Transparency News 7/22/14
State and Local Stories
Newly elected Strasburg Councilman Seth Newman phoned in for his first meeting. Town Council tested a new policy that allows members to participate in meetings from remote locations. Newman took part in the meeting via cell phone from Michigan after Town Council voted to let him participate. Not everyone on council thought Newman should sit in by phone. Council voted 4-3 to let him participate. Councilmen John Hall Jr., Rich Orndorff Jr. and Councilwoman Jocelyn Vena voted against the motion. Vice Mayor Richard Redmon and Councilmen Donald Le Vine, Robert Baker and Scott Terndrup voted in favor. No reasons were given for the votes.
Northern Virginia Daily
The Hampton PTA Council criticized raises received by several members of the Hampton City Schools Division Leadership team last month, after the school division had to make drastic cuts and receive supplemental funding from the city in order to balance its budget. The School Board passed the raises, listed as "equity adjustments" in its consent agenda June 4, but there was no discussion of the raises when School Board Chairwoman Martha Mugler called for a vote. Superintendent Dr. Linda Shifflette described the pay raises as being small in nature, though she didn't have the exact number. Shifflette herself did not receive a raise. The Daily Press has requested a copy of salaries for members of the division leadership team. "I don't remember the exact figure," Shifflette said. "But I can tell you, I added up all the salary for members last year and added up this year. We're still paying less for (division leadership team) members.
Daily Press
School Board Chairwoman Martha Mugler said Monday she was "disappointed" by criticism from PTA President Pamela Croom regarding raises for members of the school division's leadership team. "I'm just disappointed we didn't have an opportunity to address it with her directly," Mugler said of the email Croom sent to members of the PTA on Friday. In response to Mugler's comment that she wished they had to a chance to discuss the issue directly before the letter was sent to PTA members, Croom said, "That opportunity should have taken place during the June 4th vote." "That was their opportunity to forego any perception the community may have had, any misunderstanding the community may have had on their regular business practices,"Croom said. "That was their opportunity. They need to be more transparent about those types of decisions."
Daily Press
Bob McDonnell is asking a federal judge for permission to keep private a subpoena for a public official from another state who might be called to testify at the former governor’s upcoming corruption trial. “As with many potential witnesses in a prolonged trial, however, Mr. McDonnell will not know whether he needs to call this person until he presents his case, more than a month from now.” McDonnell’s lawyers say sealing of the document “is necessary in this case” in order “to minimize interference with the official work of public officials called to testify in court.” Defense lawyers say prosecutors did not oppose the motion. In another development, defense lawyers and prosecutors jointly agreed to stipulations ahead of the trial, such as vouching for the authenticity of certain emails and bank records.
Times-Dispatch
Portsmouth City Auditor Jesse Andre Thomas defended his recent work to City Council members in a meeting Monday, after a Virginian-Pilot article reported that the work bore similarities to the Chesapeake auditor's. Thomas stressed to council members that the audits he plans to conduct this year were chosen based on an analysis of Portsmouth city data - not by piggybacking off another locality. Addressing the council, he downplayed the similarities of his audit plan to sections of Poole's and focused squarely on the cover letter. As Thomas spoke, City Councilman Bill Moody interrupted him. "Quite frankly - and I'm speaking for me - I don't think it's an efficient use of our time to rebut a week-old newspaper (article)," he said. "I think there's a lot we do need to discuss, but I don't think now's the time to do it." After he finished, the council went into closed session to discuss a number of issues, including Thomas' performance.
Virginian-Pilot
Have you had issues with the City of Richmond's website? Rick Tatnall has, and he wants to do something about it. Tatnall along with his group, Replenish Richmond, started a contest called "Expose the Crappy City Website." He wants users to find problems on the website, like old information, so he can compile a list and show it to city officials. "There's very little current information. It's poorly presented. There's upcoming meetings that are in 2011! It's not usable as an information source," Tatnall said. For one example, the City Auditor's main page talks about a possible upcoming audit of the Tea Party... In 2011. That's actually when the site's last digital award was.
WRIC
Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio filed a motion Friday to have the county reimburse his legal fees from the recent effort by hundreds of Sterling residents to have the Sterling supervisor removed from office. The decision whether to grant Delgaudio (R) approximately $35,000 in county funds is expected to be taken up Friday by Judge Paul Sheridan. Delgaudio's attorney Charlie King, in a prepared statement, said: "I've been asked: Why can't the petitioners, not the taxpayers, be ordered to pay Supervisor Delgaudio's legal fees? The answer is the Virginia Code grants immunity to the signers of a removal petition from being ordered to pay fees. By statute, the body in which the official serves must pay any fees ordered."
Loudoun Times-Mirror
National Stories
Washington D.C.has launched a new effort to process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. A new online portal will make it possible for individuals to submit requests and have them processed online. The new portal, powered by “FOIAXpress,” is the District’s first-ever citywide FOIA processing system. Mayor Gray also issued an executive order that mandates that the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) hire a Chief Data Officer (CDO) to assist in the deployment and to help coordinate additional open data programming. At its launch, more than 50 District agencies will be included. Additional agencies will be added to the system in the next fiscal year.CivSource
In a briefing Monday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest criticized a Washington Post story for relying on anonymous sources. According to a transcript of the briefing, McClatchy reporter Anita Kumar pushed back at Earnest, noting that the Post didn’t have anyone at the briefing to defend the story. “I noticed that, too,” Earnest said. Earnest later allowed that there were people on the record in the story, which says White House aides knew a year ago that a crisis was developing on the U.S.-Mexico border, but they instead “focused much of their attention on political battles, such as Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and the push to win congressional support for a broad immigration overhaul, that would have been made more difficult with the addition of a high-profile border crisis.”“[Y]ou criticize anonymous sources, but we have anonymous sources from you all every day,” Kumar said.
Poynter
