Transparency News 3/4/15
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
State and Local Stories
After spending five years and more than a half-million dollars on a software project to streamline financial transactions, the city may pull the plug on the initiative. The plan was for the many sources of billing and revenue to flow through the new system and communicate automatically with the city's financial-accounting software. But the system's inability to connect with the general ledger - the city's master balance sheet - as well as problems with inaccurate data, led to a failed launch in late January - one of four in the past 18 months, according to Suffolk officials.
Virginian-Pilot
When Halifax County voters go to the polls in November, they will have an opportunity to elect a tie-breaking individual to serve on the board of supervisors when the eight-member board finds itself evenly divided in 4-4 votes as has been the case for the past three months. The person who receives the largest number of votes would become the official tiebreaker and only be called into service in the event of a tie vote on an issue. After apologizing to the audience and to all county residents for the unruly atmosphere of the last two board meetings, Supervisor Larry Giordano then offered a motion to approve a presiding officer for the Monday night meeting followed by a rotation of supervisors who would preside each month for the remainder of the year according to their seniority on the board. Once again, that motion failed along the same 4-4 tied vote.
Gazette-Virginian
One of the signature pieces of legislation from the General Assembly - an ethics bill approved in the final minutes of the annual session - leaves significant loopholes, according two groups calling for stricter limits on gifts to lawmakers. "This is the second year in a row where legislators have talked a big game about ethics reform... and what we've ended up with is a bill full of loopholes and exemptions," said Anna Scholl, executive director of ProgressVA. She called it "one step forward and two steps back." Dale Eisman, spokesman for Washington-based Common Cause, said lawmakers didn't have time to analyze the bill before voting. "If they had taken this problem seriously there would have been hearings starting the first week," he said. Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, sponsored the legislation in the House and said concerns about loopholes can be addressed. "I'm not surprised that ultra-left-wing political organizations are trying to criticize a Republican-led effort," he said.
Virginian-Pilot
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to increase annual salaries for board members to $95,000 — or $5,000 less than what was being considered. The increase, which will take effect in January, comes in a tough budget year for Fairfax, where county officials are working to balance a budget after projecting a revenue gap of nearly $90 million. The board voted on the lower salary increase in a 6-4 vote after receiving some criticism about an earlier proposal to increase salaries to $100,000. Supporters of the board’s first raise since 2007 said that a higher salary for what are often long days and nights as county supervisors will help attract more qualified candidates to run for office in Virginia’s largest jurisidiction.
Washington Post
The office of Fairfax County Attorney David P. Bobzien will be reorganized amid allegations that lawyers there mishandled a case involving the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man, the county Board of Supervisors said Tuesday. Board members also endorsed the creation of a new county police commission intended to address how police shootings in the county are handled. It remained unclear what would actually change under the reorganization. “The board and the county attorney have had a discussion today regarding communication and information-sharing,” Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason), chairwoman of the board’s personnel committee, said after a closed-door session that lasted about 90 minutes. “The county attorney has indicated that he will reorganize the day-to-day operations of his office, and he has informed the board that he will retire, effective June 30, 2016,” Gross said. “The board will begin the search process for a county attorney by the end of this year.”
Washington Post
National Stories
A Michigan lawmaker says it’s time to subject the governor’s office and the Legislature to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). State Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) says he’ll introduced the bill soon. “It just didn’t seem to make any sense to continue to allow the governor’s office to not be subject to the same laws as everybody else,” he says. “So in this version of the bill, both the Legislature and the governor would be subject to FOIA.” Dillon has introduced similar measures in the past – none of which have moved. He expects many lawmakers will be reluctant to expose their emails and other records this time around as well.
WMUK
If he manages to avoid prison, former CIA director David Petraeus' guilty plea for providing reams of classified material to his mistress will result in far more lenient punishment than that often meted for leaking the nation's secrets. Petraeus, 62, has agreed to admit guilt on a single misdemeanor count of the unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. The agreement was filed Tuesday in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Paula Broadwell, the general's biographer and former mistress, lives with her husband and children.
