville city government about FOIA's records and meetings provisions. Their questions were thoughtful and sometimes challenging. And based on follow-up questions I received after the session, they understand that VCOG is a resource for all -- citizens, press and government alike. Thanks to Deputy City Manager Ashley Marshall for inviting me.
Also yesterday, Del. Elizabeth Bennett Parker introduced amendments to further tighten up the guardrails to accompany her electronic meetings bill to allow public bodies to hold occasional all-virtual meetings. Her efforts convinced some on the Senate General Laws Committee to change their votes that killed a similar measure from Sen. Jeremy McPike earlier this session. Bennett Parker's bill is one VCOG worked on with her, Virginia Press Association, Virginia Association of Counties and Virginia Municipal League over the summer.
I started with those two positive notes because the following item is still elevating my blood pressure this morning.
Two Democratic senators joined Republicans on Wednesday to advance GOP legislation that would close off public access to inactive police files in Virginia. The debate over the bill, sponsored by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, has been muddled with misinformation and unanswered questions. That continued Wednesday, when a state senator who voted for the bill in committee later said he believed he was doing so to prevent photos of dead victims from being released publicly. Current law already prohibits that. "We do want to protect victims as much as we can. We don't want those pictures out on the Internet," Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, said during the hearing Wednesday. Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, corrected him: "I just want to be clear that there are no pictures of the victims that would be on the Internet that would be on the Internet under any circumstance." "That's not true," Stuart said. But Ebbin is correct. Current law says: "No photographic, audio, video, or other record depicting a victim or allowing for a victim to be readily identified ... shall be released" except to a victim or the victim's immediate family if the victim is deceased.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The General Assembly is advancing a bill that would prohibit the governor or his aides from interfering with an investigation by the Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG). The lawmaker who filed the bill said he did so after reading Richmond Times-Dispatch reporting in 2021 that documented how senior aides to then-Gov. Ralph Northam in 2020 summoned the inspector general to a meeting when he was investigating misconduct at the Virginia Parole Board. Northam's aides then questioned his power and reprimanded him. The bill from Del. Les Adams, R-Pittsylvania, has passed the House of Delegates without opposition and got a 14-0 vote of support Wednesday in the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee, meaning the bill is expected to pass the Senate and head to Gov. Glenn Youngkin for consideration.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
It took not even a day for the hammer to fall. Following a JMU diversity training picked up by Fox News, the university’s community brought war to the leadership in Alumnae Hall. For the university, that Fox News article meant several weeks of intense public relations backlash and a campaign to balance a line between diversity and appeasement. The article, published Aug. 19, alleges that JMU was “training student employees to recognize that people who identify as male, straight, cisgender, or Christian are ‘oppressors’ that engage in the ‘systematic subjugation’ of other social groups.” The Breeze’s reporting reveals for the first time what happened in the war room assembled by JMU’s leadershipfollowing requests for comment by Fox News; what the internal conversations looked like as the university scrambled to respond; and both the external and internal pressures the administration faced in the week after the publication of the Fox News article.
The Breeze
The Spotsylvania School Board agreed Tuesday to hire a consulting firm to conduct the search for a new superintendent, but accomplished little else during another disorderly meeting. The board had to call a 5-minute recess midway through the meeting after a chaotic 15 minutes during which Battlefield District representative Nicole Cole asked other members to stop talking while she had the floor, Chair Kirk Twigg called for votes on a motion while other members wanted to continue discussion, Chancellor representative Dawn Shelley attempted to put forward a substitute motion and School Board Clerk Dennis Martin tried to provide guidance on procedural rules.
The Free Lance-Star
With COVID-19 cases in the area declining from their all-time high in January, Albemarle County’s Board of Supervisors, Planning Commission and School Board will resume in-person meetings in April. On Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors supported returning to in-person meetings — with an option for members of the public to still watch and speak virtually — next month for the three bodies and ending the county’s local emergency related to COVID-19. The board will formally vote March 16 whether to end the local emergency that has been in place for nearly two years, which would become effective April 4. The county will still operate under its continuity of government ordinance for a year “to allow transition,” which lets other boards, committees and commissions to still hold fully virtual meetings, Walker said.
The Daily Progress
Recordings of Frederick County School Board meetings will soon be available to the public. On Tuesday, the School Board voted unanimously to hire vendor Rev.com to provide closed captioning for recordings of board meetings. Currently, meetings are livestreamed on YouTube, but recordings are not available for viewing afterward. Steve Edwards, director of policy and communications for Frederick County Public Schools, previously said recordings hadn’t been made available because all videos posted by public bodies must include closed captioning to meet mandatory federal web accessibility standards. After people complained about recordings not being available, the School Board revisited the matter. At its Feb. 15 meeting, the board directed Edwards to explore having a third party provide closed captioning.
The Winchester Star
A second phase of work on an approximately $25 million tunnel to connect Virginia’s Capitol with a nearby building that will house lawmakers’ offices has begun. Fencing recently went up near the Capitol in Richmond as the project entered its second dig phase. A spokeswoman for the state’s Department of General Services says the project has gone smoothly so far and the 600-foot-long tunnel is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2023. The General Assembly authorized $25 million for the tunnel in 2020.
WTOP
stories of national interest
It appears the NFL's attempt to make a more family-friendly halftime show with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Co. actually worked. The Hill — citing documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request — reported on Tuesday that the Super Bowl 56 halftime show garnered a mere 33 FCC complaints, compared to the 1,312 generated from the halftime show featuring J.Lo and Shakira at Super Bowl 54. The biggest storylines leading into the show were whether the NFL would allow lyrics that espoused anti-police sentiments in the show, if Snoop Dogg would smoke marijuana (there were prop bets associated with this), or whether Eminem would be allowed to kneel (he did, though Dr. Dre later said the NFL had no such issue with the demonstration). The Hill claims a good portion of the complaints lodged to the FCC had to do with the backup dancers who were most prominently featured during a surprise appearance by 50 Cent.
Sporting News
Mike Madigan ran the Illinois House with almost unquestioned authority for decades. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced that a grand jury has indicted him on 22 counts of corruption and racketeering. The Democrat was in the state House for a half-century, serving as speaker for 36 of those years before finally stepping down from the leadership post last year. His control of the chamber was so absolute that Republican Bruce Rauner frequently referred to him as a “dictator” during his term as governor. Madigan is accused of participating in a bribery scheme involving Commonwealth Edison, in which the utility giant allegedly paid thousands of dollars to lobbyists with ties to Madigan. He is also accused of soliciting business for his law firm as a bribe to use state-owned land in Chicago for a development project.
Governing
