Transparency News, 4/1/2022

Friday
April 1, 2022

The newsletter is going on Spring Break. I'll return April 11.
Look next week for occasional posts on VCOG's Facebook and Twitter accounts.
 

state & local news stories

"Very recently, and not just somewhat unexpectedly but totally unexpectedly, it’s become my conviction that I should not try to do both — to be both a town councilman and do business in town."

Eric Wallace moved to Staunton seven years ago to raise his family. Now, thoughts about moving are bubbling up. Wallace was one of many concerned parents that sent emails to city council leading up to last Thursday's meeting about the funding gap for city schools. It took about an hour for him to craft his messages to each council member, find their emails before he hit send. That's why when Wallace heard council members Amy Darby, Stephen Claffey, Mark Robertson making fun of citizens for spelling Claffey's name wrong in emails, he was overwhelmed with anger.  City council members Amy Darby, Stephen Claffey, Mark Robertson were caught on a hot mic Thursday laughing at how residents misspelled Stephen Claffey's name in their emails about school budget concerns.  It occurred after council had agreed to enter a closed session for discussion of an award for architectural services.
News Leader

Have Northumberland Supervisors been approving the school board’s multi-million dollar budget based on a dressed up PowerPoint presentation? That’s a question that was raised by Lynn Stewart’s public comment on March 10. She claimed the school board hasn’t presented a budget that meets Virginia State Code in at least five years. For years, people have talked about wanting to see a breakdown of the school board budget--an actual budget, not a presentation with this year’s line items compared to the prior year’s items, Stewart explained to the board of supervisors. The people want a budget “that actually shows the appropriations, what the budget was, what the actual disbursements were and what the difference is between all of those numbers.” And since that information wasn’t coming from the school board, Stewart said she started an online search for answers.
Northern Neck News

The Front Royal Town Council needs to fill a vacancy after E. Scott Lloyd resigned his seat on Monday after almost 15 months in office. Lloyd cited potential conflicts of interest between his private law practice and his role on council as his reason for resigning. Lloyd read from a written statement noting that at the time of his election, his law practice took shape and his business clients grew. “At the time I figured that, to the extent anything businesswise materialized, I would be scrupulous about disclosures and communication with legal authorities to be sure that everything I do is on the up-and-up,” Lloyd read. “Very recently, and not just somewhat unexpectedly but totally unexpectedly, it’s become my conviction that I should not try to do both — to be both a town councilman and do business in town.”
The Northern Virginia Daily

stories of national interest

"The census data will include names, ages, addresses and answers to questions about employment status, job description and income."

On April 1, 1950, an army of 140,000 census enumerators, equipped with fountain pens and government forms, started fanning out across the country to paint a portrait of the United States. Knocking on doors, asking questions about marriage, divorce, race and income, they gathered the personal details of life for 151 million Americans who had just emerged from an era of cataclysmic war and economic depression. And after they finished a month later, abiding by a rule that required privacy, they locked the results away for 72 years. Early on Friday, that time will have elapsed and the National Archives will unveil a huge batch of the intimate details from the 1950 Census — on 6.4 million pages digitized from 6,373 microfilm census rolls. The data will include names, ages, addresses and answers to questions about employment status, job description and income.
The Washington Post

Lee Pope, who has been Tennessee’s open records counsel since 2017, has resigned. Pope was named deputy open records counsel in October 2016 and played a key role in developing a model public records policy for government entities around the state. He was named open records counsel in July 2017. In 2008, then-Gov. Phil Bredesen pushed for the creation of the Office of Open Records Counsel to answer questions about the state’s public records law and issue informal advisory opinions. It receives inquiries from government entities, citizens and journalists.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Last week, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority alleging the federal utility violated the Freedom of Information Act when it refused to release unredacted records relating to its planned construction of methane gas plants and pipelines.  The lawsuit comes as TVA is planning to retire its remaining coal-fired power plants. 
Southern Environmental Law Center

editorials & columns

"Getting documents from some public bodies is worse than pulling teeth, since teeth eventually come out."

Transparency isn’t optional in public office. It’s an obligation, both by legal statute and in deference to the public elected officials serve. It’s a principle that Gov. Glenn Youngkin needs to learn quickly. Virginia voters thought highly enough of Youngkin’s business acumen to elect him governor. But one big difference between working in the private sector and the public-sector position he now holds is that public officials are required to operate in full view of citizens and in accordance with Virginia’s open government laws. The governor’s repeated side-stepping of these legal obligations is wholly unacceptable and must change at once. Youngkin is not the first chief executive to utilize loopholes in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to conceal important documents with broad implications for the public. Far from it. His predecessors, along with officials throughout the commonwealth, denied records requests, redacted key information from documents and otherwise thwarted the state’s FOIA, which states clearly, “The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government.” Getting documents from some public bodies is worse than pulling teeth, since teeth eventually come out. Not that the law needs to be strengthened for Youngkin to honor records requests and shed more light on his administration’s decision making and policy initiatives. FOIA puts the option of releasing those records in his hands, and he could choose transparency if he wants. That means the governor could usher in an era of radical transparency in Virginia if he wanted. It’s too bad that he views openness as an obstacle to be avoided rather than an obligation of his office.
The Virginian-Pilot