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"The General Assembly didn’t want to 'burden' the Tourism Council with the formalities a public body requires — the Freedom of Information Act, records retention, open meeting requirements and the like."
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[The Williamsburg area] Tourism Council members don’t know if the entity, which is funded entirely by public money, is considered a public body. While open-government experts dispute the suggestion the Tourism Council isn’t a public body, the uncertainty throws into question whether the Tourism Council is legally subject to the requirements that definition entails, such as holding open meetings and fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests. As the Tourism Council awaits a legal opinion from the state’s Division of Legislative Services to settle the issue, its membership expressed split opinions on whether the body should be legally subject to public scrutiny. But according to the Tourism Council’s legal counsel, transparency may not be a requirement. The intent of the legislation that created the Tourism Council, according to the body’s legal counsel Greg Davis, appears to exempt the organization from Freedom of Information Act requests and a requirement to hold public meetings. The General Assembly didn’t want to “burden” the Tourism Council with the formalities a public body requires — the Freedom of Information Act, records retention, open meeting requirements and the like, Davis said.
The Virginia Gazette
Franklin County and its top building official have settled a former employee’s sexual harassment lawsuit days before a jury trial that could have revealed a prior allegation against the official. Franklin County and its top building official have settled a former employee’s sexual harassment lawsuit days before a jury trial that could have revealed a prior allegation against the official.
The Roanoke Times
Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks. Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them. A two-year investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic and the Center for Public Integrity reveals for the first time the extent to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures using model legislation. USA TODAY and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in the past eight years, and more than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law. The investigation examined nearly 1 million bills in all 50 states and Congress using a computer algorithm developed to detect similarities in language.
The News Leader
Virginia ranked fourth in the country for passing copycat model bills. USA TODAY hasn’t released a state-by-state breakdown of which bills were passed here. But it does say legislation put forward by industry groups was particularly common compared to bills advanced by conservative or liberal groups.
WCVE
For the first time since the McDonnell gifts scandal, Virginia lawmakers reported an increase in the gifts and paid travel they accepted in 2018, according to data published Friday by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Despite the spike, the amounts are still far lower than in the pre-McDonnell era, when lawmakers routinely took lobbyist-paid trips to Washington Redskins games, hunting properties in Canada or the Masters golf tournament. The total value of gifts and paid conferences lawmakers had reported had dropped each year since 2013, falling to $77,000 in 2017 before rising to $132,000 in 2018, according to VPAP, which published data lawmakers are required to provide once a year in economic interest statements.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Confusion has arisen over whether or not the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority board ever formally approved the sale of a piece of land that it bought for $577,000 but was sold for $10, according to a deed. The 3.5-acre parcel at the end of Royal Lane was sold by the EDA to Cornerstone L.P. on Nov. 28, 2018, for $10. It was supposed to be the site of a workforce housing complex on which construction has yet to begin. The board in 2017 approved the purchase of the land for $445,000 from former director Jennifer McDonald’s aunt and uncle after previously being told it would be gifted to the EDA. An EDA civil lawsuit alleges that McDonald continuously said the Winchester-based construction company, the Aikens Group, would reimburse the EDA for the purchase. Cornerstone L.P. is an entity of the Aikens Group. No company representatives have responded to three phone inquiries.
Northern Virginia Daily
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