Transparency News 5/15/15
Friday, May 15, 2015
State and Local Stories
Hampton's new school superintendent will be paid more than the current one, School Board chairwoman Martha Mugler disclosed a day after announcing the board's choice. Jeffery O. Smith will be paid $198,500 a year under his new four-year contract, Mugler said. The board did not disclose his pay or contract term when approving them Wednesday night. When a Daily Press reporter asked for a copy of the contract after Smith's appointment, school system spokeswoman Diana Gulotta said the paper would have to make what she described as a formal request. Mugler, the board chairwoman, said the spokeswoman did not have a copy of the contract Wednesday night when the Daily Press requested it. She said that School Board members did not have the contract in front of them when they voted to approve it. But, she said, board members had copies when they considered Smith's appointment in a closed-door session immediately before but had put the documents away.
Daily Press
Virginia State Police should investigate the deletion of more than 200 voice mails left on a Child Protective Services intake phone line, Augusta County Commonwealth’s Attorney A. Lee Ervin said Thursday. The agency, which is part of the Shenandoah Valley Department of Social Services, is required by law to "retain all records of reports of complaints made,” Ervin said. The News Leader’s investigative report on the deletion of voice mails prompted Ervin’s comments. "I do believe that (it) would be appropriate for the Virginia State Police to investigate this ... to determine if a crime has been committed, and if so, by whom," Ervin said. "(CPS has) a duty to investigate all complaints." Staunton Deputy City Manager Steve Rosenberg took the news organization to task for sensationalism, saying that it’s not possible to know what was in the voice mails since they were wiped from the CPS voice mail system.
News Leader
From city halls to the halls of Congress, elected officials trumpet the merits of government transparency. But, as the Winchester City Council recently learned during its discussion on ex parte communication, establishing a framework to foster transparency is easier said than done.
Winchester Star
National Stories
Imagine visiting Yellowstone this summer. You wake up before dawn to take a picture of the sunrise over the mists emanating from Yellowstone hot springs. A thunderhead towers above the rising sun, and the picture turns out beautifully. You submit the photo to a contest sponsored by the National Weather Service. Under a statute signed into law by the Wyoming governor this spring, you have just committed a crime and could face up to one year in prison. Wyoming doesn’t, of course, care about pictures of geysers or photo competitions. But photos are a type of data, and the new law makes it a crime to gather data about the condition of the environment across most of the state if you plan to share that data with the state or federal government. The reason? The state wants to conceal the fact that many of its streams are contaminated by E. coli bacteria, strains of which can cause serious health problems, even death.
Slate
"A court addressing your question would likely weigh the need for the identification requirement as a security measure against the public's right of access guaranteed under the Act. Absent direct language from the Legislature prohibiting identification requirements, a court is unlikely to conclude as a matter of law that the Act prohibits a governmental body from holding open meetings at a location that requires the presentation of government-issued photo identification for admittance."
Texas Attorney General
At a recent public finance conference at Indiana University, I found myself commiserating with a researcher who was muddling through public pension data. Governments file much of the data he needs in annual reports in PDF format. We joked about how, in such predicaments, the “Ctrl F” keyboard shortcut to find specific information in a 150-page file quickly becomes your best friend. But that only helps so much. "Nothing is standardized," the researcher complained. Some PDFs, for example, aren’t readable and the Ctrl F trick doesn’t work. Or the information you are looking for may come in table form in some reports and paragraph form in others, which makes it difficult for computer programs that “read” PDF documents for data to get all the numbers right. In short, combing through these reports is extremely labor intensive and about as enjoyable as wearing wool on a hot day.
Governing
Editorials/Columns
CNN’s Chris Cuomo said on Twitter earlier this month, “Hate speech is excluded from protection. Don’t just say you love the Constitution. Read it.” [Tweet edited only for proper capitalization and punctuation.] He’s wrong, of course. Even if he was merely opining that hate speech should be excluded from constitutional protection, he’s still wrong. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” No qualifications are included. The Constitution says Congress can’t create any law abridging freedom of speech, and that’s that. Even the apparent exceptions—not shouting “fire” in a crowded theater or threatening to harm another person—are more about thwarting the intent to inflict physical harm upon others and less about “you can’t say that.”
