Transparency News 3/9/17
Thursday, March 9, 2017
State and Local Stories
State and Local Stories
The Peninsula Airport Commission voted Wednesday to direct its bank and any other institutions that hold records relating to its use of taxpayer money to pay off a $4.5 million loan for People Express Airlines to make those records available to state auditors. The commission voted to do so after an hourlong closed-door briefing by Virginia Department of Transportation auditors about their continuing review of Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport. Virginia Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne had complained that key records weren't being provided, while airport officials said they did not possess the records.
Daily Press
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney presented his budget to the Richmond City Council on Monday afternoon, but for about 48 hours, council members and residents keen to dig into the 560-page spending plan were out of luck. That’s because after briefly going live on the city’s website Monday evening, the city pulled the document. Instead, a link to the proposal on the city’s website directed users to a one-page document that said only that “the 2018 Proposed Annual Budget is currently being revised and will be available shortly.” City Council members didn’t have any more luck gaining access to the document. While city administrators distributed hard copies Monday to all nine council members before the mayor delivered a speech about the plan, staff members asked for the 2-inch-thick binders back shortly after Stoney completed his remarks. As of about 4 p.m. Wednesday, the updated budget books were delivered to the City Council’s offices. Likewise, by about 8 p.m., the document was once again posted on the city’s website.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
A judge has dismissed a legal petition to remove Charlottesville City Councilman Wes Bellamy from office after the special prosecutor appointed to the case determined that the petition did not have enough signatures for a court to consider the complaint. In a court filing submitted Tuesday, Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Doucette said blogger Jason Kessler needed approximately 1,000 additional signatures to meet the number required by the state code. The Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of Doucette’s motion to non-suit, but Kessler or any other citizen may still attempt to collect the 1,580 signatures needed to seek Bellamy’s removal from office.
Daily Progress
Fairfax County Chief of Police Edwin Roessler has named 16-year veteran Master Police Officer Lance Guckenberger as the officer who used deadly force, killing Mohammad Azim Doudzai at his home in Herndon, the scene of a double shooting and barricade incident on Jan. 16. Roessler released the name of the officer March 2, after a protracted risk assessment and court action by the officer seeking a restraining order to stop the release of his name. This is the first FCPD officer-involved shooting since the Board of Supervisors adopted recommendations from the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission, including releasing the name of the officer within 10 days of an officer-involved deployment of deadly force unless the chief determines that more time is needed to investigate or mitigate a credible threat to the officer and/or family.
Connection Newspapers
Frederick County Sheriff Lenny Millholland on Wednesday afternoon became Middletown’s interim police chief following the resignation of Interim Chief Warren M. Houde after a “major issue” was discovered, according to Middletown Mayor Charles Harbaugh IV. Houde, 33, was appointed interim chief Jan. 9 after Town Council did not reappoint Phil Breeden to the position. A town official did not immediately respond to a request for his salary. Harbaugh confirmed Wednesday that Houde vacated the position Monday night following a closed Town Council work session to discuss personnel and legal matters. An anonymous caller told The Winchester Star that Houde was fired, but Harbaugh said Houde resigned and that Town Council accepted his resignation unanimously. “We were recently made aware of a major issue from the Sheriff’s Department regarding Interim Chief Warren Houde,” Harbaugh said. Harbaugh declined to discuss the “major issue,” but he said Houde is not under investigation.
Winchester Star
Also at the meeting, Stephens City Town Manager Mike Majher said the Frederick County Sanitation Authority made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking for anything related to revenue or expenses for the town’s water/sewer system. The town and the authority are in dispute over the end date of a contract that was signed in 1992. Nauman said the authority had not paid for its previous FOIA request and that the town would require a pre-payment of $5,000 for the current FOIA request. “The council should be made aware that [the request] is so broad it does create an undue burden on the town which will probably require shutting down the town office for a period of time,” Council member Jason Nauman said. Nauman said the authority was “basically asking us to be mind readers” when it came to figuring out what the authority was looking for in its FOIA request. “So our response will be to go back and say, ‘You are going to have to tell us exactly what it is, not every single record related to water and sewer,’” Nauman said.
Winchester Star
National Stories
The IRS has told a federal court that they've recently identified almost 7,000 more documents that could contain information on how the agency targeted the tax-exempt applications of Tea Party organizations or other conservative political groups starting back in 2010, according to a court document. But IRS in the document would not commit to a timeline for releasing the documents. The revelation of thousands of unreleased documents was made in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that specializes in filing, and in many instances litigating, FOIA requests.
Washington Examiner
The city of Tacoma, Washington, will pay a $50,000 fine and legal fees for violating the Public Records Act by withholding most of a nondisclosure agreement it signed to obtain cellphone surveillance equipment known as Stingray. The News Tribune reports The Center for Open Policing sued the city for blacking out large portions of the document after the organization requested it in 2014. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson on Friday ordered Tacoma to pay $100 a day for each day the city “wrongfully withheld the unredacted NDA from June 21, 2014, until November 3, 2015. The penalty is the maximum allowable under state law.
