Transparency News 9/25/14
State and Local Stories
Gov. Terry McAuliffe will announce on Thursday the formation of a commission to study ethics, campaign-finance reform and nonpartisan redistricting. The announcement comes less than a month after former governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, were convicted of corruption. McAuliffe (D) will put two high-profile former officeholders at the helm of the commission: Bill Bolling, a former Republican lieutenant governor, and Rick Boucher, a Democrat who represented southwestern Virginia in Congress for nearly three decades, according to two people familiar with McAuliffe’s plan. The two spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information before Thursday’s announcement.
Washington Post
In the first legal filing in his defense, Richmond City Auditor/Inspector General Umesh Dalal is asking a court to order former city official Sharon Judkins to spell out exactly what he said that prompted her $10.7 million defamation lawsuit against him. In a motion filed in Richmond Circuit Court on Sept. 18, Dalal’s attorneys ask the court to order Judkins to specify “the exact words alleged to be false and/or defamatory.” Judkins, a former chief administrative officer for finance and administration, filed the civil suit against Dalal in late July. She claims Dalal’s report on former Chief Administrative Officer Byron C. Marshall’s attempt to boost her retirement pension defamed her by suggesting she and Marshall conspired to take public money to which she was not entitled. Her lawsuit alleged Dalal knew his statements “were false and that they would cause great harm to Ms. Judkins’ reputation and to her emotional and mental well-being.” But the lawsuit doesn’t clearly highlight any particular language as giving rise to the defamation claim.
Times-Dispatch
Arlington County Board members have gone on record in support of so-called nonpartisan redistricting of state legislative districts. Board members on Sept. 23 voted 5-0 to have Virginia move away from its long-standing tradition, which has the majority parties of the state Senate and House of Delegates draw district lines following each federal census.
InsideNOVA
WHY ARE YOU A VCOG MEMBER? "The ins and outs of the workings and non-workings of government, state and local in particular, have long fascinated me. VCOG plays a vital role in holding those governments accountable to those of us who cared enough to elect them. I’ve forgotten how long ago I joined VCOG, but renewing my membership each year is as automatic as pouring my morning coffee." -- John Sabean, Hillsville
National Stories
The often-embattled Department of Veterans Affairs won the war but may lose an embarrassing battle over its handling of Freedom of Information Act litigation. In what seems a rather noteworthy ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman first sided with the VA in rejecting a FOIA challenge by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, but then raised the possibility of sanctioning the VA for its actions. “This Court...is deeply troubled by the VA’s litigation conduct in the case: inaccurate declarations were left uncorrected for months despite the fact that already-executed declarations to the contrary existed but were withheld, apparently as a litigation tactic,” Friedman stated. Friedman further ordered the VA to “show cause why a sanction under 28 U.S.C. § 1927, in the form of attorneys’ fees and costs, should not be awarded for the additional time and effort CREW’s attorneys were required to expend due to the VA’s tactics.”McClatchy
A private nonprofit government watchdog group will soon work with congressional committees to help them oversee federal spending and programs. The Project on Government Oversight presently offers lunchtime seminars to train Hill staffers in skills they need to conduct oversight research, from working with whistleblowers to digesting inspector general reports. Given the relative success of its existing program, POGO began developing an expanded version of the seminars more than a year ago. The group offered its first training session in 2006. POGO officials said they saw a need for oversight instruction among congressional staffers after several approached the nonprofit for help in filing Freedom of Information Act requests.
Washington Examiner
In politics, it is sometimes better to be lucky than good. Republicans and Democrats, and groups sympathetic to each, spend millions on sophisticated technology to gain an advantage. They do it to exploit vulnerabilities and to make their own information secure. But sometimes, a simple coding mistake can lay bare documents and data that were supposed to be concealed from the prying eyes of the public. Such an error by the Republican Governors Association recently resulted in the disclosure of exactly the kind of information that political committees given tax-exempt status usually keep secret, namely their corporate donors and the size of their checks. That set off something of an online search war between the association and a Washington watchdog group that spilled other documents, Democratic and Republican, into the open.
New York Times
On September 25, 1690, the first colonial newspaper in America, Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, was published. Although some English newspapers and single-page broadsides had been available to read before, this was the first true multi-page colonial newspaper. However, it was suppressed after its first edition. The British governor forced publisher Benjamin Harris and printer Richard Pierce to close down the newspaper for “reflections of a very high nature” and for failing to obtain a correct printing license. Harris hoped to publish the Boston newspaper every month, but his September 25th edition remained the only issue printed.
Poynter
Editorials/Columns
Don't fret, residents of Portsmouth: Perhaps you, too, can cop a sweet deal like the one council members carved out for Jesse Andre Thomas, the city auditor. He’s spent more than 17 months in his nearly six-figure post, but Thomas hasn’t completed a single audit. (That’s the raison d’être for the municipal position, by the way.) Yet, a majority of City Council members think he’s doing such a swell job, they decided Monday to keep him. Last week, several told me they were going to fire Thomas. Several council members have declined to say publicly why they’ve painted themselves into Thomas’ corner. Wright, Cherry and Curtis Edmonds Sr. – who all reportedly sought to spare the auditor – didn’t discuss their positions with The Pilot Tuesday night. Why not? It’s a personnel issue, sure, but residents are owed an honest explanation. When council members go mute, it suggests they’re hiding something.Roger Chesley, Virginian-Pilot