Herald-Progress
Whose cameras are they anyway? I’m talking about body cams – a little bigger than a cigarette – that Chesapeake police officers clip to their uniforms each day. The public ponied up more than $500,000 for the state-of-the-art Taser Axon Flex cams worn by on-duty Chesapeake cops. So you’d expect that the public has a right to see what these cams record when there’s a controversial arrest. Yet city officials refuse to release footage of an incident caught on camera more than a year ago. It led to an expensive legal settlement with a woman who claimed she was roughed up and illegally arrested in her home by two Chesapeake cops. Pilot reporter Scott Daugherty asked to see the body-cam videos several times. On each occasion, he was met with polite but firm resistance by police officials who claimed that the public was not entitled to view evidence in a criminal or administrative investigation. Privacy concerns were also cited. Nonsense. The criminal investigation is over. So, presumably, is the internal probe. It’s time for Chesapeake to come clean about the incident.
Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot
Young people are disaffected with the political process and lack any interest in running for office, a new book by Jennifer Lawless of American University and Richard Fox of Loyola Marymount University demonstrates. Yet the book itself perhaps unintentionally underscores one of the key reasons why: We know too much about our politicians. One problem goes undiscussed by Lawless and Fox, and yet it is illuminated in their book by the juxtaposition of their positive commentary about how John F. Kennedy inspired a generation of public servants and the chapter that they begin by recounting the scandalous trials and tribulations of politicians like John Edwards, Mark Sanford and David Vitter. Given what we know now about his personal life, do we really believe that Kennedy would have survived today’s media scrutiny, let alone been elected president? I doubt it. Young people aspire to be business executives much more than politicians, Lawless and Fox show, partly because politicians are seen as ineffective. But I suspect it’s also in part because, as the saying goes, no person is a hero to his valet. We’ve all become the informational equivalent of valets to our political leaders, and they no longer seem like heroes.
Peter Orszag, Times-Dispatch
The USA Freedom Act tries to strike a middle ground. It prohibits the NSA from engaging in the warrantless “bulk collection.” However, the phone companies typically hold onto those records for 18 months anyway and the government could still get a warrant if it needed to search them. At least this way, that information isn’t in the hands of Big Brother. (Just maybe Big Ma, if you’re old enough to remember Ma Bell, but presumably customers are already OK with that.) This has been described as either a “watered down” Patriot Act, a sensible compromise, or a continued infringement on Americans’ privacy. So who’s on whose side? It might take the NSA to keep track of the shifting coalitions.
Roanoke Times
State and Local Stories
Hampton's new school superintendent will be paid more than the current one, School Board chairwoman Martha Mugler disclosed a day after announcing the board's choice. Jeffery O. Smith will be paid $198,500 a year under his new four-year contract, Mugler said. The board did not disclose his pay or contract term when approving them Wednesday night. When a Daily Press reporter asked for a copy of the contract after Smith's appointment, school system spokeswoman Diana Gulotta said the paper would have to make what she described as a formal request. Mugler, the board chairwoman, said the spokeswoman did not have a copy of the contract Wednesday night when the Daily Press requested it. She said that School Board members did not have the contract in front of them when they voted to approve it. But, she said, board members had copies when they considered Smith's appointment in a closed-door session immediately before but had put the documents away.
Daily Press
Virginia State Police should investigate the deletion of more than 200 voice mails left on a Child Protective Services intake phone line, Augusta County Commonwealth’s Attorney A. Lee Ervin said Thursday. The agency, which is part of the Shenandoah Valley Department of Social Services, is required by law to "retain all records of reports of complaints made,” Ervin said. The News Leader’s investigative report on the deletion of voice mails prompted Ervin’s comments. "I do believe that (it) would be appropriate for the Virginia State Police to investigate this ... to determine if a crime has been committed, and if so, by whom," Ervin said. "(CPS has) a duty to investigate all complaints." Staunton Deputy City Manager Steve Rosenberg took the news organization to task for sensationalism, saying that it’s not possible to know what was in the voice mails since they were wiped from the CPS voice mail system.
News Leader
From city halls to the halls of Congress, elected officials trumpet the merits of government transparency. But, as the Winchester City Council recently learned during its discussion on ex parte communication, establishing a framework to foster transparency is easier said than done.
Winchester Star
National Stories
Imagine visiting Yellowstone this summer. You wake up before dawn to take a picture of the sunrise over the mists emanating from Yellowstone hot springs. A thunderhead towers above the rising sun, and the picture turns out beautifully. You submit the photo to a contest sponsored by the National Weather Service. Under a statute signed into law by the Wyoming governor this spring, you have just committed a crime and could face up to one year in prison. Wyoming doesn’t, of course, care about pictures of geysers or photo competitions. But photos are a type of data, and the new law makes it a crime to gather data about the condition of the environment across most of the state if you plan to share that data with the state or federal government. The reason? The state wants to conceal the fact that many of its streams are contaminated by E. coli bacteria, strains of which can cause serious health problems, even death.
