Transparency News 4/23/18

Monday
April 23, 2018

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"This lady can’t possibly know what happened in the meeting, that’s why she’s suing them!"

Here is the audio of the oral arguments last week in Bragg v. Board of Supervisors, where the issue is the sufficiency of the affidavit of good cause filed in support of alleged meeting violations. It's about 30 minutes long and includes sensible questions/statements regarding a citizen's ability to make out a meeting-violation case, including: "This lady can’t possibly know what happened in the meeting, that’s why she’s suing them!" (20:15)
Virginia Supreme Court

On March 13, 2018 Averett Jones of The Southside Messenger petitioned the Charlotte County General District Court for a Writ of Mandamus regarding School Board Member JonPaul Berkley’s alleged failure to provide emails requested under The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The hearing on the Messenger’s petition was held on Tuesday April 17, 2018. Judge James William Watson, Jr. presided. Jones presented two issues which he stated were FOIA violations. In the petition he stated, “Berkley did not comply with FOIA request. Falsely stated documents did not exist.”  Jones also claimed Berkley was in violation of FOIA for inflating the cost of providing requested Facebook posts. In an email Berkley requested $362.25 for producing the requested documents, citing his hourly rate at $25.00 per hour.  According to School Board documents the hourly rate for Board Members is $2.50 per hour.  Judge Watson agreed with Berkley’s rate but requested he reevaluate the time necessary to comply giving Berkley until Monday to present a revised estimate.
Southside Messenger

It took a little while to get them — those Statements of Economic Interest that are the foundation of Virginia’s system for monitoring potential conflicts of interest — but part of what’s most interesting about them is what’s missing. (Part of what’s interesting about them is why they weren’t available until after the General Assembly session ended, too.) The whole idea is to know what legislators’ business interests and investments are, so Virginians can ask if there’s a chance their actions in office serve themselves, as well as the public. But you sort of have to know what those interests are.
Daily Press

The state’s still young Smart Scale program was built on the idea that analytics could determine which projects are the best bet to improve Virginia’s transportation network. Analytics, it turns out, also will be the judge of Smart Scale and how it is used. Virginia and all other states will soon have analytics, in the form of updated and enhanced traffic data, to help determine how the road networks are working. It’s part of a federal government program that now requires states to use data to track how their networks are doing, according to a presentation at the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s meeting last week by Nick Donohue, the state’s deputy secretary of transportation.
The Free Lance-Star

stories of national interest

Another big report from the Democrat-Gazette's Eric Besson this morning with more evidence of the Razorback Foundation's fingerprints being all over the activities of the University of Arkansas. That's no surprise to readers of this blog, but Besson unearthed new supporting details, including documentation that Razorback Foundation officials directly participated in university athletic department job interviews.  The Foundation, which supports UA athletics, is ostensibly an independent nonprofit — a status that is has used to declare itself exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act. The D-G has reviewed 22,000 pages of emails exchanged between the Foundation and university staff, acquired by FOIA request to the university itself. 
Arkansas Times

When KXAN investigators requested video in [the case of Zachary Anam, who shot himself while in Austin Police Department custody], Austin police cited an exemption to the Texas Public Information Act that gives law enforcement agencies discretion to withhold information in closed cases if a suspect did not go through the court process. In the past decade, the department has used that exemption to block about 1,900 public information requests. Each time a requestor has challenged such a denial, the city’s legal department says the Texas Attorney General’s office has erred on APD’s side, just as it had with KXAN’s request. Before the mid-1990s, most law enforcement records in Texas were considered public, except those that might hinder ongoing prosecution or an active police investigation. But a 1996 Texas Supreme Court case opened the door for law enforcement to keep closed cases private.
Texas Tribune