Transparency News, 4/15/20

 

Is Costco’s expansion a coronavirus-related emergency matter? Is funding a piece of public art an essential city service during the pandemic? Before the coronavirus and the resulting quarantine measures brought public life in Virginia to a stuttering halt, state law meant Norfolk’s City Council had to hold open, in-person public meetings to consider these kinds of items to ensure transparency and accountability. But Gov. Ralph Northam’s emergency order meant to slow the virus’ spread opened the door for cities to have virtual meetings to deal with emergency matters so they could avoid assembling in person and possibly endangering themselves or others. That leeway came with a long list of asterisks, courtesy of state Attorney General Mark Herring. The new reality made public officials face a question: What is essential? Can Norfolk consider routine zoning requests and conditional use permits via virtual meetings while most of the wider world is shuttered? The city’s top legal adviser says they can. Megan Rhyne, a transparency advocate who runs the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said there’s no real way to stop a government body from voting on whatever it wants during a virtual meeting. “Whether or not they should talk about any of these matters is something the voters and citizens would have to assess for themselves ... whether the citizens of any given locality believe its appropriate to continue on with items that are not time sensitive or important," she said.
The Virginian-Pilot

New statistics reported by the Virginia Department of Health on April 13 show the Western Tidewater Health District has three outbreaks of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities, but state and facility officials are mostly remaining silent on which facilities those are. In the Western Tidewater Health District, there are three outbreaks listed, all of them in long-term care facilities. However, Western Tidewater Health District Director Dr. Todd Wagner said he could not say which facilities those are. In response to an aggressive effort by reporters to get facilities to confirm or deny they had cases among residents or staff, only one — Autumn Care of Suffolk — confirmed it had positive cases.
The Tidewater News

With the Chesterfield Planning Commission expected to meet electronically April 21 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the county is making procedural changes to ensure citizens have an opportunity to analyze zoning cases on the commission’s agenda and provide input prior to the virtual meeting. Some people say that’s not enough. They want the county to defer action on all proposed developments for the duration of the public health emergency. In an email to the Board of Supervisors last week, a local advocacy group, Chesterfield Citizens United, called for a moratorium on zoning until the government’s “social distancing” directives have been lifted and citizens again can be physically present at public hearings.
Chesterfield Observer

 

 

David Cuillier, associate professor of journalism of University of Arizona and president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC), issued a clarion call in late March urging “government branches and agencies to recommit to, and not retrench from, their duty to include the public in the policy-making process, including policies relating to COVID-19 as well as the routine ongoing functions of governance.” The coalition did so after noticing a troubling pattern as the novel coronavirus spread across the country and other parts of the world: an information lockdown.
Nonprofit Quarterly

The COVID-19 response plan for West Virginia jails and prisons has been kept under seal in federal court, but now the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to get a judge to unseal the entire plan for the public to see. The group is seeking to intervene in an ongoing federal civil case that centers around medical services and conditions inside the state's jails. The initial suit was filed in December 2018. The state's coronavirus response plan was recently submitted under seal in the ongoing lawsuit. Judge Robert Chambers ruled that the plan was reasonable and effective but did not make it public.
WCHS

Mayors across the state want the Illinois Attorney General to give municipalities additional time to respond to public records requests as they operate with fewer employees during the COVID-19 outbreak.  The state's Freedom of Information Act requires public bodies five business days to respond to requests. The law allows public bodies to extend the response deadline by five business days for a number of reasons. However, nearly 200 mayors and the Illinois Municipal League, which lobbies on behalf of municipalities, have asked Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to issue an advisory opinion giving public bodies additional time to respond to such requests amid the pandemic. "Municipal leaders are not asking the Attorney General's office to unilaterally void public access laws, but to use the authority of his office to extend response deadlines until the Stay at Home order is lifted and staffing levels are restored," the Illinois Municipal League said in a news release.
The Center Square

