Transparency News, 4/28/2022
Thursday
April 28, 2022
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state & local news stories
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The days of needing to take a trip over to your local health department or Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for copies of birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates are officially behind Virginians. Those in need of copies of certified vital records can now request the documents 100% online. The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) launched a new online Vital Records ApplicationWednesday, April 27, where people can request official copies of the records completely online. The VDH said the entire application can be completed in five minutes.
WRIC
Martinsville City Council has decided to hire outside counsel to fight the constitutionality of a reversion bill recently signed into law, but not everyone was onboard with the idea. Council came out of closed session Tuesday night and immediately voted to pursue action with the Supreme Court of Virginia to determine the constitutionality of referendum legislation passed this session and signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Before Martinsville can revert from a city to a town within Henry County, the new law requires the matter to be approved by a majority vote among city residents. “We’ve all concluded [the bill is] illegal and I won’t go into detail because we’re not going to litigate this in the press, but we filed in August 2020 under existing law since 1986 and the General Assembly changed the rules of the game at the 11th hour,” said City Attorney Eric Monday.
Martinsville Bulletin
Mineral Interim Town Manager Reese Peck moved up his resignation from May 11 to April 22, citing personal attacks by Mayor Pam Harlowe and Rebecca McGehee, wife of councilman Roy “Snake” McGehee in letters to the editor that appeared in the April 21 edition of The Central Virginian. Both letters cited complaints that were made to the mayor by a business employee in the town that Peck had been rude in two separate conversations, one in person and the other over the phone. The letter writers did not say which business they were referring to. Harlowe also mentioned in her letter an incident in which Peck informed her that one of the town clerks had "cried when he asked her to do something," and added that Peck had "used an unprofessional tone" when speaking with her on several occasions. “After reading the personal attacks on my reputation in the paper by the Mayor and Councilman McGehee’s wife, I cannot continue to work in a town that does not want my services," Peck said in his notice to town council.
The Central Virginian
stories of national interest
"The center says this figure differs from other research on the program using public data."
A lawsuit was filed against the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Tuesday. The lawsuit states the Michigan Economic Development Corporation is violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to release documents related to its Pure Michigan tourism program. According to the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, the Center has requested public records for over a year from the state agency and has been redirected or ignored. They sent the records request to learn how the MEDC calculated the return on investment for the taxpayer-funded Pure Michigan advertising campaign. The Center says that MEDC claimed that the campaign generated $8.79 in state revenue for every $1 spent in 2020, but refused to disclose how they were able to generate that figure. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation says this figure differs from other research on the program, and that when they did their own analysis of the Pure Michigan campaign using public data, they found the tourism promotion had no meaningful impact on state tax revenues.
9&10 News
