Transparency News 4/18/18

 
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Wednesday
April 18, 2018
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state & local news stories
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"So I say this to every department out there: Demand more."
Chesterfield County’s Planning Commission grilled members of another arm of the county Tuesday: economic development officials who want an industrial “megasite” in the southeastern part of the county. Commissioners came with pages of questions that, at their heart, challenged a development approval process and the inherent risk when localities chase private prospects in the name of job creation. “The Economic Development Authority has been entrusted with taxpayer dollars to improve the economic base of this county, not at the expense of the citizens. So I say this to every department out there: Demand more. Sloan addressed this to the host of county department heads and economic development officials who have been crafting and mining the details of the proposal as it makes its way through the review process. By the final hour of the daylong work session, it was clear that commissioners wanted assurances and details that EDA officials and county department heads said they either didn’t have or couldn’t provide at this point in the review process and without an identified end user.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Newport News School Board will resume interviewing candidates for superintendent in the coming days, Chairman Gary Hunter announced during a meeting Tuesday night. That came after Hunter provided an update on the search thus far, weeks after the board first learned that the confidentiality of one of the candidates had been breached. Hunter’s update also came after member Jeff Stodghill asked the board to go into closed session to discuss the breach and its legal implications, which the Virginia School Boards Association Executive Director Gina Patterson told the board about in an email on March 26. After a few questions from board members, the motion was voted down 3-4, with Stodghill, Vice Chairman Carlton Ashby and Shelly Simonds voting for it. After being prodded by board member John Eley, Hunter said that the breach happened when a candidate who was not interviewed called a board member, asked why he or she was not interviewed and that board member cited the VSBA’s explanation as to why the person was not a viable candidate. Hunter told the Daily Press last week that he did not consider it to be a severe breach and that the VSBA was assured that the search should continue. Hunter also, which he said was in the interest of transparency, laid out the steps the board has taken since former Superintendent Ashby Kilgore announced her retirement in October.
Daily Press

Norfolk Councilman Tommy Smigiel and City Attorney Bernard Pishko did not commit crimes under the state’s conflict-of-interest law, according to a special prosecutor’s report issued Tuesday. The allegations stemmed from an incident involving the suspension of a community activist’s son from the school where Smigiel serves as principal. Michael Muhammad, a longtime activist, had a dispute with Smigiel in November 2015 over the whereabouts of his son, who attends the Academy for Discovery at Lakewood Middle School. The next day, after Muhammad filed a complaint about Smigiel with the School Board, his son was suspended from school for three days. Muhammad then filed Freedom of Information Act requests for emails about the incident and was told that some of them were being withheld based on attorney-client privilege between Pishko and the schools. After a year and a half, the emails were released. The allegations against Pishko, special prosecutor Michael Doucette wrote, are less clear. He said the incorrect assertion of attorney-client privilege doesn’t violate the state law, but “it may be a violation of some city policy or procedure.”
The Virginian-Pilot

In an order handed down this week, Rappahannock County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey W. Parker has ruled against an Amissville resident who alleged, among other charges, that Rappahannock County Supervisor John Lesinski violated the state’s Conflict of Interests Act (COIA). Tom Woolman contended that Lesinski, in his official capacities as a former Rappahannock County School Board chairman and now as a Hampton district supervisor violated COIA either by not disqualifying himself from certain transactions or failing to disclose his economic interests in those transactions, as required by law. But Judge Parker, in his order dated April 9, found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the supervisor — now or during the period that he was a member of the school board.
Rappahannock News
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stories of national interest
Public records have already established that former Milpitas (California) City Manager Tom Williams tried to spend taxpayer money on his personal legal fees. They’ve shown that he threatened to sue his own city for $1 million in damages. And they’ve detailed the alarming allegations of harassment, retaliation and ethical lapses leveled against him by former department heads. But there’s a trove of documents that Williams is still trying to keep secret a year after reporters first requested them under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) and seven months after he resigned amid revelations of misconduct. Those records, which pertain to his job performance, were blocked from release after Williams sued the city in April 2017 using a relatively new legal tactic known as a “reverse CPRA.” Now, it’s up to the court to decide whether the public’s right to know what those records contain outweighs Williams’ right to privacy. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Sunil Kulkarni heard from both sides on Monday and expects to issue a ruling within the next three months.
San Jose Inside

The Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court has affirmed a lower court's decision agreeing with an opinion issued by Attorney General Lisa Madigan that documents from a group founded to improve housing conditions in Danville are public record and fall under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. In 2015, Danville resident and landlord Kevin Flynn requested documents from the city related to the Housing Task Force. The Housing Task Force was created in 2014 and was made up of community members and city officials. The objective of the organization was “to develop strategic goals and objectives to improve housing conditions within the community” after the city suffered a population loss, according to information in the ruling.
Madison-St. Clair Record

The Governor’s Office and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety violated the state Open Records Act when they did not respond to a Tulsa World request for records in a “prompt and reasonable” manner, an Oklahoma County district judge ruled last week. The case involves records requests filed by the Tulsa World and former World editor Ziva Branstetter with the Governor’s Office and DPS within days after Clayton Lockett’s marred execution April 29, 2014. In addition to records related to Lockett’s execution, the lawsuit sought records related to the execution of Charles Warner. In a ruling issued Friday, Judge Lisa Tipping Davis said that although the World’s request was not formally denied, “it is uncontroverted that no documents were produced prior to the lawsuit being filed.”
Tulsa World
 

 

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