Staffers in Richmond’s Department of Finance were required to work overtime during weekday evenings and on weekends for nearly three months, according to email correspondence obtained by The Times-Dispatch. Mira Signer, a spokesperson for Mayor Danny Avula, said employees had collectively worked 4,424 overtime hours in that span. She referred The Times-Dispatch to a March 26 report prepared for City Council’s government operations standing committee, which detailed high vacancy rates and turnover within the department. In a Jan. 21 email, John Leybold, a revenue manager for the finance department, informed staff that they’d be on mandatory overtime from Jan. 20 to April 15 — and expected to work weekends — as the department raced to set up its online portal for business, professional and occupation license tax collection by the “critical project deadline.”

I don’t trust Government officials who use the word “transparency,” it reminds me of people who answer a question with “to be honest.” Similarly, when a government official says, “in the interest of transparency,” I become suspicious. The expression usually occurs when a government official has been caught not being transparent and announces they are about to tell you a new version of the story, or as we refer to it, they attempt to “spin” it, so it becomes more palatable for the public. Considering recent events at City Hall, much of the outrage was initiated when a sitting council member, who was ejected from a public meeting while he was speaking, released 15 months of credit card statements of charges to the city totaling more than $1.4 million. We assumed the charges were made by city employees, but have since learned at least one was not. We would be remiss if we didn’t add that the council member obtained those records only after making a formal FOIA (Virginia Freedom of Information Act) request and then being charged nearly $100 for the information.

On May 28, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey held a press conference where he announced a series of reforms for the state’s child welfare system. These reforms, he said, are intended to increase transparency, accountability and outcomes for children in the state’s care. According to Morrisey, the reforms stem from the recent statewide Department of Human Services (DoHS) Child Welfare Listening Tour, held from May 12 to May 22, where numerous caregivers, providers, case workers and more were able to discuss the best ways to strengthen West Virginia’s child welfare system. The first change, Morrisey said, concerns the previous stonewalling and ignoring of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by the previous administration. In particular, Morrisey cited a FOIA request seeking information on child fatalities. “There was no excuse to keep this information shielded from the public,” Morrisey stated. “No excuse. We’re going to be different. We’re gonna be upfront with the people of West Virginia and we’re gonna be as transparent as the law possibly allows.”