News & Advance
A federal judge said he would consider lifting the shroud protecting legal advice regarding the president's appointment power. Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Elmwood wrote the memo in 2009, "Re: Lawfulness of Making Recess Appointment During Adjournment of the Senate Notwithstanding 'Pro Forma Sessions.'" Tuan Samahon, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law, believes that the Obama administration waived this memo's privilege by referencing it after President Barack Obama appointed three people to the National Labor Relations Board in 2012 while Senate held perfunctory, so-called pro-forma legislative sessions.
Courthouse News Service
The heated exchange between a proud mayor with a football career and an elderly resident who wanted to question town policies sorely needed a referee that bitter December night. For four tense minutes, Evesham Township (New Jersey) Mayor Randy Brown drowned out Kenneth Mills, 81, after Mills asked about a tax abatement on a property and attempted to tell Brown to calm down. In a booming voice, Brown, the kicking coach for the Baltimore Ravens, told Mills that he had been overwhelmingly reelected in November and that "65 percent of the people who came out love what I do." He barely addressed the tax abatement. "You're acting like a jerk," Mills said as he sat down, sounding exasperated. The following month, Brown made it clear that future council meetings would be different. Residents would not be permitted to question council members during public meetings, he said. Instead, they could "make comments only." The policy set off a firestorm in the town. John Paff, chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project, said local elected officials must allow the public time to ask questions, but they also have the right to "just sit there" and not respond. "The check and balance is when they go to get reelected," Paff said. "When citizens take the time to come out and ask questions, and you ignore them, the citizens can exercise their opinion at the polls. We're supposed to elect people who treat us as human beings, not just serfs."
Governing
Editorials/Columns
What is it about ethics reform that members of the General Assembly don’t get? Honestly, we’re left shaking our heads after the details emerged over the weekend about the compromise ethics reform package the Assembly passed. Gone was the aggregate cap, wording that limited the gifts lobbyists and anyone else seeking to do business with the state to $100 in value … period … total. In its place was a $100-per-gift value cap. And no limit whatsoever on the number of sub-$100 gifts a legislator could accept from lobbyists. One $99.99 gift? A thousand or two $99.99 gifts? No difference whatsoever. In other words, no gift cap at all. And the ethics commission? As toothless as they come. Bluntly put, what came out of the Assembly is little more a joke, smoke and mirrors designed to make the public think legislators are addressing a serious issue when they’re really preserving the status quo. And more galling is the contention on the part of several senior senators that the Assembly is only responding to pressure from and controversy ginned up by that awful, out-to-sell-newspapers media.
News & Advance
I learned some lessons from my recent legal battle with Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones over his stubborn refusal to reveal why Chief Administrative Officer Byron Marshall suddenly departed City Hall. Unfortunately, as it exists today, Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act allows top government bureaucrats to cover up the incompetence of employees and craft secret deals behind closed doors that keep taxpayers in the dark. Slap a “personnel” sticker on the file and put it in the deep freezer. This loophole in Virginia’s open-government law, coupled with lax enforcement of consequences, allows officials get away with this. It’s ethically offensive that the terms of an employment and severance contract of the highest-ranking official in Richmond city government can be shielded by labeling it a personnel matter. The law needs to be fixed. We urge Gov. McAuliffe to make some serious amendments and restore the teeth the Senate extracted.
Carol A. O. Wolf, Style Weekly
Once again Richmond finds itself in an embarrassing situation — this time, unable to complete a comprehensive financial review. No other locality anywhere near Richmond’s size faces a similar predicament. The review was due by year’s end, but officials say it is “not even close” to completion, and progress toward that goal is agonizingly slow. The reasons are no mystery. The city spent nearly $18 million on an accounting system that does not function properly. Leadership at the top is missing, and middle management suffers from personnel churn. The result is that Richmond cannot complete a crucial document required by state law and essential to making informed budget decisions.
Times-Dispatch
“Do you have the time?” “Would you please sign a petition to support tougher clean-air rules?” “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior?” “Excuse me, but could you help out a fellow American who’s down on his luck?” In many American cities, you can ask the first three of those questions on a public street without any trouble. But if you ask the fourth, you can be arrested and jailed. Laws against panhandling have been around for decades. In case after case, courts have ruled them unconstitutional. But municipal leaders around the country keep looking for ways to impose them.
