Transparency News, 7/15/20
Wednesday
July 15, 2020
July 15, 2020
state & local news stories
"Virginia FOIA law allows police to release 911 audio but doesn't require them to."
Here is a summary by the FOIA Council of the new training requirements that went into effect July 1 for FOIA officers and public officials.
The statutory provisions requiring FOIA training for FOIA officers and local elected officials have been amended effective today, July 1, 2020 (see §§ 2.2-3704.2 and 2.2-3704.3). Please note that the training for local elected officials includes constitutional officers and the executive directors and members of industrial development authorities and economic development authorities as well as other local elected officials. The FOIA Training web page on the FOIA Council website has been updated to reflect the free training currently available, including links to online courses for both FOIA officers and local elected officials. Both versions of online training allow the user to print or save a certificate showing that the training has been completed.
For FOIA officers, please note the following changes:
- Regional public bodies are now required to have FOIA officers, just as state and local public bodies are required to do;
- Training for FOIA officers only needs to be completed once every two years instead of annually;
- FOIA officers are no longer required to report their contact information to the FOIA Council each year. Instead, they are only required to report it when they first become FOIA officers and then update it if the information changes.
For local elected officials, please note that the training may be presented in-person or online either by the FOIA Council or the local government attorney for the public body. Those officials who hold office on July 1, 2020, have until December 31, 2020, to complete the training. Thereafter, training must be completed within two months of an official taking office. After the initial training, officials are required to receive FOIA training again once every two calendar years. The FOIA Council does not track who takes the online local elected officials training, so anyone who takes the local elected officials course will need to print or save their own certificates to document their training. That statute requires that clerks of local governing bodies and school boards keep records showing when the officials completed training for five years.
Other interested parties may take the free online FOIA training courses, but they are not required to do so.
Additionally, please note that COIA (Conflicts of Interest Act) training is a separate requirement from FOIA training. For information about COIA training, please contact the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council (http://ethics.dls.virginia.gov/).
Shooting victim Wayne Lamont Starks Jr. had two apparent bullet wounds, leading police to believe his injuries weren't self-inflicted, according to a search warrant affidavit released in Frederick County Circuit Court on Friday. The Sheriff's Office previously said it is investigating the 25-year-old's death at a Frederick County home on July 7 as a homicide until foul play can be established or ruled out. A 911 caller said Starks accidentally shot himself at a residence in the 100 block of Diamond Court. The Sheriff's Office last week denied a Freedom of Information request by The Winchester Star for a copy of the 911 audio, saying it might compromise the investigation. Virginia FOIA law allows police to release 911 audio but doesn't require them to.
The Winchester Star
Norfolk will spend more than $1 million to increase police transparency and create a team of mental health workers to accompany officers on emergency calls involving the mentally ill. City council members voted 7-1 to spend $200,000 to commission an analysis of five years’ worth of policing and crime data, with the help of a third-party and an unspecified “citizen panel.” City officials would then publish the final report and underlying data on the city’s website “to the extent possible.” Councilman Paul Riddick voted no, saying five years of data wasn’t enough information to get the full picture of how Norfolk officers police the city. He pushed for 20 years. “We can and should do a better job of disseminating crime and policing data,” City Manager Chip Filer and Deputy City Manager Mike Goldsmith wrote in their 17-page presentation to council members. “Once a year is not frequent enough.”
The Virginian-Pilot
Former Danville Public Schools superintendent Stanley Jones will collect two paychecks for the rest of 2020 and half of 2021: one from the city school system and one from his new employer, Stafford County Public Schools. Jones served as superintendent of Danville Public Schools for five years before resigning from the position in June. Per the terms of his mutual separation agreement with the school division, which was obtained by the Register & Bee through a Freedom of Information Act request, Jones will be paid a full year’s salary of $175,000, along with health insurance, a car allowance and deferred compensation. The latter document also did not preclude him from accepting another job or salary elsewhere. Also included in the mutual release agreement is a non-disparagement clause that applies to both Jones and members of the school board. In that same section, it instructs any members of the school board approached for comment to refer to Jones’ original letter to the school board chairman. All told, Jones will be paid, just in salary, more than $362,000 before taxes in the next 12 months. An overview of benefits afforded to Jones through his employment with Stafford County Public Schools was not accessible via a FOIA request.
Register & Bee
Other interested parties may take the free online FOIA training courses, but they are not required to do so.
Additionally, please note that COIA (Conflicts of Interest Act) training is a separate requirement from FOIA training. For information about COIA training, please contact the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council (http://ethics.dls.virginia.gov/).
