Transparency News 7/18/14

Even with nearly a year and a half to go before Virginia legislators go to the voters again, the money machine is cranking. Despite the law's demand to cool it and take no donations during a legislative session that accounted for a third of the latest campaign finance reporting period, legislators raised $3.6 million so far this year. "As the old saying goes, 'Money is the mother's milk of politics' — you can't be too thin or too rich," said Virginia Tech political scientist Bob Denton.
Daily Press

U.S. Green Energy officials asserted eagerness to be an open-book operation Thursday when it welcomed Danville City Council for a tour of its local factory. At its start locally, U.S. Green Energy was supported by a $1.6 million grant provided by the Virginia Tobacco Commission after it promised to create 372 jobs and invest $30 million. After failing to fulfill that agreement, the company was forced to enter into a payment plan with the city government to repay the Tobacco Commission. “We try to run as a transparent organization so any question is fair,” CEO Bob Bennett said to the group of gathered City Council members. “Anytime anybody has a question, feel free to call me.” Before and during the tour, Bennett fielded questions from council members and the news media about the company’s operations.
Register & Bee

Controversial Loudoun Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio on Wednesday night was granted access to $120,500 in county funds for a Sterling district office budget – the same amount as his fellow board members for their districts – but not before a flare-up with fellow eastern Loudoun Supervisor Suzanne Volpe. Delgaudio (R) was afforded the district budget allocation one year after being stripped of the funds, this following the report from a special grand jury investigating allegations he misused public assets. The report did not bring forward criminal charges against Delgaudio, but a summary of the grand jury's findings noted that Delgaudio likely did abuse county resources, but that his actions weren't illegal because of a technicality in state law.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

On Thursday, Watchdog.org filed a request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, asking for all records in the possession of the governor’s office since June 1  that may pertain to the immigration crisis.
Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau

For many parents at the Essex County School Board meeting, the night was frustrating as board members welcomed questions at the beginning of the meeting, then sat silently noting rules prohibit them from answering. Questions as simple as, “does the school have Title I funding?” went unanswered until next month’s meeting. “I don’t believe that’s correct, that you can’t respond to public comments,” said a parent, Jacob Plummer. “I think that’s their prerogative.”Plummer voiced what most parents were saying, “At the end (of the meeting) we don’t have an opportunity to address anything that went on during the meeting so you have to wait a whole month before you can even address that,” he said. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done in communicating between the school and the community.”
Northern Neck News

National Stories

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that autopsy reports are not public records, dealing another blow to traditional practices under the state's Freedom of Information law. The justices ruled 4-1 that autopsies are medical records and fall under privacy provisions of the open records law. The ruling came just four weeks after the justices ruled that public meetings don't have to have a list of topics to be discussed, and if they do have an agenda, it can be changed in the middle of the meeting.
San Francisco Gate

The Supreme Court of Hawaii this week in Oahu Publications Inc. v. The Honorable Karen Ahnupheld a strong public right of access to criminal proceedings and announced a series of procedures to protect that right. The ruling comes after a trial court judge held five secret sessions and sealed the transcripts of those sessions during a high-profile murder trial. The decision stressed that judicial proceedings are presumptively open. The high court held that, in order to close a courtroom or seal transcripts, a judge must show on the record what compelling interest would be harmed by public disclosure, the substantial risk to that harm, and any alternatives to public access that the court considered but found insufficiently protective.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

It may harder than you think for a 911 dispatcher to locate where you are if you’re calling from D.C. A new report containing data obtaining via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Find Me 911 Coalition shows that nine out of 10 wireless calls to 911 in D.C. in early 2013 did not report accurate location information to the dispatcher. Only 10.3 percent, or 39,805, of the 385,341 calls to the District’s 911 communications center between Dec. 2012 and July 2013 included caller locations.
WJLA

Open-government advocates and local officials in five major U.S. cities announced the formation of a new coalition, the Free Law Founders, on Wednesday, launching a partnership to create new tools, data standards and processes for state and local governments to make public information and data better accessible to the public. The FLF, led by New York City Councilmember Ben Kallos, San Francisco Supervisor Mark Farrell and OpenGov Foundation Executive Director Seamus Kraft, also includes officials in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston. “Laws and legislative information are often overlooked as open data, and I believe laws and legislative information are one of, if not the, most important data sets government keep,” Farrell, who led the charge to make San Francisco the nation’s first “open legislation” city, said in a statement. “As legislators we should do everything in our power to ensure laws, codes, and policies are free and easily accessible to our residents.”
Government Executive