Bart Hinkle, Times-Dispatch
State and Local Stories
After spending five years and more than a half-million dollars on a software project to streamline financial transactions, the city may pull the plug on the initiative. The plan was for the many sources of billing and revenue to flow through the new system and communicate automatically with the city's financial-accounting software. But the system's inability to connect with the general ledger - the city's master balance sheet - as well as problems with inaccurate data, led to a failed launch in late January - one of four in the past 18 months, according to Suffolk officials.
Virginian-Pilot
When Halifax County voters go to the polls in November, they will have an opportunity to elect a tie-breaking individual to serve on the board of supervisors when the eight-member board finds itself evenly divided in 4-4 votes as has been the case for the past three months. The person who receives the largest number of votes would become the official tiebreaker and only be called into service in the event of a tie vote on an issue. After apologizing to the audience and to all county residents for the unruly atmosphere of the last two board meetings, Supervisor Larry Giordano then offered a motion to approve a presiding officer for the Monday night meeting followed by a rotation of supervisors who would preside each month for the remainder of the year according to their seniority on the board. Once again, that motion failed along the same 4-4 tied vote.
Gazette-Virginian
One of the signature pieces of legislation from the General Assembly - an ethics bill approved in the final minutes of the annual session - leaves significant loopholes, according two groups calling for stricter limits on gifts to lawmakers. "This is the second year in a row where legislators have talked a big game about ethics reform... and what we've ended up with is a bill full of loopholes and exemptions," said Anna Scholl, executive director of ProgressVA. She called it "one step forward and two steps back." Dale Eisman, spokesman for Washington-based Common Cause, said lawmakers didn't have time to analyze the bill before voting. "If they had taken this problem seriously there would have been hearings starting the first week," he said. Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, sponsored the legislation in the House and said concerns about loopholes can be addressed. "I'm not surprised that ultra-left-wing political organizations are trying to criticize a Republican-led effort," he said.
Virginian-Pilot
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to increase annual salaries for board members to $95,000 — or $5,000 less than what was being considered. The increase, which will take effect in January, comes in a tough budget year for Fairfax, where county officials are working to balance a budget after projecting a revenue gap of nearly $90 million. The board voted on the lower salary increase in a 6-4 vote after receiving some criticism about an earlier proposal to increase salaries to $100,000. Supporters of the board’s first raise since 2007 said that a higher salary for what are often long days and nights as county supervisors will help attract more qualified candidates to run for office in Virginia’s largest jurisidiction.
Washington Post
The office of Fairfax County Attorney David P. Bobzien will be reorganized amid allegations that lawyers there mishandled a case involving the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man, the county Board of Supervisors said Tuesday. Board members also endorsed the creation of a new county police commission intended to address how police shootings in the county are handled. It remained unclear what would actually change under the reorganization. “The board and the county attorney have had a discussion today regarding communication and information-sharing,” Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason), chairwoman of the board’s personnel committee, said after a closed-door session that lasted about 90 minutes. “The county attorney has indicated that he will reorganize the day-to-day operations of his office, and he has informed the board that he will retire, effective June 30, 2016,” Gross said. “The board will begin the search process for a county attorney by the end of this year.”
Washington Post
National Stories
A Michigan lawmaker says it’s time to subject the governor’s office and the Legislature to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). State Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) says he’ll introduced the bill soon. “It just didn’t seem to make any sense to continue to allow the governor’s office to not be subject to the same laws as everybody else,” he says. “So in this version of the bill, both the Legislature and the governor would be subject to FOIA.” Dillon has introduced similar measures in the past – none of which have moved. He expects many lawmakers will be reluctant to expose their emails and other records this time around as well.
WMUK
If he manages to avoid prison, former CIA director David Petraeus' guilty plea for providing reams of classified material to his mistress will result in far more lenient punishment than that often meted for leaking the nation's secrets. Petraeus, 62, has agreed to admit guilt on a single misdemeanor count of the unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. The agreement was filed Tuesday in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Paula Broadwell, the general's biographer and former mistress, lives with her husband and children.