A veterans group is continuing to sue the Pentagon over access to military discharge records despite a federal judge’s recent dismissal of the case. The National Veterans Legal Services Program said Tuesday that it filed its intent to bring the case to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The group represents former service members who want to upgrade a less-than-honorable discharge. Such a status can sometimes result in a loss of veterans benefits. Advocates often prepare a veteran's discharge appeal by studying past decisions made by military review boards, which grant or deny an upgrade. The legal services group says it lacks access to more than half of about 245,000 decisions going back several years. The military had said it blocked access to a public database last year after discovering that some of the decisions contained personal information that should have been redacted. The military said in court documents that it had begun to re-post decisions after they were checked for personal information. Decisions that hadn't been re-posted yet were still available upon request. About 25,000 decisions had been re-posted by early March, the military said.
The Virginian-Pilot

As coronavirus infections exploded in New Orleans, state and local officials repeatedly told the Trump administration that its new drive-through testing effort wasn’t going well. Those tested often waited more than a week for results, and local officials had no information on who had been notified by a federally contracted call center, according to emails between local and federal officials reviewed by Reuters. As deaths mounted, local officials requested details on the notifications as they increasingly fielded calls by those left in limbo - including health workers. But Washington officials largely brushed off their concerns, according to the correspondence, which has not been previously reported.
Reuters
 

 

I had a very minor role in crafting the electronic meetings legislation during a major revision of the Act, and those of us who have followed FOIA developments then and since have always been skeptical of local governments being allowed to meet electronically. School board members, supervisors, planning commissioners or council members should be expected to meet in the same room with full public access to those they serve. That’s why the provisions were tightly drawn. That view hasn’t changed. What has changed is this crisis. I would no more expect the members of the Smithfield Town Council or Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors to risk exposing themselves to this killer than I would my own family. To their credit, local government officials throughout the Commonwealth, including here, appear to be taking seriously their obligation to be transparent during this crisis. The Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors and Smithfield Town Council both appear determined to follow basic FOIA principles to the extent possible.
John Edwards, The Smithfield Times (via the VCOG Blog)

It was with remarkable and vigorous nods of agreement that this week we embraced the efforts of Virginia’s U.S. senators to bolster community journalism, an industry that we feel needs positive reinforcement for the care and watchfulness it brings to the world. No, we don’t expect a windfall of cash to come the way of journalism, but we agree that those of us who are providing an honest effort to represent your best interests and cover the news that means the most to you has immeasurable value. Journalism — true, honest, veracity-comes-first journalism, unsullied by ideology or temerity — is as irreplaceable in democracy as are the equal voice of every citizen and the principle that no one is above the law. We journalists understand we don’t get credit for that role. We certainly don’t expect gifts to help fulfill us. But, like we say at Christmas, sometimes it’s the thought that counts.
Martinsville Bulletin

We’re in the midst of a global pandemic, but its impact on America’s communities is local. First responders are our neighbors helping our neighbors, rushing to addresses just down the street and taking the sick to the nearby hospital. The workers on the front line of this crisis, manning the cash register at supermarkets or delivering takeout from a favorite restaurant with a closed dining area, are folks that we might have gone to school with. Local newspapers and their journalists are also among the front-line workers dedicated to serving their communities. Local newspapers, in their digital and print forms, immediately report critical breaking news of the fast-moving coronavirus public health crisis in their communities. They chronicle the local businesses that have closed and guide those suddenly furloughed to sources of financial and unemployment assistance. They alert local people to the scams that target that assistance.
The Southwest Times

I like to think that challenging times can bring out the best in people. It doesn’t always work that way, I’ll admit, but give us a chance in America – and in Henrico – to adapt to our new normal, and then watch out. My tiny team and I have done our best to take that idea to heart. In the past month, we’ve done all we know how to cover the pandemic from as many Henrico angles as possible, shifting exclusively to the variety of digital platforms we’ve worked hard to build in recent years. We’ve reported in in-depth fashion about how the virus has impacted Henrico’s budget, its restaurants, its school system, its school redistricting plans, its youth sports leagues, its nonprofits, its home improvement businesses and unfortunately its nursing homes, among many other topics. We’ve written about how community organizations have responded to the crisis, and how the community has supported them in return. We’ve covered Gov. Northam’s regular press conferences, Henrico supervisors’ online town hall meetings, School Board and Board of Supervisors meetings, digested state and local data to find meaningful takeaways, submitted Freedom of Information Act requests in search of more, and worked diligently to inform readers accurately, in a timely fashion, with the perspective that comes from a two-person newsroom with nearly 50 years of experience covering this county.
Tom Lappas, Henrico Citizen