Transparency News 9/6/16

 

For the first time, residents can have a better idea of what takes place at Alexandria city council’s closed executive sessions after a new report was published detailing recent proceedings. The report, prepared by city clerk Jackie Henderson and posted online, details the number of times council went into executive session during the 2016 fiscal year, the legal rationale for each session and the votes to initiate and certify those meetings. The report says council entered executive session during its legislative meetings on 15 occasions in that period, seven under former Mayor Bill Euille and eight after Mayor Allison Silberberg was sworn in last January. Each executive session was entered into with a unanimous vote, and while staff can be given instructions in closed sessions by councilors, official decisions and votes must be made in open session. The number of executive sessions is consistent with previous fiscal years — viewable in each meeting’s minutes on the city’s website. In the 2015 fiscal year, council held 13 closed meetings, and in fiscal 2014 it had 18. 
Alexandria Times

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors will discuss a prohibition on electronic communications at its first meeting after the August break on Tuesday. The proposed change to the board’s rules of order would prohibit board members “from communicating electronically (email, text message or similar means) with other Board Members during Board business meetings, Public Hearings, committee meetings, or other meetings of the Board, about topics that are on that meeting’s agenda.” Supervisor Tony Buffington (R-Blue Ridge) inadvertently ignited a controversy by texting to members of the board’s Transportation and Land Use Committee at a meeting July 22. Del. J. Randall Minchew (R-10), who was acting as an attorney representing Harris Teeter in an application, said that was “a blatant violation of the Freedom of Information Act.” County Attorney Leo Rogers said there was no violation of the FOIA disclosure rules, and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act Council said the case was new ground for FOIA law in the state. “I don’t think that I’ve seen a court ruling on it anywhere,” said Virginia FOIA Council attorney Alan Gernhardt at the time. “On a practical level, this one’s just kind of weird, because they were actually having a meeting, there was notice, and they did include it in the minutes. I guess the question really becomes: Did one member improperly participate? And I don’t really know the answer to that.” FOIA Council Executive Director Maria Everett agreed with Rogers that there was no FOIA violation, but did add that the texts are in the public record.
Loudoun Now

A federal judge Friday rejected an effort to question Harold W. Clarke, the director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, in a suit filed against a corrections officer by one of two prisoners involved in an inmate-on-inmate assault three years ago. Inmate James H. Raynor argues that video surveillance recordings he asked to be saved support his claims, but that they were lost or destroyed in violation of state law. At Friday’s hearing before Anderson, J. Michael Parsons, an assistant attorney general, argued against the subpoena for Clarke to give a deposition on the video retention issue, telling Anderson, “We’ve gone down a rabbit trail here.” Anderson responded, “It’s turned into something really pretty serious.” However, Anderson said that if Clarke had no additional knowledge of the specific incident in question he could not see why Clarke would need to give a deposition.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Virginia Beach City Council candidate Robert Dean is accusing his opponent, incumbent Shannon Kane, of “improper influence” after city emails show a request was sent to Virginia Beach firefighters for help putting up signs for her campaign. The emails were sent using vbgov.comaddresses. The use of city equipment for political purposes is prohibited by city code. Capt. William Bailey, who is president of the Virginia Beach Firefighters Union, sent an email on Aug. 18 to “FDCapts” with the subject line “Help Me?” Bailey said Friday that he thought he was sending the emails from his personal account and that they were “inadvertently” sent from his work email on his cellphone.
Virginian-Pilot

The man alleging that the city of Charlottesville violated his First Amendment rights wants a federal judge to suspend the City Council’s “group defamation” rule. Joe Draego, of Albemarle County, filed a lawsuit against the city late last month after being removed from a City Council meeting weeks earlier. During the public comment periods of the June 20 meeting, Draego spoke twice about his concerns over the influx of Muslims to the Central Virginia area. Draego states in the declaration that that the council will not suffer any “demonstrable harm” by not enforcing the rule, and notes that there is no evidence of the rule having ever been invoked before. With its remaining rules in place against profanity, vulgar language, threatening language and more, the council already has “ample protection” to conduct its business, he states.
Daily Progress

State Senator Richard Stuart has accepted the position of Westmoreland County Attorney. He will replace Thomas Bondurant beginning on Sept 1. Bondurant has been appointed to serve as a Judge in Henrico County General District Court. His eleven and a half years as Westmoreland County Attorney will end this month. Westmoreland County Administrator Norm Risavi explained how the Board of Supervisors has hired Richard Stuart as Westmoreland County Attorney, stating, “When we spoke to him he was very agreeable. It’s really convenient to have an attorney right across the street.”
Westmoreland News

In what likely will be a marathon meeting, the Petersburg City Council today will seek public input on a series of proposed measures aimed at closing the city’s $12 million budget gap.
Richmond Times-Dispatch



National Stories
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staffers employed an informal and sometimes haphazard system for exchanging and storing sensitive information and were at times either unaware or unconcerned with State Department policy, documents from an FBI investigation into her private email server system show. The documents reveal a myriad of new details about the email set-up and show that investigators found multiple attempts by hackers to access Clinton’s system — a series of personal devices and servers that the Democratic presidential candidate told investigators she used as a matter of convenience while she was secretary of state.
Washington Post