Transparency News, 4/10/20

 

Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com Inc. and richest man alive, will not be allowed to land his helicopter on his second headquarters. Local officials figured that out pretty quickly. “Simply, while Amazon would most likely be able to construct the facility … the flight restrictions in the D.C. area would render it useless today and well into the future,” according to an undated report written by Brian Stout, when he held the role of Arlington’s liaison to the federal government. Stout is now a senior manager for U.S. public policy at Amazon’s HQ2. His analysis was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Amazon declined to allow him to speak with the Washington Business Journal. Arlington staff did propose a workaround of sorts — flying a helicopter between the region’s two major airports, Dulles International and Reagan National. But in another email obtained through FOIA, Stout appeared unenthusiastic about that option, which is more complicated than it appears.
Washington Business Journal

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, at least two Charlottesville City Councilors felt they weren’t getting effective communication from City Manager Tarron Richardson, while the city’s top administrator accused council of “meddling” in operations. The Daily Progress received emails between the council and Richardson related to the virus from between March 1 and March 24 through a request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The emails show several plans to direct messaging, manage safety and take steps quicker than the state to keep the virus from spreading locally. Several messages show bickering between the council and the city’s top administrator as the virus worsened, with Richardson concerned that the council was questioning his decisions and “bullying” him into actions.
The Daily Progress

On April 3, Pilgrim’s Pride employees at the plant just outside Timberville’s town limits protested the working conditions and claimed they had been told by staff that fellow workers had tested positive for COVID-19. However, after repeated attempts by various methods from the Daily News-Record to get into contact with Pilgrim’s corporate staff, no response was provided for confirmation of such claims by Thursday evening. Similar calls to other Valley employers have also been unsuccessful. Confirmation for the claims also could not be obtained through state health officials due to privacy requirements, according to a Thursday interview with Robert Parker, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Health. Information VDH cannot give out on patients includes “places of work, places of residence, worship, anything that would provide a location specific to an individual, and of course the identity and identifiers, name, date of birth, age,” Parker said.
Daily News Record

The Augusta County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to pause activity related to the courthouse Wednesday evening.  Supervisors said that the project will be reconsidered when they have a better idea of the county’s financial situation. It is unclear when revenue will recover after impacts from the pandemic. The project will not be discussed until, at some point in the future, four members of the board agree to discuss it again. The public hearing for the budget will be held on April 22. Right now, the board plans to broadcast the meeting on Facebook live and people will be able to call in for public comment or submit written comments to be included in the minutes. They said they will also look at other ways to make the meeting accessible while observing social distancing. 
News Leader

Weeks after passing an ordinance allowing them to delay non-emergency public hearings as people are encouraged to stay away from public gatherings such as those hearings, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hold hearings next Wednesday on proposals like adding a car wash to a 7-Eleven and rezoning 60 forested acres along Goose Creek to industrial use. And on Tuesday, at a meeting conducted under the new rules allowing them to relax some of the normal requirements for public meetings, county supervisors passed three ceremonial resolutions. With the COVID-19 pandemic has come a relaxation of normal government transparency laws, including open meetings laws, which normally require most members of an elected body to be physically in the room to conduct business. While the county has a deadline to decide on land use applications put before it, the board’s emergency ordinance passed March 25 states the deadlines requiring action by a Public Entity—such as the deadlines to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for government documents—are suspended, “however, the Public Entities, officers and employees thereof are encouraged to take such action as is practical and appropriate to meet those deadlines. Failure to meet any such deadlines shall not constitute a default, violation, approval, recommendation or otherwise.”
LoudounNow.com

Three weeks into its state of local emergency, the Town of Purcellville now has a set of ordinances to follow during the remainder of the coronavirus pandemic. The Town Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to adopt an ordinance regulating government operations during states of local emergency. Town Manager David Mekarski declared the state of emergency March 16. The ordinance lays out an emergency succession plan, steps to take when making new hires, giving promotions and amending contracts, and protocols for electronic meetings. The town manager may also direct that meetings be held solely by electronic means without a quorum of council members physically present. If the Town Council lacks quorum, either physically or electronically, a majority vote by the council members participating in the meeting will make a decision binding.
LoudounNow.com

A Russell County judge ruled against a Southwest Virginia man’s request to allow groups of 10 or more people gather in church for Easter. Judge Michael Moore on Thursday denied retired teacher Larry Hughes’ appeal for a temporary injunction in a lawsuit filed earlier this week that claims executive orders from Gov. Ralph Northam limiting the number of people that can gather in one place infringes on his religious freedom. The hearing was held via phone and closed to the media.
The Roanoke Times

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, HHS relaxed penalties for potential violations of HIPAA rules. However, the Iowa Freedom of Information Council argues HIPAA is being used too broadly as a reason to not release data on the spread of COVID-19. Journalists in Iowa have been denied requests for data on the number of COVID-19 tests performed or hospitalization rates, according to local ABC affiliate KCRG. Health officials cite HIPAA as the reason they cannot disclose this data. “The public is scared. They are concerned about local hospitals filling up, whether there will be space available if a friend or relative comes down with the disease, whether there will be enough ventilators available in a specific location,” said Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, to KCRG. “These concerns are aggravated by a lack of information and at a time like this, I think the government ought to be coming forward with more information, not less.” Under the relaxed HIPAA regulations, hospitals don’t need to obtain a patient’s agreement to speak with family members or friends involved in the patient’s care. Additionally, hospitals do not need to comply with the requirement to honor a request to opt out of the facility directory.
Becker’s Health IT

Efforts by reporters and others to get information from the city of Chicago through freedom of information requests should take a back seat to saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday. Lightfoot is supporting a move by the Illinois Municipal League to get Attorney General Kwame Raoul to suspend deadlines for government bodies to respond to public records requests for as long as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order remains in effect. Though Chicago government has thousands of workers on its payroll, the mayor defended her stance on the grounds it will pull city employees away from more important lifesaving efforts. The mayor invoked the Passover story of God sending the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians in making her case that FOIA deadlines should be suspended. “I think for those people who are scared to death about this virus, who are worried every single day that it’s going to come to their doorstep, and I’m mindful of the fact that we’re in the Pesach season, the angel of death that we all talk about is the Passover story, that angel of death is right here in our midst every single day,” she said. “So what I think most people want is for us to be focused on saving people’s lives so that we don’t have to bury another grandmother, another mother, father, a policeman, a fireman, a city worker. That is what we are focused on and in this time where we are all straining, where we are pared down to just the essential services, it is difficult, it is difficult for many city agencies to be able to respond to the FOIA requests that have heightened.”
Chicago Tribune

 

In these cynical times, it’s no surprise some Virginians regard their legislators as deadbeats. And they can be. Consider this largely forgotten episode: In 1849, a cholera outbreak spurred lawmakers to do what their modern-day successors will do this month for the first time since that 19th-century epidemic — flee the state Capitol for a supposedly more salubrious setting. Nearly 171 years ago, the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate quit Richmond for a posh resort 100 miles north in the lush countryside outside of Warrenton, Fauquier White Sulphur Springs. . . . Though separated by two centuries, the General Assembly now and the General Assembly then have much in common: completing the people’s business amid a lethal emergency that has upended policy and the economy at a time when politics has taken a poisonous turn.
Jeff Schapiro, Richmond Times-Dispatch