Transparency News, 4/29/20

 

The Virginia Beach Police Department will not release its complete investigative file into last year’s mass shooting when it is likely finished this fall. Instead, the city plans to publish a report summarizing the findings. The announcement is not sitting well with the family of at least one of those who died May 31 in Building 2. Kevin Martingayle, an attorney for the widower of Kate Nixon, said the city should release the full investigative file and that leadership should stop worrying about public relations and the department’s image. The city has the discretion to release these documents and should not default to its routine position of withholding them, he said.
The Virginian-Pilot

Hackers displaying lewd audio and video broke into City Council’s virtual meeting Tuesday afternoon, sending the city into a scramble that ended with the meeting reconvening over the telephone. The hack attack occurred around 1:30 p.m., more than an hour into the meeting. Two unmuted and unknown males got into the feed and began making inappropriate sexual comments, following that up with sexually charged video. That prompted Petersburg Mayor Samuel Parham to call a 10-minute recess while IT folks dealt with the problem. The 10-minute recess turned into about 45 minutes while the city tried to find a new way to continue the meeting. When councilors reconvened, they did so through a telephonic conference call on a new call-in number. That reconvene, however, was very short, as councilors decided to postpone until 4 p.m. Tuesday. It was the second time a council teleconference did not go as smoothly as originally planned.
The Progress-Index

A local man told the Clarke County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday he plans to run for the Berryville District seat being vacated by Mary Daniel. Daniel, a lawyer, was elected to her second four-year term as a supervisor last November. She recently resigned after being appointed a general district court judge for the 26th Judicial District.  Her resignation is effective May 2. Remaining supervisors must appoint someone to fill her seat within 45 days of that date, otherwise Clarke County Circuit Court will appoint someone, according to County Administrator Chris Boies. Meanwhile, the supervisors are continuing with their plans to make an appointment. Six people submitted applications for the temporary post. The county has not released their names. As reasoning for that decision, Boies presented opinions provided by the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council and the State Attorney General’s Office in 2004 — when a supervisor died while in office — that applications for appointment, like employment applications, are exempt from release because they contain confidential personal information. A person’s qualifications for a temporary seat are among that information, the attorney general has ruled.
The Winchester Star

The COVID-19 outbreak has led to an unprecedented step in Henry County’s annual budget process: a public hearing without the public in the room. Instead of attending in person, county residents are encouraged strongly to share their input on next year’s budget plans via phone or email before the Henry County Board of Supervisors holds its public hearing at 7 p.m. on May 18. During Tuesday afternoon’s board meeting, County Administrator Tim Hall said all public comments submitted to budget2020@co.henry.va.us or 276-634-4699 will be read into the meeting minutes.
Martinsville Bulletin

Charlottesville is considering allowing its boards and commissions to conduct business electronically. At the end of a five-hour virtual work session on Tuesday, the council discussed recent open meeting law changes approved by the General Assembly. City Attorney John Blair said that the assembly accepted a proposal from Gov. Ralph Northam that would allow government bodies to meet electronically to discuss business during the coronavirus pandemic. Mayor Nikuyah Walker said that the city hopes to hold a work session in the next two weeks to consider an ordinance allowing the regular meetings.
The Daily Progress

Abingdon officials want to know what residents want when it comes to reopening the town’s businesses. So they have created a surveyto coincide with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s plan to lift Executive Order 53 on May 8, which would allow nonessential retail businesses and restaurants to begin operating again after shutting down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The survey is slated to help Abingdon businesses gauge customer sentiment as they make plans to reopen safely and how to resume activities.
Bristol Herald Courier

 

Topics include Emergency Powers and the Press; Open Meetings and Public Records; Court Access; and Journalists’ Guide to HIPAA During COVID-19.”\

 

As of March 18, 2020, communities around the United States have taken various emergency measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. Most are forms of mandated “social distancing,” such as bans on large gatherings and the closure of non-essential businesses. The Reporters Committee has received a number of questions about how such measures could impact members of the news media, who are working to keep their communities informed. Topics include Emergency Powers and the Press; Open Meetings and Public Records; Court Access; and Journalists’ Guide to HIPAA During COVID-19.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

The Washington Post sued the State Department Friday night after the federal agency allegedly denied timely processing of the paper’s request to see diplomatic correspondence regarding safety issues at a coronavirus research lab in the city of Wuhan, China.  The complaint was filed with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and allegedly revolves around two cables that the Post says U.S. diplomats at the American Embassy in Beijing sent to the department after U.S. scientists had made multiple visits to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The institute reportedly conducted studies on strains of coronavirus that originated from bats, the same kind of strain that is believed to have caused the global pandemic.
The Hill

 

As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded across the country, closing many government offices in the name of social distancing, cities and counties have been forced to find new ways to continue to serve their citizens. What they’ve been able to accomplish — and how quickly they’ve been able to accomplish it — has been nothing less than spectacular. In less than three days, for example, Pittsburgh created an internal voice-over-IP IT service desk to support the city’s employees while at the same time moving all of the service-desk employees to their own homes. It took about four days for Miami to test and then conduct a city commission meeting using video-conferencing software. For years, Baltimore employees pressed the city to allow electronic signatures on contracts. Today, electronic signatures are a reality, a change that will help reduce contracting times by days if not weeks. Port St. Lucie, Fla., has long provided new employees with a full-day, in-person orientation and onboarding class. Since April 6, however, a virtual, online orientation program has allowed new hires to hit the ground running — or in this case, hit the ground running by working at home.  Success stories like these will be talked about for years. At some point, however, as the coronavirus pandemic subsides, we’ll begin hearing calls to “get back to normal,” with government returning to its traditional ways of doing business. Government innovators must respond with a forceful no. We should take this opportunity to permanently transform our services, transactions and regulatory systems.
Brian Elms, Governing