Transparency News 9/19/16

 

The gas industry is pushing for a delay in new Virginia drilling regulations until it can get state law changed to protect key information about chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. These regulations, the result of a review that started at the end of 2013, are slated to be finalized shortly before the end of the year. Industry lobbyists this week asked legislators on a commission that monitors the executive branch's regulatory process to help delay implementation until at least July 2017. A delay would allow time for the General Assembly to pass a new Freedom of Information Act exemption to protect from public release some information about chemicals pumped into the ground to break up gas deposits in a process commonly called fracking. This issue has been controversial in other states, with environmental groups and property owners demanding to know what's going into the ground, and what might mix with groundwater.
Daily Press

Monroe native Layney Sandifer has filled the role of Amherst County’s new Freedom of Information Act and Public Information Officer. Sandifer is a 2016 graduate of Bluefield College with a degree in communications and marketing. One of her main focuses will be to manage the county’s FOIA requests, according to a news release from Amherst County.
News & Advance

The envelopes typically contained more than $2,500. A prominent builder and Ocean View bar owner would pass them discreetly to a Norfolk councilman known for brokering deals, according to court documents. The councilman’s response: “I got your back.” Developer Ronnie Boone Sr., 67, pleaded guilty Friday to bribing Treasurer Anthony Burfoot as well as two other unnamed city officials.
Virginian-Pilot

In August 2015, Virginia Beach School Board member Carolyn Weems joined a 10-0 vote to approve a list of administrative appointments that included the coordinator of a new academy at Kempsville High School. The superintendent’s nominee: Meghan Timlin, once a top school client for Weems’ printing company, Simply Sales. The company had delivered more than $6,000 in merchandise over 14 months in recent years to Timlin while she was a teacher at Kempsville, according to invoices obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request. “She really should have recused herself from any votes that involved her business, including promotions of anyone who had worked closely with them,” said Quentin Kidd, director of Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center for Public Policy. “That’s what ought to happen when public officials enter into this kind of relationship.”
Virginian-Pilot


National Stories
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Three news organizations, including USA TODAY’s parent company, filed a lawsuit Friday seeking information about how the FBI was able to break into the locked iPhone of one of the gunmen in the December terrorist attack in San Bernardino. The Justice Department spent more than a month this year in a legal battle with Apple over it could force the tech giant to help agents bypass a security feature on Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone. The dispute roiled the tech industry and prompted a fierce debate about the extent of the government’s power to pry into digital communications. It ended when the FBI said an “outside party” had cracked the phone without Apple’s help. The news organizations’ lawsuit seeks information about the source of the security exploit agents used to unlock the phone, and how much the government paid for it. It was filed in federal court in Washington by USA TODAY’s parent company, Gannett, the Associated Press and Vice Media. The FBI refused to provide that information to the organizations under the Freedom of Information Act. The lawsuit charges that “there is no lawful basis” for the FBI to keep the records secret.
USA Today

It took two days of prying by Syracuse.com before the Onondaga County sheriff's office confirmed the Tuesday arrest of former Syracuse University Whitman School of Management dean Kenneth Kavajecz. And the sheriff's office continues to refuse to release Kavajecz's public arrest paperwork in a prostitution bust. "There will not be any paperwork released until the remainder of the investigation is complete," Sheriff Gene Conway said in an email. "That will be within the next several days." Robert Freeman, executive director of the state's Committee on Open Government, said those records are public and should be released. "We don't have secret arrests in this country," Freeman said.
Syracuse.com

The Supreme Court of Texas heard arguments Wednesday on whether to write a loophole into state public records law that would allow government agencies to avoid public scrutiny and disregard basic public records procedures simply by invoking “magic words.” The court could also decide to eliminate a previous loophole it created, but most of its public records decisions in recent years have favored government secrecy over the transparency that Texas law used to be known for. If the court rules for Dallas in a lawsuit the city filed against state Attorney General Ken Paxton, government agencies in Texas will be granted a new trump card over the decisions of the Attorney General’s office that require them to disclose records. At issue is the reach of the attorney-client privilege.
Watchdog.org Texas Bureau

Police dash camera videos that are routinely released in other states could become more available for public view in Pennsylvania under a case argued Wednesday before the state Supreme Court. A state police lawyer voiced strong opposition, saying existing law largely prevents disclosure and warning a change in policy could be costly for police agencies, compromise investigations and expose details about private citizens against their wishes. The legal dispute began when a woman sought copies of dash cam video from a 2014 traffic accident near State College that involved her friend.
Philadelphia Inquirer

Universities and drug companies that use human volunteers for research face tough new rules designed to make sure that valuable information from these volunteers is widely available, not only to the volunteers themselves but to scientists trying to advance medical science. The rules currently on the books are confusing and often ignored. officials are now hoping that will change with clearer, more expansive rules and potentially stinging new penalties put forth by the Department of Health and Human Services. The new rules, published Friday in the Federal Register, are designed to make it easier for scientists, universities and corporations to understand what experiments must be included in the federal database.
NPR

Editorials/Columns

Back in May 1995, the director of the Virginia Press Association, Ginger Stanley, reported to the VPA board of directors that the number of bills seeking to expand exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act had been steadily increasing year by year. VPA’s board noted that because Stanley, also VPA’s lobbyist, was often working on legislation that could impact the business side of the newspaper business, it was sometimes difficult to give equal time and priority to bills affecting public access. A kernel was forming with VPA’s leadership that a separate entity was needed — one that operated independently of VPA or any member of the press — to advance the public’s right to the information it needed to be informed about its state and local government and hold both accountable. By year’s end, the idea for the Virginia Coalition for Open Government had germinated, thanks to the quick work of a steering committee of prominent newspaper folks, bolstered by the strength of Virginia’s broadcasters.
Megan Rhyne, Roanoke Times

AT LEAST A FEW MORE shoes will drop – and perhaps many more than that – before Norfolk gets anywhere near the bottom of the allegations against former City Councilman Anthony Burfoot, who remains Norfolk’s scandalized treasurer. On Friday, Ronnie Boone, one of the city’s most prominent builders, pleaded guilty to bribing both Burfoot and two other city officials. Those people were unnamed, at least for now. Boone, convicted of bank fraud and honest service wire fraud, is scheduled to be sentenced next year. That will be a few months after Burfoot’s trial, now scheduled for November. Residents need confidence in the thoughtful stewardship of their tax dollars and that Norfolk’s dealings are above the board. They cannot be so long as facts such as this continue to come to light and until the last of the guilty are brought to justice.
Virginian-Pilot