Shooting victim Wayne Lamont Starks Jr. had two apparent bullet wounds, leading police to believe his injuries weren't self-inflicted, according to a search warrant affidavit released in Frederick County Circuit Court on Friday. The Sheriff's Office previously said it is investigating the 25-year-old's death at a Frederick County home on July 7 as a homicide until foul play can be established or ruled out. A 911 caller said Starks accidentally shot himself at a residence in the 100 block of Diamond Court. The Sheriff's Office last week denied a Freedom of Information request by The Winchester Star for a copy of the 911 audio, saying it might compromise the investigation. Virginia FOIA law allows police to release 911 audio but doesn't require them to.
The Winchester Star
Norfolk will spend more than $1 million to increase police transparency and create a team of mental health workers to accompany officers on emergency calls involving the mentally ill. City council members voted 7-1 to spend $200,000 to commission an analysis of five years’ worth of policing and crime data, with the help of a third-party and an unspecified “citizen panel.” City officials would then publish the final report and underlying data on the city’s website “to the extent possible.” Councilman Paul Riddick voted no, saying five years of data wasn’t enough information to get the full picture of how Norfolk officers police the city. He pushed for 20 years. “We can and should do a better job of disseminating crime and policing data,” City Manager Chip Filer and Deputy City Manager Mike Goldsmith wrote in their 17-page presentation to council members. “Once a year is not frequent enough.”
The Virginian-Pilot
Former Danville Public Schools superintendent Stanley Jones will collect two paychecks for the rest of 2020 and half of 2021: one from the city school system and one from his new employer, Stafford County Public Schools. Jones served as superintendent of Danville Public Schools for five years before resigning from the position in June. Per the terms of his mutual separation agreement with the school division, which was obtained by the Register & Bee through a Freedom of Information Act request, Jones will be paid a full year’s salary of $175,000, along with health insurance, a car allowance and deferred compensation. The latter document also did not preclude him from accepting another job or salary elsewhere. Also included in the mutual release agreement is a non-disparagement clause that applies to both Jones and members of the school board. In that same section, it instructs any members of the school board approached for comment to refer to Jones’ original letter to the school board chairman. All told, Jones will be paid, just in salary, more than $362,000 before taxes in the next 12 months. An overview of benefits afforded to Jones through his employment with Stafford County Public Schools was not accessible via a FOIA request.
Register & Bee
stories of national interest
"Agencies cannot use the 'unduly burdensome' claim to exempt them from having to comply with requests that are 'reasonably described.'”
On July 10, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed significantly increasing the reporting threshold requiring the filing of a Form 13F to $3.5 billion, a 35-fold increase from the current threshold.[1] Currently, under Rule 13f-1, investment managers that manage at least $100 million worth of equity securities publicly traded in the U.S. (“13(f) securities”) on the last day of any calendar month are required to file a Form 13F with the SEC. The form includes a table listing all of the U.S.-traded equity securities managed by the investment manager, subject to a de minimis exception. Confidential treatment can also be requested. The $100 million threshold has not changed since Congress adopted the requirements in 1975 and the rules were adopted by the SEC in 1978. The SEC is also proposing to make several other changes to the 13F rules, including: Amending the instructions on Form 13F for confidential treatment requests, to require managers seeking confidential treatment for information contained in Form 13F to show that (i) the information is both customarily and actually kept private by the manager, and (ii) how the release of this information could cause harm to the manager. These proposed changes are intended to reflect the standard for determining whether information is “confidential” under exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act.
The National Law Review
Anyone who makes requests for government records under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), New York Public Officer’s Law Sections 84-89, knows that a very common response of government agencies is that they cannot comply with the request because finding the records would be unduly burdensome, like being asked to find a “needle in a haystack.” For years, agencies have argued that where it would be unduly burdensome to comply with requests for records, that exempted them from producing them on the grounds that records that are hard to produce are not deemed to be “reasonably described,” which FOIL requires. Yet in a recent decision, In re Application of Jewish Press, Inc. v. New York City Department of Education, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Second Department, made a landmark ruling that directly held that as a matter of law, the requirement that records be reasonably described has nothing to do with how burdensome it is to produce such records, and that agencies cannot use the “unduly burdensome” claim to exempt them from having to comply with requests that are “reasonably described.”
New York Law Journal
The National Law Review
Anyone who makes requests for government records under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), New York Public Officer’s Law Sections 84-89, knows that a very common response of government agencies is that they cannot comply with the request because finding the records would be unduly burdensome, like being asked to find a “needle in a haystack.” For years, agencies have argued that where it would be unduly burdensome to comply with requests for records, that exempted them from producing them on the grounds that records that are hard to produce are not deemed to be “reasonably described,” which FOIL requires. Yet in a recent decision, In re Application of Jewish Press, Inc. v. New York City Department of Education, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Second Department, made a landmark ruling that directly held that as a matter of law, the requirement that records be reasonably described has nothing to do with how burdensome it is to produce such records, and that agencies cannot use the “unduly burdensome” claim to exempt them from having to comply with requests that are “reasonably described.”
New York Law Journal
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