Transparency News 8/31/17

Thursday, August 31, 2017



State and Local Stories

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer offered an apology for his behavior following an hours-long closed session meeting of Charlottesville City Council. Councilors and City Attorney S. Craig Brown gathered inside a City Hall conference room around 2 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, to "discuss the performance and discipline of an elected official." City Manager Maurice Jones did not attend, though it should be noted that he is not an elected official.
WVIR

Two weeks before the ill-fated Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally in Emancipation Park, the city of Charlottesville agreed to pay a $30,000 flat fee for legal advice concerning the permit for the rally. The evening before the rally, days after the city announced that it had revoked the permit and was seeking to move the event to McIntire Park north of downtown, a federal court ruled that the city’s decision was unconstitutional. According to a document obtained by The Daily Progress, the city retained the services of the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner earlier this month. The engagement letter, which was signed by Assistant City Manager Mike Murphy on Aug. 4, said the firm would be responsible for giving advice about what the city could do about the rally that many people correctly suspected would turn violent.
Daily Progress

Four Richmond police officers who were assigned to former Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ security detail are suing the city for back wages, alleging they were required to work unpaid overtime as city officials tried to contain public scrutiny of the unit’s expense. In the chronically cash-strapped city, the expense did not go unnoticed, and the allegations in the suit suggest officials were sensitive to any negative public perception: In one instance, the lawsuit alleges the police department retroactively deducted eight hours of previously earned overtime after receiving a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information about the cost of the detail.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The issue of prayer in public meetings has once again been raised by the courts and this time the ruling affects Louisa County. At its Aug. 14 meeting, the Mineral Town Council was informed by Town Attorney Andrea Erard of a recent ruling from the United States 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Nancy Lund v. Rowan County, North Carolina. The ruling, which was handed down on July 14, prohibits elected officials from delivering exclusively Christian prayers in public meetings and from proselytizing and inviting people to join in the prayers. The Mineral Town Council currently opens its meetings with a prayer delivered by Mayor Pam Harlowe, meaning they are in violation of the ruling.
The Central Virginian



National Stories
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Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Shue found that Fort Smith city officials violated Arkansas' public-meeting law by discussing city business via email, but he declined to file criminal charges. Instead, Shue warned Tuesday that any future infractions against the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act would compel his office to "take further action." The prosecutor didn't explicitly say in his letter to city officials or in a news release Tuesday why no charges would be filed. He also didn't return a phone message or respond to emailed questions Monday evening. A person who "negligently" violates the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act is guilty of a Class C misdemeanor, according to state law.
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette

A private meeting last week by a state board tasked with enforcing Iowa’s public meetings law was “probably legal,” Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters Tuesday. The Iowa Public Information Board held the meeting Friday to discuss a case involving an accidental fatal shooting by a Burlington police officer. The board voted to act based on that secret meeting, but wouldn’t say what action it took. The Des Moines Register filed a complaint, alleging the board violated the state’s open meetings law. The Register is asking the board to immediately release audio of the meeting, apologize to the public and fine themselves $1,000 each. “I think what they did was probably legal,” Reynolds said during a press conference Tuesday when asked whether an independent party would consider the complaint made against the board. “It’s under litigation, so I don’t believe it’s appropriate for me to comment on the aspects of it.”
Des Moines Register



Editorials/Columns


In the wake of Petersburg’s fiscal crisis, the General Assembly directed the auditor of public accounts to create a financial stress test that could be used to identify local governments in trouble before a crisis point was reached. Earlier this month, the state released the results of the first locality stress test, based on 2016 fiscal year data voluntarily submitted by local governments. The state didn’t reveal the identies of the four localities, though we learned just this week that City A is the Southwest Virginia city of Bristol. State officials owe it to all Virginians, especially the residents of the three remaining unnamed localities, to release the stress test scores of all the state’s cities and counties. Only when residents know the full scope of the challenges facing their local governments can they hold officials accountable.
News & Advance

Four Richmond police officers are suing the city because the city didn’t want to come clean. Or at least that’s their claim — and it’s a plausible one. The officers are demanding what they’re owed for unpaid overtime they say they were required to work as part of the executive protection unit for former Mayor Dwight Jones. According to their suit, they sometimes had to work off the books after the police department began getting requests under the Freedom of Information Act about the cost of the mayor’s praetorian guard. That cost reached half a million dollars a year. The current mayor, Levar Stoney, disbanded the protection unit — and somehow lived to tell the tale. It’s possible that the lawsuit is a tissue of lies. But if its allegations prove founded, then they also contain a lesson for officials everywhere: Don’t mess with FOIA. Trying to keep the public in the dark about public business is always a bad idea — and it can end up costing you far more than some mild embarrassment.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The most important person in Virginia right now is not the governor, not either of our two senators, and not even Virginia Tech’s starting quarterback. The most important person in Virginia right now doesn’t hold any office. It’s Tim Heaphy, the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia. He’s been hired by the City of Charlottesville to lead an independent review of the city’s response to three recent rallies of white supremacists in the city — one in May, one in July and the largest and most violent one on Aug. 12 that ended with three people dead. A Democrat, Heaphy will have to pose some tough questions for fellow Democrats in both state and local government. Republicans already wonder whether he will do so. The burden is on Heaphy: Anything less than an unsparing account will look like a whitewash.
Roanoke Times