Transparency News 4/27/15

Monday, April 27, 2015

State and Local Stories


Allegations of contracting irregularities at the State Corporation Commission are sitting before the Virginia Supreme Court, and the state legislature has ordered changes in the SCC's post-award review process. At the heart of things are long-standing allegations that recently retired chief administrative officer Danny Payne pushed contracts to a favored vendor. Five former SCC employees, two of whom requested anonymity, told the Daily Press in recent weeks that they left the commission at least partly because they weren't comfortable with how Payne handled contracts. Several moved into jobs at other state agencies. Some have spoken with PCC Technology Group, which was warned by SCC insiders even before it lost out last year on a multimillion-dollar information technology contract that the deck might be stacked toward CGI, a behemoth in the IT industry. PCC has pushed this issue to the state Supreme Court, relying in part on similar accusations first made public in 2013.
Daily Press

Rachael Eplee, Victoria Childress and 28 other students are enrolled at Virginia Tech in Hill’s one-semester Community Involvement course. The class roster includes both undergraduates and graduate students and a mix of majors. The class project? Develop a website that provides an objective and comprehensive resource for those seeking information about the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would pump natural gas at high pressure through a 42-inch diameter pipe buried through several counties in West Virginia and Virginia.
Roanoke Times

In a two paragraph letter faxed to the Halifax County administrator’s office on Wednesday and sent by certified mail to the county administrator on Thursday, ED-5 Supervisor Barry Bank, ED-8 Supervisor W. Bryant Claiborne, ED-7 Supervisor Lottie Nunn and ED-3 Supervisor Hubert Pannell said, “As previously noted, we are dissatisfied with some unauthorized actions that you [Jim Halasz] have taken over the past few months. Therefore, the undersigned, no longer desire your representation on behalf of us as county administrator. “Any future actions performed by you will be done without majority consent of this board.” However, Halasz said until a majority of the board (five members) votes to terminate his most recent contract that was issued in November of last year, he continues “to have a job to do.” When contacted about the letter on Friday, local attorney William B. Claiborne  denied “leaking” a copy of the letters to the local media but said “there is some veracity” concerning the letter being sent by the bloc of four supervisors to both the county administrator and county attorney.
Gazette-Virginian


National Stories
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When it comes to providing information to the public, 14 out of 21 U.S. government agencies receive poor marks for responding to records requests, according to a study published online Friday by researchers at Syracuse University. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at SU asked for copies of the electronic files the federal agencies use to keep track of requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act. But after sending identical requests Jan. 22 and Jan. 23 to the 21 federal agencies, only seven have fully complied by making public usable data, the TRAC report said Friday.
Syracuse University

Russian hackers who penetrated sensitive parts of the White House computer system last year read President Barack Obama's unclassified emails, the New York Times reported on Saturday, quoting U.S. officials. "There is no evidence that the president's email account itself was hacked, White House officials said. Still, the fact that some of Mr. Obama's communications were among those retrieved by hackers has been one of the most closely held findings of the inquiry," the paper said. The White House confirmed the breach earlier this month, saying it took place last year and that it did not affect classified information.
Reuters


Editorials/Columns

MEMBERS of Virginia’s General Assembly probably feel picked on these days. For several years, they’ve faced questions and complains about their ethics. They’ve been told to stop accepting the trips, paid for by lobbyists, to golf tournaments and hunting lodges, or tickets to NFL football games or three-figure meals at Ruth’s Chris Steak House. The complaints accelerated with the conviction and prison sentence of former Gov. Bob McDonnell, who was found guilty of corruption for accepting loans and gifts from a diet supplement executive trying to do business with the state. And now, the legislators, some reluctantly, have decided not to accept any more freebies that are valued at more than $100. If that’s not enough, some upstart group of 24 nonprofits calling itself Transparency Virginia says the legislators have been doing the public’s business in a not-so-public manner.
Dick Hammerstrom, Free Lance-Star

Virginia's Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act specifies that information "shall not be collected unless the need for it has been clearly established in advance." But surveillance technologies, including license plate readers, actively and passively soak up all kinds of data, including that of bystanders and others who have no reason to be watched. Different police agencies held onto license-plate reader data for varying periods, which led to former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's formal opinion in 2013 that passive collection and retention of data is impermissible under existing state law. "Its future value to any investigation of criminal activity is wholly speculative," he wrote. Such collection conflicts with fundamental U.S. principles, specifically Americans' rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Law enforcement authorities cannot have carte blanche when it comes to using technology and conducting surveillance; government's indefinite, or even extended, storing of Virginians' data, including information gleaned from their mobile phones, amounts to an unacceptable sacrifice of personal privacy.
Virginian-Pilot

In Floyd County, Sheriff Shannon Zeman — who is retiring — fired part-time bailiff Jimmy Howery after the county’s weekly newspaper published a letter from Howery endorsing a candidate other than the one Zeman is supporting. How outraged should people be by all this? Here’s a modest suggestion: Not at all. This is not the free speech question it appears. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. In this case, the consequences should have been pretty clear to both Hodges and Howery (maybe more so the former than the latter; we’ll get to that shortly). A county sheriff is an elected position. A political position. A sheriff has pretty much complete control over whom he hires — and fires. The Virginia Supreme Court itself reinforced this just two months ago in a decision that came out of Montgomery County.
Roanoke Times

Sometimes there are no villains. Things just are what they are. This phrase was used in a Facebook discussion on the termination of former Collegiate Times Editor-in-Chief Erica Corder. That may certainly be true in this case. If Corder had multiple complaints about her actions while overseeing the paper’s operation, Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech could have been justified in removing her from her position. Discussion about a story on the financial difficulties of the EMCVT could be a coincidence and bad timing. But as a former editor-in-chief of the CT, this saga brings to light a bigger concern — one of perception.
Roanoke Times