Transparency News, 5/23/2022

Monday
May 23, 2022

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
Contact us at vcog@opengovva.org

state & local news stories

"If a librarian can just put anything they want in this library, we have big concerns with that."

State budget negotiators are so close to a deal that they’re telling fellow legislators to set aside June 1 as a possible date to return to the Capitol for a vote and urging them to wrap up haggling over any other bills held over from the regular session. But details on what’s in the compromise being hashed out by a handful of senators and delegates remain a closely guarded secret — much more than usual because the General Assembly is in a special session, with most legislators back home in their districts instead of Richmond, where the dealmaking is underway. While June 1 remains only a target date, negotiators have been spreading the word that they have essentially wrapped up their work and are merely waiting for House and Senate budget staffers to reconcile what’s been agreed to with dollars and cents in the plan, according to three people briefed on the status of budget talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
The Washington Post

Librarians have become the latest target of those looking to challenge books inside Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Last week, attorney and Del. Tim Anderson, (R-Virginia Beach) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking for the identity of the head librarian of each school where seven select books he believes can be found. He said all the books were brought to him by parents, concerned about the sexual content contained within. This comes after Anderson filed a suit demanding a judge ordered two of the books only be given to students with advanced parental consent. "If a librarian can just put anything they want in this library, we have big concerns with that," Anderson said. Anderson's FOIA asks for all documents related to the approval of books in VBCPS as well as how long they have been there and how many libraries they are located in.
WAVY

A former Fairfax County Public Schools bus driver reportedly slapped a student at Fort Belvoir, according to a Fairfax County court affidavit filed on May 4. An Army investigation for Fort Belvoir stated that there was probable cause to support allegations that the driver assaulted the student on March 16. According to a special agent, photos from a parent showed apparent bruising on the boy’s cheek and under his left eye. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division declined to provide further details, including whether any charges have been filed. However, it said its investigation was still “active,” as of Tuesday (May 17). Virginia banned schools from using corporal punishment in 1989, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether FCPS trains staff on the law. FCPS refused to answer questions about the incident or its policies. It confirmed that the driver is no longer an employee but didn’t provide any further context on why. The driver provided a statement to FCPS about the incident, but school officials have refused to release it in response to public records requests.
FFXnow

Two of Western Virginia’s longest-serving commonwealth’s attorneys have recently performed courtroom tasks they describe as among the hardest duties of their lengthy public careers. Still, they believe that serving as special prosecutors in cases that involved fatal encounters with police officers is a necessary part of keeping law enforcement accountable to the wider community. “Nobody’s perfect and even police officers make mistakes,” said Radford Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak, who last year was the special prosecutor after a Giles County motorcyclist died in an encounter with an officer from the Narrows Police Department. “And when they make the big mistakes, there has to be accountability. We’re just talking about life and death … democracy requires that there be a review.” Rehak did not get a conviction in the Giles County case. Nor did Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell, who last month prosecuted a Bristol police officer who fatally shot a man. But Caldwell said that the verdict wasn’t the point — that the important thing was for the case to be wrestled over in open court, with all the details laid out for the public to see.
The Roanoke Times

It’s not as hard as physically getting into town, but it’s certainly not easy for outsiders to find out what’s going on in Quantico. Why? The town’s official website, townofquantico.org, has been down for years. Getting into town isn’t easy because the Marine Corps controls all points of entry as access to town requires driving through the base. To get through the gate, you’ll likely need to pass a background check and obtain a visitors pass, although the visitors center is only operated at limited hours. The town office also operates only from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. However, a notice on the door says in-person services have been suspended since March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The town’s only online presence is through its Town of Quantico Facebook page. It has sporadically been used to post Zoom links for Town Council meetings and local notices or announcements.  Virginia code section 2.2-3707.C outlines three requirements for posting public notices of meetings. The law requires posting a notice on the official government website, if it has one; in “a prominent public location at which notices are regularly posted;” and at the office of the clerk or chief administrator. The statute doesn’t mention what a government must do if it has a website, but it is not operational. 
InsideNoVa