News & Advance
A federal judge said he would consider lifting the shroud protecting legal advice regarding the president's appointment power. Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Elmwood wrote the memo in 2009, "Re: Lawfulness of Making Recess Appointment During Adjournment of the Senate Notwithstanding 'Pro Forma Sessions.'" Tuan Samahon, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law, believes that the Obama administration waived this memo's privilege by referencing it after President Barack Obama appointed three people to the National Labor Relations Board in 2012 while Senate held perfunctory, so-called pro-forma legislative sessions.
Courthouse News Service
The heated exchange between a proud mayor with a football career and an elderly resident who wanted to question town policies sorely needed a referee that bitter December night. For four tense minutes, Evesham Township (New Jersey) Mayor Randy Brown drowned out Kenneth Mills, 81, after Mills asked about a tax abatement on a property and attempted to tell Brown to calm down. In a booming voice, Brown, the kicking coach for the Baltimore Ravens, told Mills that he had been overwhelmingly reelected in November and that "65 percent of the people who came out love what I do." He barely addressed the tax abatement. "You're acting like a jerk," Mills said as he sat down, sounding exasperated. The following month, Brown made it clear that future council meetings would be different. Residents would not be permitted to question council members during public meetings, he said. Instead, they could "make comments only." The policy set off a firestorm in the town. John Paff, chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project, said local elected officials must allow the public time to ask questions, but they also have the right to "just sit there" and not respond. "The check and balance is when they go to get reelected," Paff said. "When citizens take the time to come out and ask questions, and you ignore them, the citizens can exercise their opinion at the polls. We're supposed to elect people who treat us as human beings, not just serfs."
Governing
Editorials/Columns
What is it about ethics reform that members of the General Assembly don’t get? Honestly, we’re left shaking our heads after the details emerged over the weekend about the compromise ethics reform package the Assembly passed. Gone was the aggregate cap, wording that limited the gifts lobbyists and anyone else seeking to do business with the state to $100 in value … period … total. In its place was a $100-per-gift value cap. And no limit whatsoever on the number of sub-$100 gifts a legislator could accept from lobbyists. One $99.99 gift? A thousand or two $99.99 gifts? No difference whatsoever. In other words, no gift cap at all. And the ethics commission? As toothless as they come. Bluntly put, what came out of the Assembly is little more a joke, smoke and mirrors designed to make the public think legislators are addressing a serious issue when they’re really preserving the status quo. And more galling is the contention on the part of several senior senators that the Assembly is only responding to pressure from and controversy ginned up by that awful, out-to-sell-newspapers media.
News & Advance
I learned some lessons from my recent legal battle with Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones over his stubborn refusal to reveal why Chief Administrative Officer Byron Marshall suddenly departed City Hall. Unfortunately, as it exists today, Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act allows top government bureaucrats to cover up the incompetence of employees and craft secret deals behind closed doors that keep taxpayers in the dark. Slap a “personnel” sticker on the file and put it in the deep freezer. This loophole in Virginia’s open-government law, coupled with lax enforcement of consequences, allows officials get away with this. It’s ethically offensive that the terms of an employment and severance contract of the highest-ranking official in Richmond city government can be shielded by labeling it a personnel matter. The law needs to be fixed. We urge Gov. McAuliffe to make some serious amendments and restore the teeth the Senate extracted.
Carol A. O. Wolf, Style Weekly
Once again Richmond finds itself in an embarrassing situation — this time, unable to complete a comprehensive financial review. No other locality anywhere near Richmond’s size faces a similar predicament. The review was due by year’s end, but officials say it is “not even close” to completion, and progress toward that goal is agonizingly slow. The reasons are no mystery. The city spent nearly $18 million on an accounting system that does not function properly. Leadership at the top is missing, and middle management suffers from personnel churn. The result is that Richmond cannot complete a crucial document required by state law and essential to making informed budget decisions.
Times-Dispatch
“Do you have the time?” “Would you please sign a petition to support tougher clean-air rules?” “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior?” “Excuse me, but could you help out a fellow American who’s down on his luck?” In many American cities, you can ask the first three of those questions on a public street without any trouble. But if you ask the fourth, you can be arrested and jailed. Laws against panhandling have been around for decades. In case after case, courts have ruled them unconstitutional. But municipal leaders around the country keep looking for ways to impose them.
Bart Hinkle, Times-Dispatch
Categories:
