Transparency News 9/8/15

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

State and Local Stories


Citing concern for the victims, Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton announced Friday that his office does not intend to release the 23-page manifesto faxed to ABC News by Vester Lee Flanagan II on Aug. 26 — the same day his deadly rampage occurred at Smith Mountain Lake. “Flanagan was determined to make his disturbing and deadly agenda a public show,” Overton said in a news release. “Out of respect for Alison [Parker], Adam [Ward], and Vicki [Gardner], this sheriff’s office refuses to further aid him in that quest and allow him to re-victimize these individuals and their families by making public his rambling correspondence and writings.” The writings are evidence in an ongoing investigation, Overton said, which exempts them under the Freedom of Information Act. Overton’s news release also acknowledged the 17 stamped letters and the “to do” list that were found in Flanagan’s car after he fatally shot himself off Interstate 66 in Fauquier County hours after the attack.
Roanoke Times

Roughly one in four of Virginia's elected circuit court clerks either ignored a recent request for records of some of their financial dealings or said the state Freedom of Information Act did not apply to them.  They took this stance at about the same time that a majority of their number rebuffed a request by the administrators of the state court system, the Supreme Court Office of the Executive Secretary, when it asked clerks to release databases of criminal case information to the Daily Press. Some of the 23 clerks who did not respond to a Daily Press FOIA within the five working days state law requires did eventually provide information about who gets online access to clerks' records after the Daily Press sent a follow-up request. Among those was Gloucester County clerk Margaret Walker. Five still had not responded 15 working days after the newspaper's request. In addition, a dozen clerks said the Freedom of Information Act did not apply to them. Those clerks cited a section of the state code that exempts some clerks' records but that adds, "However, other records maintained by the clerks of such courts shall be public records and subject to the provisions" of FOIA. "It seems pretty plain to me. They are not entirely exempt from FOIA. Period," said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, a Williamsburg-based nonprofit that pushes for more transparency and accountability in government.
Daily Press

A majority of Circuit Court Clerks in the Heart of Virginia aren’t complying or responding to a records request from the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES) of the Virginia Supreme Court. Buckingham Clerk Malcolm Booker Jr., along with Cumberland Clerk Sarah Spry, Prince Edward Clerk Machelle Epps and Charlotte Clerk Stuart Fallen, have been named as respondents in the suit, according the Newport News Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. Booker said he’s not sending the files to the newspaper, while Erby said he will comply. “I’m not because they think they can just walk in and take our records without paying for them like everybody else, the public or like you,” Booker said. “They think they should have total access to it and we should do all these special things for them which I’m not going to do. I’m not doing it.” Booker said if they met his criteria he’d let them have the records. “They’re just not going to waltz in and waltz out and just demand everything without any charge or anything. I’m just not doing it.” “They just want to have a free ride, basically … They should go through the same steps as everybody else,” he said.
Farmville Herald

The attorney for a black University of Virginia student who was bloodied during an arrest by white state alcohol agents says he has been given only limited access to a report on the incident. Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) ordered state police to investigate the March arrest of Martese Johnson, which fed a national debate over police relations with minorities and renewed concerns about the law-enforcement arm of the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. In August, ABC announced that three agents were returning to duty because a state police report had cleared them of any wrongdoing related to the arrest. But state officials have declined to release the report.  “Mr. Johnson could release parts of the report that relate directly to him,” the governor said on WRVA’s “Ask the Governor” program. Daniel P. Watkins, Johnson’s attorney, said that was news to him. “We don’t have it,” Watkins said. “We requested it multiple times to no avail.”
Washington Post

A group with dozens of years of collective experience on the City Council gathered last week with current councilors to both reminisce and offer advice on how to steer Charlottesville’s future. “Maybe this group can soften the kind of blows that occur when people feel like they’re being left out of the conversation,” said Holly Edwards, who served on the council from 2008 to 2011. Edwards wants to create an informal coalition of former elected officials who can offer wisdom and direction not only to the city’s leaders but the community at large. “I didn’t want a group that would have to weigh in on controversial issues,” Edwards said. “It’s just meaningful citizen engagement from a perspective that a lot of people will never have, but we were blessed with that opportunity.”
Charlottesville Tomorrow

Culpeper-area law enforcement use of automatic license plate readers remains fairly limited even as the broader debate continues pitting personal liberty versus effective implementation of the crime-fighting tool recently used to great success in capturing the man accused of murdering two on-air Roanoke journalists. Still making headlines is the story of how Virginia State Trooper Pamela Neff combined good police work and a license plate reader to catch Vester Lee Flanagan on August 26 in Fauquier County, less than five hours after he killed WDBJ7-TV employees Alison Parker and Adam Park at Smith Mountain Lake. But also making headlines is a Fairfax County judge's decision, two days later on August 28, refusing to dismiss the ACLU's suit challenging the Fairfax Police Department's use of electronic tag readers. "This case is simple," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia, in a statement. "Our laws make clear that law-abiding Virginians should be free to travel around the commonwealth without police departments tracking, storing and sharing their vehicle's movements with other law enforcement agencies. We thank Judge (Grace) Carroll for allowing this case to move forward." Virginia State Police Sgt. Les Tyler, with the Culpeper division, said automated license plate readers do not infringe on personal freedom.
Culpeper Star-Exponent

Police Chief Jeffrey McKenney’s employment with the town of Newsoms was terminated by Mayor Kenneth Wayne Cooke on Aug. 18, a decision that town council member Judith Rose said the mayor made on his own authority. “He never told us nothing about what he knew last year,” Rose said, referencing a letter that Southampton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Cooke wrote to Mayor Cooke in October 2014 with regard to his lack of trust in the police chief. “If our mayor knew, why didn’t he bring it to our attention? He didn’t ask town council [to fire McKenney], either, and it’s supposed to be unanimous … Kenny’s overstepped his bounds.” Rose also stated that town council would not have moved to relieve McKenney of his duties had they been made aware of Commonwealth’s Attorney Cooke’s letter, which referenced a grand jury indictment in which McKenney was charged with one felony count of obtaining money under false pretenses from the Dinwiddie County Sheriff’s Department, simply because the mayor did not see it as an issue when he hired the chief. The charges against McKenney were ultimately dropped.
Tidewater News

National Stories
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The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sued Springdale on Thursday, seeking to force the release of records related to a 911 call from the Jim Bob Duggar residence in May and two letters to the city attorney from a juvenile court judge. "Access to public documents is vital to keeping citizens fully aware of how their government works. Something has changed in the city of Springdale's approach to releasing these records," said Rusty Turner, editor of the newspaper. "It's important to find out why and whether it will be an impediment to the release of other public documents in the future. It's clear to us that the records we requested should be disclosed. It's too bad that litigation will be required to accomplish that," he said.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The Justice Department's move to put more than 30 lawsuits relating to the emails of Hillary Clinton and four of her top aides in front of a single judge appears unlikely to be resolved before mid-September at the earliest. U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle issued an order Friday giving plaintiffs in the various Freedom of Information Act cases until Sept. 14 to respond to the government's request to name a coordinating judge to oversee deadlines for search and production of various sets of emails, as well as contentious issues relating to State's obligations to preserve records that may be responsive to the public records requests at issue.
Politico

U.S. government conflicts with Apple and Microsoft reflect heightened corporate resistance, in the post-Edward J. Snowden era, by American technology companies intent on demonstrating that they are trying to protect customer information. President Obama has charged White House Homeland Security and cybersecurity officials, along with those at the Justice Department, the FBI and the intelligence agencies, with proposing solutions — some legislative, some not — to the technology access issue
New York Times

Editorials/Columns

In this November’s elections, no one running for Augusta County School Board has opposition. Worse, two districts — Riverheads and Beverley Manor — have no one on the ballot. We understand the hesitance to serve. First, there’s having to run for the office. We know skilled people who might be willing to serve on a local board or council, but they are unwilling to mount actual campaigns with fundraising. We get it. Running for office can be humiliating, and campaign skills do not necessarily match governing skills. Someone with the wisdom and intelligence required of a school board member might not have the patience to campaign. Is it telling that when Waynesboro appointed someone to fill a school board vacancy, several people applied for consideration? We think so. Second, local governing is difficult. School board members have tough jobs that take hours of time and heart with no taxing authority. Staunton does not even pay its school board members. At least Augusta does that, at $3,000 per year. Waynesboro pays $5,100. Downsides understood, the job of school board member has paramount importance. Communities are only as strong as their schools. We’ve said that many times before and will again.
News Leader