Slate
"A court addressing your question would likely weigh the need for the identification requirement as a security measure against the public's right of access guaranteed under the Act. Absent direct language from the Legislature prohibiting identification requirements, a court is unlikely to conclude as a matter of law that the Act prohibits a governmental body from holding open meetings at a location that requires the presentation of government-issued photo identification for admittance."
Texas Attorney General
At a recent public finance conference at Indiana University, I found myself commiserating with a researcher who was muddling through public pension data. Governments file much of the data he needs in annual reports in PDF format. We joked about how, in such predicaments, the “Ctrl F” keyboard shortcut to find specific information in a 150-page file quickly becomes your best friend. But that only helps so much. "Nothing is standardized," the researcher complained. Some PDFs, for example, aren’t readable and the Ctrl F trick doesn’t work. Or the information you are looking for may come in table form in some reports and paragraph form in others, which makes it difficult for computer programs that “read” PDF documents for data to get all the numbers right. In short, combing through these reports is extremely labor intensive and about as enjoyable as wearing wool on a hot day.
Governing
Editorials/Columns
CNN’s Chris Cuomo said on Twitter earlier this month, “Hate speech is excluded from protection. Don’t just say you love the Constitution. Read it.” [Tweet edited only for proper capitalization and punctuation.] He’s wrong, of course. Even if he was merely opining that hate speech should be excluded from constitutional protection, he’s still wrong. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” No qualifications are included. The Constitution says Congress can’t create any law abridging freedom of speech, and that’s that. Even the apparent exceptions—not shouting “fire” in a crowded theater or threatening to harm another person—are more about thwarting the intent to inflict physical harm upon others and less about “you can’t say that.”
Herald-Progress
Whose cameras are they anyway? I’m talking about body cams – a little bigger than a cigarette – that Chesapeake police officers clip to their uniforms each day. The public ponied up more than $500,000 for the state-of-the-art Taser Axon Flex cams worn by on-duty Chesapeake cops. So you’d expect that the public has a right to see what these cams record when there’s a controversial arrest. Yet city officials refuse to release footage of an incident caught on camera more than a year ago. It led to an expensive legal settlement with a woman who claimed she was roughed up and illegally arrested in her home by two Chesapeake cops. Pilot reporter Scott Daugherty asked to see the body-cam videos several times. On each occasion, he was met with polite but firm resistance by police officials who claimed that the public was not entitled to view evidence in a criminal or administrative investigation. Privacy concerns were also cited. Nonsense. The criminal investigation is over. So, presumably, is the internal probe. It’s time for Chesapeake to come clean about the incident.
Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot
Young people are disaffected with the political process and lack any interest in running for office, a new book by Jennifer Lawless of American University and Richard Fox of Loyola Marymount University demonstrates. Yet the book itself perhaps unintentionally underscores one of the key reasons why: We know too much about our politicians. One problem goes undiscussed by Lawless and Fox, and yet it is illuminated in their book by the juxtaposition of their positive commentary about how John F. Kennedy inspired a generation of public servants and the chapter that they begin by recounting the scandalous trials and tribulations of politicians like John Edwards, Mark Sanford and David Vitter. Given what we know now about his personal life, do we really believe that Kennedy would have survived today’s media scrutiny, let alone been elected president? I doubt it. Young people aspire to be business executives much more than politicians, Lawless and Fox show, partly because politicians are seen as ineffective. But I suspect it’s also in part because, as the saying goes, no person is a hero to his valet. We’ve all become the informational equivalent of valets to our political leaders, and they no longer seem like heroes.
Peter Orszag, Times-Dispatch
The USA Freedom Act tries to strike a middle ground. It prohibits the NSA from engaging in the warrantless “bulk collection.” However, the phone companies typically hold onto those records for 18 months anyway and the government could still get a warrant if it needed to search them. At least this way, that information isn’t in the hands of Big Brother. (Just maybe Big Ma, if you’re old enough to remember Ma Bell, but presumably customers are already OK with that.) This has been described as either a “watered down” Patriot Act, a sensible compromise, or a continued infringement on Americans’ privacy. So who’s on whose side? It might take the NSA to keep track of the shifting coalitions.
Roanoke Times
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