Transparency News, 7/8/21

 

The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board met in-person Wednesday amid controversy over its public outreach process. Late last week, the meeting’s landmark agenda item – deliberation over Mountain Valley Pipeline’s permit application for the Lambert Compressor Station – was postponed following public outcry over the meeting’s location. It was set in Richmond, about 150 miles from the proposed LCS site in Pittsylvania County, with no virtual access. The water and air boards, both citizen bodies connected to the Department of Environmental Quality, have been criticized before over their outreach. In most permitting processes that go through the board, citizens have one open comment period to participate in. The comment period for LCS ended in March. The only opportunity to make further comment is during the board’s final deliberation on the application, which is now scheduled for September 17. Newly elected board chair Kajal Kapur proposed some changes to the board’s public outreach process, including holding meetings closer to the affected communities. But the board, alongside DEQ Director David Paylor and legal counsel from the Office of the Attorney General, determined such changes were outside of their purview and would likely require General Assembly action. Kapur’s suggestions were tabled.
VPM

Staunton Vice Mayor Mark Robertson sent a Freedom of Information Act request to a citizen last week, but government officials aren’t allowed to submit FOIA requests to constituents. Days later, Robertson stated he thought Sheila Ahmadi, the person who he sent the FOIA request to, was a city-appointed leader of a committee. Ahmadi is not. Robertson’s request was about this year’s Juneteenth Proclamation, which was presented to Ahmadi on behalf of the Shenandoah Valley Juneteenth Committee on June 24 at a Staunton City Council meeting. Even though Robertson withdrew his request, his action wasn’t without backlash from fellow council members and the community. Robertson later sent an apology to Ahmadi withdrawing his FOIA request.
News Leader

The Hampton School Board chose a new board chair at a meeting Wednesday following months of quiet disputes about Joe Kilgore’s leadership.  In a 5-1 vote, the board elected Ann Cherry as chair and Richard Mason as vice chair for the next six months. It’s one of the first times in years a board member has cast a “nay” vote. Kilgore said he’d told board members he wouldn’t seek the chair again but he was going to “vote his conscience” against Cherry and Mason. Kilgore’s vice chair for the last year, Reginald Woodhouse, abstained. The fault lines on the board trace back to the fall, when the district faced teacher protests about reopening. Several board members have chastised Kilgore’s leadership style and communication in the board’s response and subsequent conversations. The board rarely disagrees in public. But since the reopening decision, it has held two special meetings to talk about communication and Kilgore’s leadership. It was an unusual meeting, a couple of hours before the board’s regularly scheduled meeting at 6:30 p.m. Instead of the meeting space on the ground floor where the board holds regular meetings, they met in a small conference room near Superintendent Jeffery Smith’s office.
Daily Press

With hot-button topics on the agenda, and a new, more-limiting public comment policy debuting, Thursday’s Albemarle County School Board meeting could produce some drama. Thursday’s meeting will be the first with new public comment procedures. If more than 40 people sign up, the School Board will use a lottery system for the 40 slots and reduce the maximum speaking timefrom three minutes to two minutes per person. Elected panels in Virginia don’t have to offer general public comment. The county School Board’s policy calls for allocating “a reasonable period of time” for public comment. Historically, the board has planned for 10 speakers, allotting 30 minutes. Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said that over the years, she’s seen many communities coming up with different ways of approaching public comment, and that it’s important for the public to have input on such changes. There was no public discussion or feedback opportunity in the case of Albemarle’s new speaker rules.  As boards look to resume in-person meetings at some point, Rhyne said the rules of engagement are shifting. “So this seems like a perfect opportunity to talk with the public about how we can capitalize on what we learned during the pandemic while still also making sure that we as a board are able to conduct the business that you all expect us to conduct,” she said.
The Daily Progress

After more than a year gathering “virtually,” the Arlington Electoral Board is set to resume in-person meetings. But at the same time, the body has established guidelines for the times individual members cannot participate in person. Electoral Board members on June 30 adopted their first-ever electronic-meeting policy, spelling out the conditions that would allow members to check in from remote locations. Unlike elected bodies, the Electoral Board does not have a set meeting schedule; its members gather when the press of business requires it. 
Sun Gazette

Spotsylvania authorities on Wednesday declined to identify the man who died in a fire last week during a standoff with police. Sheriff’s Maj. Troy Skebo said he would not release the man’s name until the state medical examiner officially identifies his charred remains. He said that could take some time because of the intensity of the fire and pending DNA results. But Skebo acknowledged that police know who the man was and that only one person was in the house in the 13300 block of West Catharpin Road when it was destroyed by fire. “It is our policy to not release names until it is confirmed by the medical examiner,” Skebo said. “At this point, we don’t know when that will be.”
The Free Lance-Star

 

 

 

The City of Odessa, Texas, on Tuesday held a private “informational” workshop to teach city council about the Texas Open Meetings Act — a meeting which very likely violated state law, top Texas legal experts say. Alan J. Bojorquez, an Austin-based attorney who gave the presentation, claimed that even though at least six out of seven council members were participating, the meeting was exempt from the Open Meetings Act because the gathering was for “informational purposes” and no council action would be taken. Bojorquez also argued that he called for the meeting, which made it a “private” meeting exempt from state law. But Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas Executive Director Kelley Shannon and Austin-based attorney Bill Aleshire, an expert on the Open Meetings Act, both dispute Bojorquez’s interpretation of the law. “Contrary to what Mr. Bojorquez said, the Open Meetings Act — and compliance and training for it — is ‘public business or public policy over which the governmental body has supervision or control.’ It turns the Open Meetings Act on its head to claim that compliance with the Act is not public business.”
Yahoo!news

With the COVID crisis momentarily in abeyance until elected officials and the media need to ratchet up the hysteria one more time, some things are getting back to normal(ish) – including elected officials returning to the dais after months in “Brady Bunch”-style squares in Zoom meetings. And yet, when it comes to elected officials, you can give ’em an inch and they’ll want to take a mile. That was on display last month when some members of the Vienna Town Council – a group not usually in our crosshairs – in discussing their General Assembly priorities for 2022, voiced support for the ability to conduct the town’s business from the security of their basements. Some of them appear to like the idea of having the legislature provide more flexibility for them to “go virtual” whenever they see fit. It’s one thing if local leaders want to give residents an online option to participate in meetings, coupled with in-person opportunities. We’re fine with that and even welcome it. The more the merrier. But if local leaders expect they’ll be able to “phone it in” from their home, the beach, wherever, that’s another matter.
Sun Gazette