Transparency News 7/23/18

Monday
July 23, 2018

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state & local news stories

The transparency and accountability award “recognizes offices that provide clear and relevant information on their work and publicly acknowledge metrics for that performance.”

Purcellville Town Manager David Mekarski has formally withdrawn his request for additional moving expenses from the town budget following his move to Purcellville earlier this year. The town's budget for relocation expenses for the new town manager to move from Illinois was set at $10,000 in Mekarski's contract. The contract also provides a payment of $1,000 per month for up to six months for transitional expenses. During the June 10 Town Council meeting, Mekarski requested an additional $3,547.95 because his Illinois house has not sold and additional transitional living expenses would be needed. Many residents posted on social media they were adamantly opposed to Mekarski's request. Mekarski issued a statement included in the agenda for the July 24 Town Council meeting. “While this decision will not be made without major personal hardship, I recognize that it is in the best interest to solve this hardship personally rather than placing this burden on the Town’s taxpayers.”
The Loudoun Times-Mirror

Rep. Rob Wittman, who represents the state’s 1st Congressional District, was recently recognized for his office’s transparency and accountability by the Congressional Management Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based research and training organization. The honor was given as part of the organization’s inaugural nonpartisan Democracy Awards, which recognize the achievements of one Republican and one Democrat in Congress in five categories. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., was Wittman’s counterpart in the Democratic Party. The transparency and accountability award “recognizes offices that provide clear and relevant information on their work and publicly acknowledge metrics for that performance,” according to a news release from the foundation.
The Virginia Gazette

stories of national interest

The Trump administration on Saturday released a set of documents once deemed top secret relating to the wiretapping of a onetime adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The New York Times reported that the documents involving former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page were released to the Times and several other media organizations that had filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain them. The FBI later posted the documents to its FOIA website online.
The Washington Post

A Florida online publication asked a federal appeals court Thursday to order a trial be held on its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking FBI documents that may reveal a U.S.-based support network for the 9/11 hijackers. The case heard before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals centers on reporting published by the Florida Bulldog about the FBI investigation into a Saudi Arabian family that abruptly left a Sarasota home two weeks before the 2001 terror attacks. One FBI document that was released said that agents had found “many connections” in 2002 between the family and some hijackers who took flying lessons at a nearby airport, including ringleader Mohamed Atta.
The Ledger

A senior employee at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, acted inappropriately by offering inspectors a peek at American icon John Glenn’s body while the body awaited burial in early 2017, Air Force investigators found. It wasn’t the only case of inappropriate behavior involving the bodies of fallen service members by the employee outlined in a report obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request by Military Times: In one instance involving the severed ear of a service member, the employee allegedly leaned over the remains and yelled, “Can you hear me?” The behavior was confined to a single individual, and there was no systemic problem at the mortuary, investigators found, in the course of 34 formal interviews, talking to 50 witnesses, and reviewing numerous documents. 
Military Times

PETA said it filed an appeal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture stating that the agency is violating the Freedom of Information Act by not releasing evidence related to "The Camel Farm" in Yuma. PETA said the USDA is withholding photographs, videos and other records from nine months of inspections. PETA said "The Camel Farm" had more than 30 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act during that time. 
KYMA

U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) responded Thursday to the Gettysburg Times’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for copies of “any and all records” concerning May 9’s arrests at Montezuma Mexican Restaurant, Gettysburg. “No records responsive to your request were found” after “a search of the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations,” the response says.
Gettysburg Times
 

editorials & columns

"Virginia’s leaders should either fix the [lobbyist disclosure] process or stop wasting everybody’s time and database space."

PORTSMOUTH RESIDENTS can draw at least two important conclusions from a Thursday article by Pilot reporter Ana Ley about the ongoing economic harm inflicted on that city by tolling at the Midtown and Downtown tunnels. The first, and most serious, is that the imposition of tolling in 2014 — which effectively divided Portsmouth from neighboring communities — continues to be one of the most financially calamitous decisions in the region’s recent history. [The second is] that at least one city official — Commissioner of the Revenue Frankie Edmondson — doesn’t think residents deserve to have valuable information about Portsmouth’s finances, despite the fact that it could — and should — be a matter of public record. Not only is his response hostile and unbecoming of a city official, it impedes a better understanding of how the tunnels are throttling the city economy — information that would buttress a case that the city needs relief.
The Virginian-Pilot

Every July 1 state lobbyists file a disclosure with the Virginia Conflicts of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council. They are directed to list “with as much specificity as possible” the various “executive and legislative actions and procurement transactions” they sought to influence on behalf of the company or association they worked for. Most of them don’t. The directive is ignored and never enforced. As someone who has filed the report on behalf of multiple clients over the years, and who likes to check other reports to see who has been working against my clients, I have long considered them worthless. Virginia’s leaders should either fix the process or stop wasting everybody’s time and database space.
Steve Haner, Richmond Times-Dispatch