Transparency News 5/6/15

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

State and Local Stories


Halifax County Supervisors came no closer to reaching any resolution to the stalemate that has plagued them for the past four months on electing a permanent chairman, but Monday night the citizens let them know in no uncertain terms they are fed up with the board’s dysfunctionality. At the conclusion of the meeting, the public had their say on the county airing its dirty laundry in the public. Speaking first was David Smith who called out Nunn, Bank, Claiborne and Pannell for electing “to drag out the county’s dirty laundry” through the News & Record. He gave an ultimatum to the board members telling them they had until May 15 to elect a chairman, and if they had not done so, he plans to initiate a recall on May 16 to have each of them removed from their respective positions as supervisors. “I am not going to wait until November to put my vote in,” he said. An emotional Cheryl Watts of Halifax echoed Smith saying “this spectacle has to end and end now.
Gazette-Virginian

Many measures are in place at the Martinsville Police Department to ensure that officers are held accountable for their actions and its operations are transparent to the community, according to Police Chief Sean Dunn. “We want your trust,” Dunn told about 100 people who attended the first ‘Police Community Summit’ Tuesday night at Martinsville High School. “We know we’ve got to earn it, and we’re going to earn it.” The summit was aimed at building trust among city residents and police by informing people about what is happening in the department. Dunn, who marked his first anniversary with the department on Tuesday, has said the department seems to have a good relationship with residents, but there always is room for improvement in any relationship.
Martinsville Bulletin

Judging from telephone conversations with several Suffolk City Council members on Tuesday, the body is likely to begin discussing plans for replacing departing City Manager Selena Cuffee-Glenn during Wednesday’s council meeting. If council follows the thinking of the three who answered the phone or responded to messages left Tuesday, that discussion will take place behind closed doors, a move that could be in contravention of state open meetings laws. “I’m sure we’ll talk about it in closed session,” Councilman Mike Duman said Tuesday. “But other than that, I haven’t spoken to anybody.” Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act allows closed-door discussions about specific employees, but it offers no exception to the rule of public business taking place in public for the purposes of general discussions about positions.
Suffolk News-Herald


National Stories
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Deficiencies in Memphis’ public records process stem from inefficient processes, a lack of understanding of open records laws by citizens and city employees, and “a growing distrust between the public records staff at various levels of city government and the local media,” according to a new report. In 2009, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton issued an executive order to make city government more transparent, "based on the understanding that the city of Memphis belongs to the public and to achieve the open government we desire and the public deserves."  In March, Wharton asked Mike Carpenter, executive director of the Plough Foundation, to conduct an independent study of the city’s public records system. In an April 30 letter to the mayor, Carpenter said that “a healthy tension between government and the media is expected and beneficial. However, when that ‘push and pull’ becomes an authentic tug of war, citizens and the processes suffer.” Carpenter’s report lays out several recommendations based on interviews with city staff, local news reporters and editors (including some from the Memphis Flyer), Shelby County staff, and some non-profit organizations focused on transparency in government. 
Memphis Flyer

Penalties levied by the Federal Election Commission for campaign finance violations have plummeted to record lows even as political spending has soared, according to newly released data from the agency. The statistics underscore the sharp decline in enforcement at the commission, which has come under fresh scrutiny because of partisan gridlock. By law, each party has three commissioners, resulting in recent years in a 3-to-3 vote on virtually any significant issue. Republicans on the commission say they believe the drop in fines shows that campaigns are generally following the law as a result of better training and compliance programs. Democrats say it is a troubling sign of lax enforcement.
New York Times

Transportation departments spent more than $1 billion since last October plowing highways, salting roads and coping with winter weather, according to a new survey. The tally of 23 states, conducted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), put the total cost at more than $1.13 billion. The full costs are higher, as several snowy states did not provide figures for the survey. This the first year that AASHTO conducted the survey. The most recent winter was milder in much of the United States than the one before, but the impact varied by region.
Governing

A New York Times story published Tuesday morning documenting New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s subway angst was made possible by an errant email sent to a reporter from the paper. Michael Grynbaum explains how the “stern, bullet-pointed missive” found its way to a Times reporter’s inbox. Writing for New York, Jessica Roy raises the possibility that the wayward gripe wasn’t sent by accident at all, but instead a clever ploy to play up the mayor’s everyman sensibilities.
Poynter


Editorials/Columns

Ms. Geller's determined effort to demean Islam and insult its adherents was answered in violence. That may seem like a predictable result. To some, it might even have the whiff of justice. But if we truly believe that "freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth," as Justice Brandeis wrote nearly a century ago, then we should be resolute in the defense of Ms. Geller and events like this, no matter how distasteful we believe them to be.
Daily Press

"We live in a country where the First Amendment is one of the paramount promises of this nation," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. "That provides people the ability to speak out to say what they want. Just as people draw cartoons mocking the governor, people may draw cartoons mocking others." He’s right, of course. And, yes, sometimes fidelity to the First Amendment necessitates standing up for beliefs that other people find offensive. Still, we wish that responsibility and respect for others were more often paired with the exercise of liberty. In these days and times, that common-sense form of guidance often seems sadly lacking.    
Daily Progress

How many more millions of dollars are being paid to how many more firms, including nonprofits, for work that could be performed in-house by city workers? Who is monitoring the contracts and the performance to see that the city’s actual needs are met? Transparency and accountability should be the watchwords of this and subsequent city administrations. What we don’t need, particularly in these critical economic times, is for precious city resources to be misdirected by poor decision-making, or worse, cronyism. We call on Mayor Jones and City Council to act like the money they are allocating is coming out of their own pockets because for them, as well as the rest of us taxpayers, it is.
Richmond Free Press