After a two-year legal battle, the city of Richmond has agreed to settle an employment lawsuit brought by former Freedom of Information Act Officer Connie Clay. A written statement from Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald II said the city will pay Clay to settle the matter, in addition to covering “a portion” of her attorneys’ fees of costs. The statement did not say how much money the city agreed to pay, but a city spokesperson later said the amount was $549,000. A private law firm handling the case on the city’s behalf has billed nearly $700,000 for its services. When the lawsuit was first filed, Clay was seeking $250,000 in damages. “While the City has consistently maintained that the facts of this case did not meet the legal requirements necessary to qualify the Plaintiff as a whistleblower under Virginia law, continued litigation is not in the best financial interest of the City or its residents,” Donald said in his statement. “As such, we have agreed to resolve the case through a negotiated settlement.” Donald said the settlement is “in no way an admission of wrongdoing.”

Richmond officials are well aware of the “liability” that comes with deploying Flock Safety cameras, records obtained by The Times-Dispatch show. The automatic license plate readers — or ALPRs — in recent months have become a point of controversy, as officials have voiced unwavering support for the technology, citing its usefulness in solving crimes, while critics have characterized it as a tool of invasive mass surveillance that drops a dragnet over entire cities. According to talking points prepared for Mayor Danny Avula and Richmond police Chief Rick Edwards, obtained by The Times-Dispatch, Richmond police operate 99 Flock devices, some of which capture information such as vehicle type, make, model, color and license plate number. Police then store that searchable data for up to 21 days — three weeks of knowing who went when and where at their fingertips. … Text messages between Avula, Edwards, Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald II and others show officials exchanging ideas on how to steer public opinion in favor of Flock.

Isle of Wight County’s School Board had planned to fire Superintendent Theo Cramer after pressing him to prevent a student-led anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement walkout at Smithfield High School, but ultimately didn’t follow through. … Text messages between School Board Chairman John Collick and board member Jason Maresh from Feb. 27 through March 3, which The Smithfield Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show Maresh disagreed with Collick’s push to blame Cramer for allowing the protest to occur. … Isle of Wight County Schools spokeswoman Lynn Briggs said portions of the text thread were redacted under a provision of FOIA that allows, but does not require, governmental entities to withhold “personnel records” from disclosure.

In remarks made Friday at City Hall, Mayor Danny Avula suggested he would back off his proposal to boost severance pay for senior staff in the face of stiff resistance from City Council. The first draft of Avula’s proposed budget for next year contained a provision that would entitle “senior executives” like department directors to severance packages worth a full year of salary immediately upon being hired. For top brass, it would replace city code’s current severance formula, under which eligibility accrues gradually over 15 years and caps at 36 weeks of pay. But a list of proposed budget revisions from City Council, released Friday, included an amendment that would strike that language altogether.

Voters will decide April 21 whether to draw new lines to create 10 Democratic-leaning districts and a single Republican one, or to keep the current districts, now split between six Democrats and five Republicans. A Times-Dispatch analysis of state Department of Elections filings found there’s a lot of money on the table aiming to persuade them: more than $76 million. … As is a growing trend in the financing of politics, money often makes a few stops on the way to its final destination. “What looks like lack of transparency to some, looks like money laundering to others,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington. … “Now what we have is a lack of limits and a lack of transparency,” Farnsworth said. … “A disclosure-based regime without contribution restrictions works only if money is easily traceable, and increasingly, in this case, it is not,” said Olusoji Akomolafe, head of the political science department at Norfolk State University.

A new statewide poll shows a growing number of Marylanders disapprove of Gov. Wes Moore’s leadership, with some citing dishonesty. At the same time, a yearlong investigation by Spotlight on Maryland has found gaps, discrepancies and unanswered questions in the personal and professional story Moore has used to build his public image. … This investigation is built on a simple premise that public trust depends on verifiable truth. Over the past year, Spotlight on Maryland examined: Thousands of pages of state and federal records obtained through the Maryland Public Information Act and the Freedom of Information Act; Two decades’ worth of Moore’s public statements, speeches and interviews; Archival reporting and application materials; Interviews with a range of sources and subject-matter experts; Direct responses and non-responses from the governor’s office.

A Clearfield County (Pennsylvania) father-and-son treasure-hunting team has won a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI tied to a long-running search for what is believed to be Civil War-era gold in Elk County. The treasure hunting duo, known as Finders Keepers, are Dennis Parada and his son, Kem. They spent years researching reports of Union gold believed to be buried during the Civil War before narrowing their search to a cave in Dents Run in Elk County. They say there were readings of gold at the site and believe there could be seven to nine tons of gold and silver below the surface. They also say the federal government would only own about 52 bars of gold.