Transparency News, 5/25/21

The public will get its first glimpse of a negotiated reversion agreement between Henry County and Martinsville when the elected officials from both meet Wednesday evening. The meeting between the Henry County Board of Supervisors and Martinsville City Council will be held at 6 p.m. at New College Institute. City Council members will be afforded the opportunity to comment first, followed by comments from members of the Board of Supervisors. There will then be “consideration” of the memorandum by Council and the Board of Supervisors, and the meeting will be adjourned. The exclusion of the public from this process is allowed by state code, and both governments took full advantage of the privacy the law provides in discussing their differences that Monday describes are “of a legal nature.”
Martinsville Bulletin

Wise County and Pound officials are awaiting a report after a Fairfax County police officer completed an inventory of the former Pound police department’s evidence room over the weekend. Town Manager Drew Mullins confirmed Monday that the evidence specialist worked Friday and Saturday to finish the inventory following a May 19 court order to transfer the room key from former Police Chief Tony Baker to a Virginia-certified law enforcement officer. The evidence room situation arose in April after town council voted to put Baker and part-time police officer Tim McAfee on furlough while considering whether to keep the department or depend on the Wise County Sheriff’s Department for policing.
Times News

A case between former Petersburg city attorney Joseph Preston and Petersburg City Council is progressing to a jury trial after a federal judge ruled that there are valid questions over the “cause” used to terminate him. On March 26, the court said that Preston could continue his case for Breach of Contract, and could bring his case for severance before a jury. The court also issued three summary judgements that ended two other claims against Petersburg, and one defamation claim against WTVR for its report on the meeting where he was fired in Sept. 2018. Preston’s case argued that city council engaged in Defamation by passing the two motions to end his tenure with the city. His suit claimed that the second city council motion barring him from reentering city hall without a police escort “inferred, implied, implicated or insinuated false statements of facts that [Preston] is mentally unstable, would become violent upon learning of his termination … and cannot be trusted as a law-abiding citizen.” 
The Progress-Index

 

Each state has laws governing public access to governmental records. These laws are sometimes known as open records laws, public records laws, or FOIA laws after the federal Freedom of Information Act. These FOIA laws define the procedures that people can use to obtain access to these records. This page contains information related to the time limits within which a public body must respond to a FOIA request as mandated by the laws in each state.
BallotPedia

Conservative activist group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Monday demanding police and medical examiner investigations into the death of Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer during the Jan. 6 riot.
The lawsuit against the Washington, D.C., government seeks all investigative reports, photographs, witness statements, dispatch logs, ballistics and officials’ electronic communications regarding the investigation into Babbitt’s death.
Judicial Watch said it filed a FOIA request for the records on April 9, but has yet to receive a response.
The Washington Times

The Justice Department on Monday released more of a key legal memo concluding that former President Donald Trump did not commit obstruction of justice through his alleged attempts to thwart federal investigations, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia.  However, top Justice officials filed an appeal to try to keep the majority of that nine-page legal opinion under wraps, despite a judge’s order earlier this month requiring that the legal memo be released in its entirety.
Politico

Minnesota’s largest law enforcement agencies are ramping use of drones that can capture information on criminals and civilians alike, and a new state law is ensuring the public knows more than ever about their usage. The law mandates that agencies submit an annual report on drone usage, costs and if a search warrant was obtained for a flight. The law also requires law enforcement agencies to publish their drone policies on their websites.
Governing
 

TO SOME, Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act must seem more like the Freedom to Gouge Act. Whether from a lack of staffing, resistance to sharing information or some other reason, Virginians have faced far too many roadblocks in their quest for information that has been legally theirs for more than half a century. Whatever the final product, something needs to be done. FOIA was designed to provide an open window into the machinations of our public institutions. Excessive fees keep the blinds drawn shut.
The Free Lance-Star

Billy Robinson Jr., the brilliant, late legislator-attorney, was the worst abuser of a state law that allows repeated delays if court dates conflict with time periods surrounding General Assembly sessions and committee meetings. News stories on the Norfolk Democrat — chronicling complaints from crime victims and prosecutors in cases Robinson handled — were plentiful during his lifetime. Educators, business owners and others in the Assembly don’t receive such an exemption for their day jobs. Only attorneys do. Some 28 percent of the state delegates and senators, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, were attorneys in 2021.  I don’t want to single out the attorneys named here. It’s sometimes difficult, however, to find out who uses the specific code section, and who avoids making a farce of it. Since lawyers can practice in several different jurisdictions, you’d have to go through court records in many different localities to fully investigate. Reporters often learn about attorneys who repeatedly use the excuse when prosecutors or affected parties complain about the delays.  Obviously, the courts should make it simpler to search their records and databases. 
Roger Chesley, Virginia Mercury