After already spending millions, Virginia’s Department of Social Services shut down a two-year long IT project to overhaul the state’s outdated child support enforcement system. … State officials are now trying to figure out what to do with the system, which in 1998 Virginia’s nonpartisan legislative watchdog described as “antiquated” and unable to perform vital functions. Since a second critical JLARC report, published in 2000, there’s no readily available documentation showing the state tried to address ongoing issues until 2023. … Virginia procurement records show purchases totaling more than $50 million for CGI’s work on the project before halting it. According to state records, the total estimated value of all of the project’s contracts is over $102 million but a DSS spokesperson said that figure doesn’t represent total expenses. Under state law, that price tag designates it a “high-risk contract.” Despite multiple requests from VPM News for information, DSS has not confirmed a total amount of money spent on the initiative.

Blackstone Town Council last week adopted a settlement agreement, ending Councilman Chris Page’s FOIA lawsuit against the Town, DBI, Councilman Jake Allman, and DBI Exec. Director Sallie Glenn. After a closed session last Monday night, June 15th, Councilman Allman moved to approve the four-page document, Carolyn Williams seconded, and the motion carried, 5-1. Councilman Wes Gormus, who requested a roll call, emphatically voted ‘No.’ Page attended the evening’s regular meeting but excused himself from the closed session and wasn’t present for the vote. … The settlement agreement requires DBI to maintain records relating to activities performed on behalf of the Town involving recommendations and other actions concerning signage in the Historic Downtown Business District — as well as coordination, scheduling, and use of the Town Square and other Town-owned public places. … Page celebrated the settlement last Tuesday on Facebook, declaring that the agreement “forces Downtown Blackstone, Inc. (DBI) to finally step into the light when handling Town business. … “Spin Doctor,” Ms. Glenn wrote on Page’s public post. “As usual, you have completely distorted the facts. It must be exhausting being you…November can’t get here fast enough.”

The Chesapeake Hospital Authority terminated Chesapeake Regional Healthcare CEO and President Reese Jackson without cause and agreed to give him an undisclosed severance, according to documentation obtained by The Virginian-Pilot. The health care system announced Jackson’s departure June 1. He held the position since 2016. At the time, the authority declined to share details about his departure. But a copy of draft minutes from a May 29 meeting show the authority met in closed session before unanimously voting to terminate Jackson immediately without cause. A copy of that agenda shows the board met for “legal consultation” and “board discussion” in an executive session. The vote to terminate followed. An authority spokesperson initially told The Pilot that no votes or documents approved at the meeting could be provided as “such documents do not exist.” … The authority has since declined multiple requests from The Pilot to provide a copy of the severance agreement, citing Virginia state code on exempting “contracts settling public employee employment disputes held confidential as personnel records.” … The Pilot then asked for the amount paid or agreed to be paid to Jackson through the severance agreement. Judith Harris, the hospital’s chief legal officer, said there are no records to produce in response as “no severance or other payments have been agreed to be paid.”

The separation between Albemarle County Public Schools and former Superintendent Matt Haas is complete. Haas, who resigned at the request of the School Board amid two child sex crime scandals, will continue to receive severance pay and benefits through June 2027 totaling nearly $258,000. “Specifically, Haas will continue to receive his regular pay and current benefits through June 2027,” the school division said in a Saturday statement, outside of the division’s normal operating hours. The school division was required to pay his salary and benefits for the month that the separation took place and for an additional 10 months, according to his employment contract, which was obtained by The Daily Progress. … Other nonfinancial provisions in the agreement include a nondisparagement clause, meaning that Haas cannot make “any statement in any forum or medium that disparages the School Board, Albemarle County Public Schools or its staff, services or operations.” The same clause specifies that the School Board cannot “disparage Dr. Haas in any forum and will not make statements (by oral, written or electronic means) that tarnish his personal and/or professional reputation.”

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives the public the right to access records from any federal agency, subject to nine limited exemptions. Exemption 7 allows the Government to withhold certain “records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes.” But the courts of appeals have disagreed on how broadly to interpret this exemption. Several circuits have adopted a “per se” rule that any documents compiled by a law enforcement agency are automatically compiled for law enforcement purposes—no further analysis required. In those circuits, an FBI agent could even admit that he compiled a dossier to sell to a private party, to intimidate or bully, or for some other non-law enforcement purpose—and Exemption 7 would still apply. But this approach is incompatible with the text of FOIA. By its plain terms, Exemption 7 asks about the “purpose” for which specific records were compiled—not the nature of the agency that compiled them. That is why some circuits have rejected this per se rule, instead asking agencies to demonstrate that the particular documents at issue were compiled for a legitimate law enforcement purpose, not just by a law enforcement agency. Now the Supreme Court has a chance to resolve this circuit split and vindicate the plain text of FOIA. This week, the Court will meet and decide whether to take the case of Nathaniel Buckley.