Transparency News 6/27/19

Thursday
June 27, 2019

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state & local news stories

Winchester tabled proposed rules that would have authorized the city manager to open and read all correspondence sent to the mayor and that the city manager be copied on all citizen requests submitted to council members.

Many changes to Virginia's Freedom of Information go into effect Monday, July 1. VCOG has incorporated them into its full-text version of FOIA. Preview the changes here.
(Note: Some sections have been amended by multiple bills and will have to be reconciled. VCOG has made note of those sections and will post the official Code of Virginia version of them on July 1.)

After a failed, last-ditch effort to keep the documents secret, the Stoney administration complied with a court order to produce the records [for a section of the Sliseum redevelopment plans the entity submitted to the city outlining its legal structure and project team] late last week. They reveal new details about NH District’s legal structure, as well as its business ties, offering a clearer picture of who is working on what will be the biggest economic development deal in Richmond’s history — if the City Council approves it. Other documents the city released in response to Goldman’s case lay out a slew of financial institutions, architecture outfits, contractors, consultants, engineers and other firms working with NH District. When Stoney will unveil the full proposal is unclear. Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan did not answer questions Wednesday regarding what issues remain unresolved or when the mayor intends to submit the plans to the council.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

It’s called a ransomware attack — a computer hacker breaks into a system, steals the data inside and then offers to give it back for a price. But it’s not just people and businesses that are getting hit. The trendy new targets are city halls, school boards and police departments throughout the country. Danville and Pittsylvania County officials, fearing such an attack could strike locally, say they do what they can to prevent it. “The city takes the threat of cybercrime extremely serious and we have numerous measures in place to mitigate this risk,” said Inez Rodenburg, director of information technology with the city of Danville. Rodenburg, however, would not reveal what the city does to reduce the likelihood of a malware attack. “Unfortunately the city is unable to disclose any internal policies, strategies or practices as it relates to cybersecurity as this would target the city and put us at risk,” she said.
Register & Bee

A controversial set of bylaws intended to govern Winchester City Council procedures and the conduct of its members has been tabled once again. Councilor Corey Sullivan led the opposition by citing several proposed rules that he said were inappropriate. Those included prohibitions on council members sharing information with the media regarding discussions held during executive sessions, the authorization of the city manager to open and read all correspondence sent to the mayor, and a rule that the city manager be copied on all citizen requests submitted to council members. The draft bylaws were also criticized for advising councilors to direct all questions for city staff to the city manager, and for designating the council president, city manager and a person selected by the city manager to be the only official spokespersons for Winchester.
The Winchester Star

stories of national interest

A new EPA rule would allow political appointees to review and withhold documents requested by the public under the Freedom of Information Act.  The final rule, published Wednesday in the Federal Register, was signed by EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on June 14 and takes effect July 25. It was not preceded by a public comment period. It comes one week after a similar policy was reported by CQ Roll Call  at the Department of the Interior.  Wheeler and political appointees will be able to “issue final determinations whether to release or withhold a record or a portion of a record on the basis of responsiveness or under one or more exemptions under the FOIA, and to issue ‘no records’ responses.” “The unresponsive records aspect is particularly troubling,” said Sean Moulton, a senior policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight. “When records are deemed unresponsive, the requestor isn’t even informed that they exist. And so it’s a very important authority to be able to say which records are responsive or not.”
Roll Call

Robert Freeman, the longtime head of a New York committee that fought for government transparency, was fired late Monday amid an investigation that found he behaved in a "sexually inappropriate manner" toward a female reporter earlier this month and had sexually explicit photos on his work computer. Investigators from the state Inspector General's Office also said Freeman had a "series of sexually suggestive email messages and photographic images" on his computer during exchanges with another woman he may have met last year at Syracuse University, according to a letter of the preliminary findings Monday obtained by the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau. Freeman, 72, helped create the pioneering state Committee on Open Government in 1974 that was at the forefront of efforts to increase transparency in government and strengthen Freedom of Information laws, or FOIL. The letter said Freeman gave sworn testimony to the Inspector General and "admitted to many of the allegations, including meeting with and kissing the young reporter."
The Journal News

The mayor of a small town in Missouri resigned Monday after only a year in the position and is poised to move his family out of state “in a matter of days” as a result of ongoing threats on social media, he wrote. “I did not sign up for this mess. Or, possibly I did and just didn’t realize how mean people could be,” Wiedner said in the letter released by the mayor’s office. “Either way, it is no longer worth the battle.” A Lexington city clerk said the messages of hate against Wiedner began in March after the mayor made the decision to fire a well-liked administrator. 
Fox News

Attorneys for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press have filed a lawsuit on behalf of 100Reporters, a nonprofit investigative news organization, and its former journalist Douglas Gillison against the United States Department of State for failing to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. In December 2017, Gillison — who now reports for Agence France-Presse — and 100Reporters submitted two FOIA requests to the State Department for records related to the implementation of Leahy Laws, which prohibit the State Department from “providing training and other assistance to foreign security services that have committed gross violations of human rights.”
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

“When records are deemed unresponsive, the requestor isn’t even informed that they exist. And so it’s a very important authority to be able to say which records are responsive or not.”