Last fall, most of Pound’s remaining business owners decided to stop paying taxes because the town’s finances are in chaos. Every town employee quit or was fired. The cashier was convicted of embezzling from the public account. When the police department disbanded, the local prosecutor dismissed all 31 pending criminal cases because evidence was so mishandled. Now Pound is literally facing a death sentence. After so much dysfunction, the General Assembly more than 350 miles away in Richmond has taken the unusual step of voting to revoke the town’s charter over the objections of its residents.  The move has shocked local government advocates around Virginia. “The things that have gone wrong in Pound — those same risks exist for every town,” said Steve Trivett, mayor of the town of Ashland in Hanover County. If the General Assembly can simply step in and make troublesome towns vanish, he said, “this could set a precedent …[of] short-circuiting the citizens right out of it. State lawmakers insist Pound is a special situation — so profoundly troubled that there is almost nothing left to save. But just in case, they pledged to reconsider the charter — set to expire Nov. 1, 2023 — if the town shows signs of getting its act back together. For Pound’s roughly 900 residents, that presents a dilemma: Take a stand, or let it go?
The Washington Post

 

editorials & columns

"If a newsperson of a legitimate news operation says, week after week, ‘We asked to speak to the person in charge,’ and every week, they said, ‘No, they will not speak to us,’ or they just ignore us, well there was a time when that had an impact."

Bill Fitzgerald and I have been friends for years. He’s the evening and night anchor for the newscasts of WTVR-TV in Richmond, the CBS affiliate in Virginia’s capital city. A lot of its coverage is of state and local government and politics. A thoughtful, seasoned and soft-spoken journalist not given to rants, Bill was frustrated by the same trend that chafes reporters and editors nationally. Why, he asked, won’t government officials and elected officeholders respond to questions about significant issues confronting Virginians? He didn’t have to specify what, specifically, he was referring to. I’ve watched him and WTVR end scores of stories about the serious, long-running dysfunctions of the Virginia Employment Commission with the notation that repeated calls requesting answers and interviews from VEC officials got no response. “I would never overstate the importance of one TV affiliate in one city in Virginia, but it just seems like it does not matter,” he said (the emphasis his). “If a newsperson of a legitimate news operation says, week after week, ‘We asked to speak to the person in charge,’ and every week, they said, ‘No, they will not speak to us,’ or they just ignore us, well there was a time when that had an impact.”
Bob Lewis, Virginia Mercury

Earlier this month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced a new policy aimed at propelling the return of state employees to in-person work. One of the core components of the revised Standard Telework Agreement is “Confidentiality and Information Security,” with two listed responsibilities for employees. They will: “apply approved safeguards, in accordance with agency policy, to protect agency or state records from unauthorized disclosure or damage, and will comply with all records and data privacy requirements set forth in state law, agency specific policies, and state policies”; and “conduct work at the alternate work location in compliance with all information security standards.” What will the governor and state lawmakers do to keep pace with evolving threats? The scope of such threats rarely meets the public eye, but it is a persistent reality for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. 
Richmond Times-Dispatch

One thing that people who want to ban books have in common is insisting they have no intention of banning books. They’re not book burners, you see, but rather courageous champions for children. They always have some other excuse, some alternative justification for their actions. But it’s there, clear as day. Their efforts are following two tracks. First, there is a push to remove these titles from the public schools. But the second effort, in the courts, is more sinister. They want local booksellers to restrict sales of the books to minors.
The Virginian-Pilot

The War on Books in Virginia has taken its most bizarre turn yet. A pair of Republican politicians waving the “parental rights” flag are expanding the battleground from publicly funded libraries to national bookstore chains. In response to a petition, a Virginia Beach Circuit Court judge has found probable cause that two books in the school district’s libraries are “obscene for unrestricted viewing by minors.” Virginia Beach attorney and state delegate Tim Anderson filed the petition on behalf of Tommy Altman, who is campaigning to be the Republican challenger against incumbent Democratic congresswoman Elaine Luria.
The Roanoke Times