Transparency News 9/17/15

Thursday, September 17, 2015

 

State and Local Stories


VCOG's annual conference is Nov. 12. Click here for details.

Portsmouth Interim Police Chief Dennis Mook appears to be joining Portsmouth officials down a path of secrecy. On Tuesday evening, Mook told WTKR NewsChannel 3 reporter Brendan Ponton that either Ponton had to leave a Cradock community meeting about crime, or he would leave, according to a WTKR article. The community meeting was held at the Cradock Baptist Church to address burglaries, home invasions and car thefts, said Ted Lamb, the Cradock Neighborhood Watch coordinator and a Portsmouth School Board member. Someone told the TV station about the meeting, he said. Ponton left the meeting but spoke with Mook afterward. Ponton said all he wanted to do was observe the meeting, the WTKR article said. "There was nothing in there that I was talking about that you couldn't be there," Mook told Ponton, according to a video. "It was that I had no notice that the media was going to be here and that I wasn't prepared to speak in front of the media."
Virginian-Pilot

About a month after The Virginian-Pilot reported that the Portsmouth City Council may have violated state law with a closed-door meeting, several council members have said that the discussion in question was in open session. At a meeting in July, council members voted unanimously to reduce public speaking time from five minutes to three. Members of the public spoke in opposition to the change. Based on information from a knowledgeable source, The Pilot reported that the discussion of reducing speaking time had occurred behind closed doors and that council members might have violated state open-meetings law. Council members Danny Meeks and Elizabeth Psimas have since said that the discussion occurred seconds after they ended a closed session and seconds before they walked into the public hearing in the council chamber - meaning that technically, the meeting was open.
Virginian-Pilot

Danville City Attorney Clarke Whitfield’s office normally budgets $13,200 annually for legal fees, such as the cost of hiring outside attorneys to handle unusual cases that might arise during the year — often without using all of the money budgeted, he told Danville City Council during a work session Tuesday. But this year is different, and Whitfield has asked council to approve an extra $350,000 for legal fees. Whitfield, without being specific due to confidentiality constraints, said the city is facing “legal fights” this year that will cost more than usual because of diversity and need for specialization.  Councilman Fred Shanks pressed Whitfield for more details. “Why shouldn’t the taxpayers know why [the extra money is needed],” Shanks said. Whitfield thought for a moment. “If I were the attorney on the other side, I’d see what’s in the budget and ring the bell until there’s not any money left,” Whitfield said.
Register & Bee


National Stories
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Dylann Roof wants to plead guilty to state charges if prosecutors won’t seek his execution for the attack on Emanuel AME Church, his attorneys said Wednesday in a hearing about a gag order in the case.  Wednesday’s development came as attorneys for the victims’ families, church officials, news media and the federal government discussed whether a judge should continue to restrict the further release of public records until the case wraps up with a trial or a plea. Ninth Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson made no immediate decision on his gag order, which has lasted for two months. He indicated plans, though, to pave the way for a transcript of 911 calls to be made public while deciding on a piece-by-piece basis whether other information should be protectedfrom release through the order.
Post and Courier

Records related to the mental hospital incarceration of a serial killer who inspired the play and 1944 movie "Arsenic and Old Lace" don't have to be made public, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in a decision released Monday. A majority of five justices ruled that documents were exempt from disclosure requirements. A trial court had backed the state Freedom of Information Commission, which said Amy Archer Gilligan's privacy rights ended with her death in 1962 and invasion of privacy is not an issue. The justices cited a "broad veil of secrecy created by the psychiatrist-patient privilege" to bar the disclosure under state law of medical and dental records created by an inpatient mental health facility during a patient's treatment. The ruling backs the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, which cited federal law governing medical records to turn down requests for the records. Two other justices issued a separate decision partly agreeing with the majority but also dissenting.
U.S. News & World Report

Army prosecutors seeking to court-martial Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for desertion and for endangering the soldiers ordered to search for him have disclosed that they will not try to prove at a coming court hearing that any service members were wounded or killed looking for him, or that he had sought to desert to the Taliban, according to a legal filing by the soldier’s defense team. The new filing emerged on Tuesday when Sergeant Bergdahl’s lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, released copies of correspondence detailing unsuccessful efforts to persuade the Army to publicly release a summary of its investigative report into Sergeant Bergdahl’s disappearance, along with the transcript of his interview with the author of that report, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl.
New York Times

A Kanawha County judge has ruled in favor of West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in a newspaper’s request for summary judgment in a FOIA case. Morrisey has spent nearly two years blocking the release of the records that the Gazette said could shed light on his role in his office’s lawsuit against drug giant Cardinal Health, a company for which his wife lobbies in Washington, D.C. Morrisey also previously lobbied for a trade group that represents Cardinal Health. King reviewed eight documents that include nine pages of emails and other documents that Morrisey’s office has fought to block, citing attorney-client privilege, work-product doctrine, deliberative process privilege and/or statutory exemptions under state code regarding internal memoranda.
West Virginia Record

Editorials/Columns

We therefore think it is fitting to take this day, Constitution Day, to marvel at the Framers' work, and to celebrate the good fortune and amazing foresight that contributed to a resilient and remarkable document that adeptly serves us still.
Daily Press