Seattle Times
Daily Press
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney presented his budget to the Richmond City Council on Monday afternoon, but for about 48 hours, council members and residents keen to dig into the 560-page spending plan were out of luck. That’s because after briefly going live on the city’s website Monday evening, the city pulled the document. Instead, a link to the proposal on the city’s website directed users to a one-page document that said only that “the 2018 Proposed Annual Budget is currently being revised and will be available shortly.” City Council members didn’t have any more luck gaining access to the document. While city administrators distributed hard copies Monday to all nine council members before the mayor delivered a speech about the plan, staff members asked for the 2-inch-thick binders back shortly after Stoney completed his remarks. As of about 4 p.m. Wednesday, the updated budget books were delivered to the City Council’s offices. Likewise, by about 8 p.m., the document was once again posted on the city’s website.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
A judge has dismissed a legal petition to remove Charlottesville City Councilman Wes Bellamy from office after the special prosecutor appointed to the case determined that the petition did not have enough signatures for a court to consider the complaint. In a court filing submitted Tuesday, Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Doucette said blogger Jason Kessler needed approximately 1,000 additional signatures to meet the number required by the state code. The Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of Doucette’s motion to non-suit, but Kessler or any other citizen may still attempt to collect the 1,580 signatures needed to seek Bellamy’s removal from office.
Daily Progress
Fairfax County Chief of Police Edwin Roessler has named 16-year veteran Master Police Officer Lance Guckenberger as the officer who used deadly force, killing Mohammad Azim Doudzai at his home in Herndon, the scene of a double shooting and barricade incident on Jan. 16. Roessler released the name of the officer March 2, after a protracted risk assessment and court action by the officer seeking a restraining order to stop the release of his name. This is the first FCPD officer-involved shooting since the Board of Supervisors adopted recommendations from the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission, including releasing the name of the officer within 10 days of an officer-involved deployment of deadly force unless the chief determines that more time is needed to investigate or mitigate a credible threat to the officer and/or family.
Connection Newspapers
Frederick County Sheriff Lenny Millholland on Wednesday afternoon became Middletown’s interim police chief following the resignation of Interim Chief Warren M. Houde after a “major issue” was discovered, according to Middletown Mayor Charles Harbaugh IV. Houde, 33, was appointed interim chief Jan. 9 after Town Council did not reappoint Phil Breeden to the position. A town official did not immediately respond to a request for his salary. Harbaugh confirmed Wednesday that Houde vacated the position Monday night following a closed Town Council work session to discuss personnel and legal matters. An anonymous caller told The Winchester Star that Houde was fired, but Harbaugh said Houde resigned and that Town Council accepted his resignation unanimously. “We were recently made aware of a major issue from the Sheriff’s Department regarding Interim Chief Warren Houde,” Harbaugh said. Harbaugh declined to discuss the “major issue,” but he said Houde is not under investigation.
Winchester Star
Also at the meeting, Stephens City Town Manager Mike Majher said the Frederick County Sanitation Authority made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking for anything related to revenue or expenses for the town’s water/sewer system. The town and the authority are in dispute over the end date of a contract that was signed in 1992. Nauman said the authority had not paid for its previous FOIA request and that the town would require a pre-payment of $5,000 for the current FOIA request. “The council should be made aware that [the request] is so broad it does create an undue burden on the town which will probably require shutting down the town office for a period of time,” Council member Jason Nauman said. Nauman said the authority was “basically asking us to be mind readers” when it came to figuring out what the authority was looking for in its FOIA request. “So our response will be to go back and say, ‘You are going to have to tell us exactly what it is, not every single record related to water and sewer,’” Nauman said.
Winchester Star
National Stories
The IRS has told a federal court that they've recently identified almost 7,000 more documents that could contain information on how the agency targeted the tax-exempt applications of Tea Party organizations or other conservative political groups starting back in 2010, according to a court document. But IRS in the document would not commit to a timeline for releasing the documents. The revelation of thousands of unreleased documents was made in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that specializes in filing, and in many instances litigating, FOIA requests.
Washington Examiner
The city of Tacoma, Washington, will pay a $50,000 fine and legal fees for violating the Public Records Act by withholding most of a nondisclosure agreement it signed to obtain cellphone surveillance equipment known as Stingray. The News Tribune reports The Center for Open Policing sued the city for blacking out large portions of the document after the organization requested it in 2014. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson on Friday ordered Tacoma to pay $100 a day for each day the city “wrongfully withheld the unredacted NDA from June 21, 2014, until November 3, 2015. The penalty is the maximum allowable under state law.
Seattle Times
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