Transparency News 8/13/14
State and Local Stories
Bob McDonnell and his sister were desperate to unload costly Virginia Beach rental properties as the economy tanked in 2009, according to newly released emails today. "We are in trouble and need to act NOW" the governor's sister wrote in a December 2009 email.
Times-Dispatch
Prosecutors put the mayor of Virginia Beach on the witness stand Tuesday and shifted the focus of the trial of Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen from corruption to fraud. Shown a copy of a personal financial statement completed by the former governor, William Sessoms, Jr., president of Towne Financial Services Group, said it failed to include loans from either Jonnie Williams Sr. or Starwood Trust.
Times-Dispatch
John Uhrin, a Virginia Beach city councilman, is close to having his 2012 arrest on a charge of assaulting his wife wiped from his record. Uhrin has filed for expungement of all police and court records relating to the misdemeanor count, which was never prosecuted. The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has said in court documents it has no objection. A spokeswoman for the commonwealth's attorney said they're just waiting for the paperwork from Uhrin's attorney to make it official.
Virginian-Pilot
Manassas school officials say they are changing the way they conduct background investigations after the recent discovery that Jennie Dean Elementary School’s principal lied on his resume and falsified his college transcripts. School officials on Monday said they are also now verifying all of the school system’s current employee records.
Inside NOVA
A Shenandoah County supervisor says neither he nor anyone on his board knew of an option to build a new jail at no local cost. Chairman David Ferguson made the statement at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday in response to claims made in an article published recently in a local newspaper. The article reported that supervisors outright rejected on more than one occasion an offer by Sheriff Timothy Carter that he could fund the cost to build a new jail without local tax dollars. Rather, the sheriff would use money it receives from the federal asset seizure program. "No such offer was ever made to the board at any meeting, open or closed, day or night, in this room or elsewhere," Ferguson read from a statement. "The board in work sessions and in open sessions considered various jail options for years and concluded the regional option was the most cost-effective." "There is room to disagree with that," Ferguson added. "But to suggest that the board turned down a free option is simply not true."
Northern Virginia Daily
Virginia's General Assembly updated part of its Freedom of Information Act during the 2014 legislative session to allow members of public boards to take part in meetings remotely when a personal situation would otherwise prevent that board member from doing so. A forthcoming Williamsburg-James City Schools policy, discussed during the Aug. 5 School Board meeting, would formally recognize that law in the division's policy manual. The policy could return to the WJC School Board for a second reading as early Aug. 19. In York County Schools, a policy was adopted in December 2011 allowing school board members to participate in meetings remotely by electronic means. While James City County has no specific policy covering remote participation of its board of supervisors, spokeswoman Jody Puckett said in an email to the Gazette that the county is able to accommodate members of its boards via the state law in case of an emergency or illness. Williamsburg's City Council is considering a similar policy. According to a video record of the July 10 meeting, while some council members said they had no initial opposition to the idea, they did say they wanted more time to consider it.
Virginia Gazette
The Halifax County School Board discussed where their money has been going and if they are focusing on the areas that matter most at their monthly meeting Monday evening. The amount of money spent on legal fees during the past two years became a lead topic during the discussion. Usually the payment of bills is approved at the board’s monthly meetings as part of the consent agenda but Monday it was pulled out to discuss.
Gazette Virginian
National Stories
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration — which the governor pledged would be the most transparent in state history — has quietly adopted policies that allow it to purge the emails of tens of thousands of state employees, cutting off a key avenue for understanding and investigating state government. Last year, the state started deleting any emails more than 90 days old that users hadn't specifically saved — a much more aggressive stance than many other states. The policy shift was first reported by the Albany Times Union. A previously unpublished memo outlining the policy raises new questions about the state's stated rationale for its deletions policy. What's more, the rules on which emails must be retained are bewilderingly complex – they fill 118 pages – leading to further concern that emails may not be saved at all.ProPublica
Staff members of the Pennsylvania Department of Education “delete and cleanse” their emails each night, a policy which the state’s Office of Open Records and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association have condemned. Acting state Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq told ABC27 WHTM in Harrisburg about the policy in a story about former Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis, according to Pittsburgh’s TribLIVE.com. Tomalis is still earning six figures although many are questioning how actively he’s working. Public records show that Tomalis only sent five emails and one phone call a day since July 2013, which Dumaresq defended, in turn revealing the policy. “I check mine at the end of each evening. I clear my emails out, as does Ron, and we only save those emails into files to remember a decision that was made,” Dumaresq said in the interview. “So there is no email trail for a lot of folks.”
Student Press Law Center
The U.S. government need not turn over a secret surveillance court's orders or the names of phone companies helping it collect call records, because it might reveal methods needed to protect national security, a federal judge decided on Monday. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, rejected the Electronic Frontier Foundation's argument that the U.S. Department of Justice should turn over the materials, in the wake of unauthorized disclosures last year by a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden. The EFF noted that the government had already declassified hundreds of pages of other documents discussing data collection under the U.S. Patriot Act, including some that the data privacy advocacy group had requested. These declassifications came after Snowden's leaks had been revealed.
Reuters
President Barack Obama is loosening restrictions on lobbyists who want to serve on federal advisory boards, a White House official said on Tuesday, a setback to the president's efforts to tamp down special interest influence in Washington. Obama came to office pledging to curtail the sway of lobbyists and banned lobbyists from serving on such panels, which guide government policy on a range of topics ranging from cancer to towing safety. The president said he was doing so because the voices of paid representatives of interest groups were drowning out the views of ordinary citizens.
Reuters
Authorities on Tuesday delayed revealing the identity of the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teen three days ago, citing threats against the officer on social media. "If we come out and say, 'it was this officer,' then he immediately becomes a target," Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said. "We're taking the threats seriously." Jackson, who had said he would reveal the officer's name Tuesday, said there is now no timetable.
USA Today
Editorials/Columns
Dick Hammerstrom, Free Lance-Star
There’s plenty of blame to go around here. When an Amtrak employee sold passengers’ private information to the Drug Enforcement Agency, policies at both agencies might have been broken. Certainly, good judgment was lacking. A report this week by Amtrak’s inspector general revealed that a secretary had sold the information to the DEA over the course of two decades. The secretary was allowed to retire rather than face administrative discipline. Perhaps the greater blame belongs to the DEA — if for no other reason than that the agency probably could have gotten the same information for free.
Daily Progress
