Transparency News 6/26/19

Wednesday
June 26, 2019

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state & local news stories

The city of Virginia Beach may soon commission an independent investigation into the mass shooting that claimed 12 lives last month, but the findings might not come out quickly enough for some victims’ families, state lawmakers and city officials said. Calls have been mounting for the immediate release of more details.Concerns have been raised about Craddock’s behavior before the shooting as well as the police response to the massacre.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Senate Finance Committee wants to take a deeper look at Virginia’s newly transformed information technology agency as it reorganizes its management and attempts to resolve problems in accurate billing for services to state government agencies. Co-Chairman Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, asked Tuesday for an all-day meeting with staff at the Virginia Information Technologies Agency and members of a Finance subcommittee to better understand how the agency is resolving problems it encounters in a new system for delivering IT services to more than 56,000 state employees. The IT retreat would be conducted by the Capital Outlay and General Government Subcommittee, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, who also is co-chairman of the full committee.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Manassas City Council is looking for city residents interested in serving as an interim council member after Vice Mayor Ken Elston announced in May he is resigning this summer, effective July 31.  The council unanimously voted to direct the city attorney to file paperwork with the Prince William County Circuit Court to order a special election for Tuesday, Nov. 5. The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Elston’s four-year term, which expires December 31, 2022, said City Manager Patrick Pate. City council plans to hold a public interview to speak with applicantsfor the interim council position, Pate said. The council plans to hold the meeting on July 25, but may also hold a meeting on July 26, depending on the number of applicants, Pate said. 
InsideNoVa

editorials & columns

” The strength of good government lies in openness and transparency, not shielding and opacity.”

The ruling [allowing data on businesses participating in the government’s food assistance program to be withheld] is an affront to open records laws and an insult to the American public, who should be able to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent. The Argus Leader doesn’t stand alone in its quest to obtain public information. The Richmond Times-Dispatch and other media outlets across the country battle for open records every day. The strength of good government lies in openness and transparency, not shielding and opacity.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

No one owns the law, because the law belongs to everyone. It’s a principle that seems so obvious that most people wouldn’t give it a second thought. But that’s what is at issue in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, a case about whether the State of Georgia can assert copyright in its annotated state code. This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in its next term. Americans deserve free and easy access to public records of all kinds, including court documents. But access to the law is the most important of all: Democracy depends on it. Keeping the law free of copyright is the first step.  Yet the law is in disarray on the topic.
The New York Times