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“It seems like every time we go into a closed session we get sued.”
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When the Northern Virginia Daily sent a Freedom of Information Act request seeking an email written by Blair Mitchell, a former county and Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority attorney, it was revealed that his emails were deleted before the state code allows. Mitchell retired in April 2016 and, according to the Library of Virginia’s records retention and disposition schedule, his emails should have been saved until the end of this year. According to the Library of Virginia’s records retention and disposition policy, its rules are enforced in the Virginia Public Records Act section of the state code. County Attorney Dan Whitten said over the phone that the emails were deleted Feb. 1, 2017. He said he is aware of the retention rules but that the deletion was done without his knowledge. He added that he is not sure how they were deleted, but assumed it was done remotely.
The Northern Virginia Daily
An agenda item on Monday requested by Rappahannock County Supervisor Ron Frazier called for BOS members to go into a “closed meeting” for an unnamed county employee performance discussion. A majority of supervisors declined. “It seems like every time we go into a closed session we get sued,” observed Stonewall-Hawthorne District Supervisor Chris Parrish, a defendant in Marian Bragg v Rappahannock Board of Supervisors, or commonly referred to in this specific case as Bragg 1. “I’m concerned that if you just jump into a closed session . . . this particular member may not even know we are talking about them, or they may not even be there when we speak about them, which would be opening ourselves up to anything from a grievance to a lawsuit,” said Hampton District Supervisor John Lesinski. At which point in a majority vote, the supervisors made it clear they were staying put where the public could see them.
Rappahannock News
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