The Warren County Board of Supervisors and Samuels Public Library are at odds over a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests issued by supervisors in April. Supervisors authorized County Administrator Edwin Daley to make nine FOIA requests on behalf of the Board of Supervisors and to pay fees associated with the requests from county funds. In a May 7 letter to Daley, Samuels’ Library Director Erin Rooney cited Virginia FOIA law that says that public records shall be open to Virginia residents and media outlets with circulation in the state. Rooney wrote that as “a component part of the sovereign,” Warren County is not entitled to a FOIA response. She noted that should the same request be filed by an individual, the cost is estimated to be $10,487.60. In a press release issued Thursday, Jerome “Jay” Butler, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, expressed frustration with the library’s response, saying it “contradicts its public commitment to transparency.” Issued by supervisors Butler, John Stanmeyer, Vicky Cook and Richard Jamieson, the press release says the information “rightfully belongs in the public domain.” It also takes issue with the costs Rooney cited in her response. “Virginia FOIA law explicitly limits charges to ‘actual costs’ and requires public bodies to provide records at the ‘lowest possible cost.’ The library’s $100 per hour estimate appears designed to discourage legitimate inquiry rather than to recover actual costs as permitted by law,” the press release says.

Disagreement surrounding the contention that a Southampton County School Board member had not taken their oath of office led to the walkout of three board members at the board’s May 12 meeting, resulting in the loss of a quorum. The meeting proceeded, but the board was not able to take action on any items. School Board Member Dr. Jennifer Tindle made a statement near the outset of the meeting indicating that Board Member Greg Scott had not taken his oath of office. Tindle asked Board Chair Dr. Deborah Goodwyn to ask Scott to be excused. Goodwyn said she would not do so until she could verify the information provided. This prompted the departure that night of Tindle, followed by Board Member Natalie Dever King and Board Member Brandon Rodgers, dropping the number of members present from the nine-member board to four.

We now know the nature of the assault and battery charge that was threatened last week by a Hopewell city councilor against Hopewell’s city attorney and officially served this week. City Attorney Anthony Bessette was formally charged May 19 on one count of assault and battery by Ward 7 Councilor Dominic Holloway during last week’s tension-filled City Council meeting. The brief confrontation happened as a group calling itself the Virginia Party of Socialism & Liberation was being escorted from the May 13 meeting after protesting the May 1 firings of City Manager Dr. Concetta Manker and City Clerk Brittani Williams. As the group was leaving, Holloway – who had stood and asked for a “point of personal privilege” at the dais – said he was reaching for the button to unmute his microphone when Bessette reached over and placed his hand on Holloway’s arm. That prompted Holloway to shout, “Don’t touch me, sir” and allege he was just assaulted. The short confrontation was captured on the council’s livestream feed and on video taken by The Progress-Index.

Where our readers were prodding me was to try to find out if UVA really was surprised at the change of direction from the Trump administration [with regard to the Federal Executive Institute], with the sneaking suspicion being that, no, the folks there weren’t surprised, and that they were still actively lobbying the Trumpers even as they were voicing support publicly for the local school system. The response back, today, from Faith Hill, a 2006 UVA alum who serves as the FOIA officer and e-discovery manager for the Office of the University Counsel: “I am reaching out regarding your recent FOIA request concerning FEI email communications. Our preliminary review has identified at least 14 custodians with potentially responsive records. An initial keyword search returned over 6,000 results, and we estimate that collecting and reviewing these materials would require more than 100 staff hours. “Given the scope of the request, the associated costs are expected to be in the thousands of dollars. Would you like to consider narrowing or amending your request?” Short answer: no, I’m not going to commit “thousands of dollars” to this. But even not going that route, man, so, there are 6,000 emails involving 14 people at UVA discussing the Federal Executive Institute property since it came on the market three months ago? That’s a lot of back and forth about a property they supposedly didn’t even want, if you ask me.