Greene County is considering adding a new restriction on who can speak during public comment periods at Board of Supervisors’ meetings. The proposal to limit public comment to Greene County residents who can prove their place of residence comes hot on the heels of a board meeting earlier this month where officials fielded multiple complaints that residents of Charlottesville and other locales were stealing the spotlight from county residents. … County Administrator Cathy Schafrik would not say whether the proposed change to public comment was in direct response to complaints made at the Board of Supervisors’ July 14 meeting, where nine of the 26 speakers were from outside Greene County. … The board is reacting to “their constituents reaching out to them asking for changes,” Schafrik said in an email to The Daily Progress. “Some constituents have been requesting changes for years because they feel their voices have been diluted.”

A recent BizSense report that as many as four data center developments are in the works in Petersburg apparently came as news to the city’s mayor and other members of city council, some of whom called for better communication from city administrators in a meeting the same day the article was published. During the council’s regular monthly meeting last week, Councilman Charlie Cuthbert held up a printout of the BizSense article that ran that morning about the four data center projects in the city’s pipeline, stating that he was only aware of one of them – the Warrenton Group’s project at the former Collier Yard property that went through public hearings last year and in January. “It was in that article that I learned there are three (more) data center sites moving forward in Petersburg,” Cuthbert said, during the portion of the meeting reserved for council business or reports. … “Well, I think the administration needs to do a better job of informing city council and also informing the public what’s going on,” replied Cuthbert, who represents Ward 4. “We talk about transparency, and yet it’s like we’re in a cave with the lights out.”

Virginia State Police is conducting an active investigation related to the handling of personnel records within Shenandoah County Public Schools. State Police Public Relations Director Robin Lawson confirmed the investigation Monday after The Northern Virginia Daily asked whether the agency had examined the handling or removal of personnel records from the division. “I’ve just confirmed this is an active investigation,” Lawson wrote. “I hope to be able to share more information soon.” … The division did not describe the concerns that prompted the review or identify any employee whose conduct may be under examination. The school division said it has accounted for its personnel records and that the records are secure. … The Daily has filed a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request seeking the School Board’s initial request for assistance from State Police, communications concerning the location and custody of personnel records, and records supporting the division’s statements that its files are accounted for, secure and not known to have been compromised.

The audience at city hall burst into applause Tuesday night after the Harrisonburg City Council adopted a policy that prohibits the use of automatic license plate recognition systems in the city, effectively ending Harrisonburg’s contract with the company Flock Safety. The Flock cameras will shut off July 31 to allow the Harrisonburg Police Department time to collect necessary evidence for any ongoing cases. … “I’m very thankful to the community because it made me go back and do my research,” said council member Monica Robinson. “I looked at the history of mass surveillance and was flabbergasted by how it intensified.”

Fairfax County Public Schools has temporarily agreed not to release the disciplinary records of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) students who were suspended for making a “kidnapping” skit for social media to promote their chapter of the Muslim Students Association, pending the outcome of a lawsuit against the school system. Filed in federal court last week, the preliminary agreement largely prevents FCPS from releasing disciplinary records related to the case to colleges and universities or anyone else who inquires. It also stipulates that the students will not be disciplined for wearing clothing with a map of Palestine or the Palestine flag. In exchange, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group that is assisting the students with legal counsel, agreed to forgo a motion for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria.

Campbell County School Board Timberlake District representative Ann Parker has rescinded her recent resignation and will continue her service, the division announced in a news release Tuesday. This announcement comes two days before July 30, the day Parker’s resignation was set to go into effect. Parker first announced it at a July 13 school board meeting “due to an impending move out of state.”

An independent firm recommended Old Dominion University improve campus safety, threat assessment, emergency response, communications, and institutional processes in a report released Tuesday, after a fatal campus shooting killed an employee and injured multiple students in May. The report comes as the university prepares to welcome students back to Norfolk on Aug. 24, three months after Lt. Col. Brandon A. Shah died and several students were attacked by Mohamed Bailor Jalloh at Constant Hall, one of the institution’s academic buildings. … On Tuesday, ODU released the redacted independent report from law firm Cooley LLP on the May 12 shooting. The report concluded that the disaster was “an unpreventable terror attack” by Jalloh against students in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) receiving military training alongside their regular classes.