The Martinsville City Council took its latest step Monday toward making public at least part of the long-running investigation that began with the firing in August of former City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides. The council’s special-called closed session meeting began at 5:30 p.m. Monday, and later that evening, the council voted 5-0 to move toward releasing information from the forensic audit. The council went behind closed doors for about 90 minutes to discuss employment-law litigation and questions involving investigative reports and attorney-client privilege, then returned and directed the city attorney and city manager to prepare a forensic-audit report for the council to consider for release at its next meeting.

A newly released audit calls for stricter controls to ensure that developers provide the community benefits that they promise Arlington County leaders. The report, detailed at a March 23 meeting of the county’s Audit Committee, found a lack of “formal policies and procedures” within the county government to track benefits proposed by developers in exchange for zoning changes. County leaders and taxpayers need assurances that promised benefits are “effectively documented, tracked, implemented and monitored,” said assistant county auditor Shirley Brothwell.

A month after voting to purchase 57 acres at Route 10 and Main Street formerly known as the Grange at 10Main, Smithfield’s Town Council will solicit public input on the matter at an after-the-fact April 7 public hearing. The hearing is advertised in a public notice in The Smithfield Times’ April 1 edition. The notice states the purpose is to receive comments regarding “the acquisition of real property for the potential development thereon of business and industry.” The notice states the subject property contains 57.69 acres and lists 20 individual parcels by their numerical identification on Isle of Wight County’s GIS map that correspond to the former Grange site. … “The public hearing is being scheduled after the fact to give residents an opportunity to provide input during the 45-day due diligence period outlined in the purchase agreement,” said Councilwoman Valerie Butler, who had cast the one vote against the purchase. “While the agreement has been executed, it is contingent upon that due diligence phase — meaning the Town is still evaluating the property and can consider public feedback before any final decision is made.”

A three-judge Virginia Court of Appeals panel on Tuesday ruled in favor of the Oak Valley Homeowners Association and the American Battlefield Trust in two legal challenges against the controversial PW Digital Gateway data center project in western Prince William County. Virginia Court of Appeals Judges Stuart A. Raphael, Randolph A. Beales and David Bernhard ruled unanimously in the consolidated opinion. … Issues of improper public notice headlined the hearing, casting further scrutiny over the lame-duck Prince William Board of County Supervisors’ actions in November and December 2023 prior to the 27-hour Digital Gateway public hearing on Dec. 12-13 that year. The board ultimately greenlit the Digital Gateway rezoning on Dec. 13.

Alabama football spent $1.235 million on private jet travel during 2025, according to an open records request obtained by Front Office Sports/FOIA ball. Among the 50 schools who responded to the open records request, the Crimson Tide ranked No. 1. That’s not a complete data set by any means, though, considering there are 136 FBS programs. Rounding out the top five were Nebraska ($1.136 million), Michigan ($1.078 million), Texas A&M ($925,000) and Texas ($624,142).

Ostensibly, government budgets tell us how much services cost, but do they really? I have looked at more than my share of city and county budgets, and two things stand out when it comes to cost. First, many budgets do not present service-level detail. They show proposed amounts for departments and maybe divisions, but if you want to know exactly how much is spent on, say, health clinics or street sweeping, you’re out of luck. Second, even if a budget does provide service-level detail, the amount proposed for each service is not its full cost, because governments budget centrally for many costs that should be allocated to the services that consume them. These can include things such as pension and health benefits, vehicle rental and maintenance, space utilization, IT services and workers’ compensation. What are the costs of ignoring costs? Let’s look at five of them.