The Town of Blackstone, Councilman Jake Allman, and DBI Executive Director Sallie Glenn each complied with Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Judge Kenneth Blalock ruled Friday in Nottoway General District Court. Blalock dismissed complaints filed by Councilman Chris Page, who says he’s still seeking a copy of DBI’s “itemized budget” and that he plans to appeal to Circuit Court. … Page on March 31st — the day after Council dissolved the Mayor’s Tourism Committee over Page’s objection and assigned all tourism efforts to DBI — filed a FOIA request seeking all texts and emails that included the DBI budget. Allman and Ms. Glenn several days later replied that they had no emails or text messages containing the DBI budget. Judge Blalock ruled that their replies were responsive to Page’s request. Blalock said Page asked for emails and texts and that his request did not specifically request the actual DBI budget. “I can’t say that they were non-responsive. You did not ask for the budget.” Page argued that the emails and texts are legally considered the “envelope” containing the meat of his request — the DBI budget. “If they were confused,” Page argued, “they had five days” to seek clarification. Judge Blalock said he’s “well aware of the ‘envelope’ argument” and added, “Your plain language did not ask for the budget itself. You asked for messages containing it.”

Five counts of a civil suit filed against the Patrick County Board of Supervisors were dismissed on Monday, April 27, and the remaining count was voluntarily withdrawn during a hearing in Patrick County Circuit Court. All of the counts related to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Steve Marshall, Blue Ridge District representative on the board, named fellow board members Jonathan Wood in his capacity as past chairman, Andrew Overby in his capacity as current chairman, and Clayton Kendrick as a board member, in the suit filed on April 20. … After hearing arguments from both sides during the two-hour morning session, Judge Marcus Brinks dismissed five counts of the filing. County Attorney Jim Guynn also made a motion to dismiss the closed-session censure claim, arguing that Marshall failed to present a prima facie case (establish a legally required rebuttable presumption). … Before Monday’s hearing resumed after an hour-long lunch break, Marshall approached Guynn and the two spoke briefly. Guynn, Overby, Kendrick, Wood, and County Administrator Michael McGuinness then went into a separate room. When they returned, and the hearing resumed, Guynn said the parties had reached an agreement in which Marshall agreed to drop the remaining count.

The fired executive director of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority steered government contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece to former colleagues and business associates, a WHRO investigation revealed. Simms awarded those no-bid contracts — often for consulting that one former employee said were unnecessary and duplicated previous work — without the typical public solicitation that nearly all government contracts go through and without the NRHA board’s knowledge. Instead, Simms pushed NRHA staff to violate state law, U.S. Housing and Urban Development policies and the authority’s own procurement rules by issuing non-competitive contracts the agency’s own policies say are only permitted in emergency situations where life, limb or property are at immediate risk. NRHA issued at least $4.3 million in no-bid contracts during Simms’ two-year stint leading the authority. Some went to former colleagues or associates of his or his top deputies, according to documents obtained through a records request. None of the contracts were presented to the NRHA board of commissioners, as required by the authority’s policies.

Stafford’s Planning and Zoning Department is examining whether the county can penalize development applicants for missing assigned public hearings after a data center hearing was canceled last week about an hour before it was to start. … Commission Chairwoman Kristen Barnes said Stafford’s government can usually abide delays with a proposal, but those usually come with smaller projects. “This was an enormous application that had an enormous amount of research by the public,” she said. “And I felt the public’s rage, and I agreed with them. I felt it, too.”

A year after Purcellville residents submitted a petition to remove Purcellville Vice Mayor Carl “Ben” Nett from office, a Loudoun County Circuit Court jury Monday decided against that request, despite finding that Nett violated two of the five allegations brought against him. Town residents are saying that reveals a flaw in state laws. … The jury found that Nett had violated conflict of interest laws and the town’s policies and procedures, but had not committed malfeasance, violated FOIA, or engaged in actions for personal financial gain. … But town residents who have been pushing for Nett’s removal said the fact that he can be found to have violated laws and still remain in office reveals failure in the state’s code. … Special Prosecutor Eric Olsen said after the trial that Virginia, unlike other states, does not have a traditional recall process. “Some states have a recall process. If voters don’t like what somebody they put into office is doing, they can ask for a do-over and have a new election and basically recall that person and do another election,” Olsen said. Virginia only offers a removal process.

The special prosecutor handling efforts to remove Martinsville Mayor L.C. Jones from office has moved to withdraw from the case, citing a conflict of interest, adding a new layer of uncertainty to an already complex legal fight. Bethany Harrison filed a motion late Monday afternoon to withdraw from both the civil show cause proceeding seeking Jones’ removal and an ongoing criminal investigation tied to the same matter. “This request is made after consultation with the Virginia State Bar Legal Ethics Hotline, which advised my conflict required a mandatory withdrawal,” Harrison wrote in the filing. … The motion to withdraw did not detail the nature of the conflict.