State agencies post FOIA responsibilities

Freedom of Information gained visibility at mid-year (at least in the executive branch of state government), thanks to Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and Del. Terri Suit, R-Virginia Beach.

Effective July 1, FOIA was amended to require state agencies to post FOI “rights and responsibilities” on their Web sites.

Kilgore initiated the idea; Suit was the bill’s chief patron.

The Freedom of Information Advisory Council created a model template. It includes designation of a FOI contact person at each agency. The template could easily be adapted for use by local public bodies, including governing bodies and school boards. Council staff say they are happy to assist localities in such efforts.

A couple of good postings:

DEQ: http://www.deq.state.va.us/info/foia.html

U.Va.: http://www.virginia.edu/foia

As Phyllis Cook pointed out in an article in Northern Virginia’s Journal newspaper, “the new law also requires each agency to state its policy about types of records it routinely withholds.” The template lists a few records exemptions applicable to all state agencies.

“Each agency needs to identify other exemptions it routinely uses for inclusion in the document. They may also wish to amend other provisions of the template to more accurately reflect its policies concerning FOIA requests.

“For example, an agency may have an existing policy to only charge a requester for records if the cost of the request exceeds $15. In that case, the agency would want to amend the section of the template addressing costs to capture this agency-specific policy. ”

Allen answers the Qs

Say what you will about U.S. Sen. George Allen and his politics, Virginia’s junior senator deserves respect and thanks from his constituents for leveling with them – and he’s not even up for re-election this year.

When Allen sought the Senate seat in 2000, he was asked by Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that neither supports nor opposes candidates, to state publicly where he stood on a number of issues. The idea was to present to the public some basic factual information to help voters evaluate both the issues and candidates.

Maybe Allen was simply naive by professional political consultants’ standards, but he completed an extensive, multipage questionnaire, giving his positions on an array of issues, from taxation to national defense to abortion to welfare policies.

Work sessions carried on Hampton's cable TV

Hampton City Council began televising its afternoon work sessions Dec. 8, with rebroadcast in the evenings.

In the past, only the council’s evening meetings were broadcast on the city ’s cable Channel 47.

As The Daily Press said in an editorial, “A lot of the public’s business gets done at these informal meetings, and the public ought to be able to listen in. ”

The editorial urged cable companies and the Peninsula’s local governments to explore ways to make such broadcasts available throughout the region.

“Someone who lives in Hampton and works in Newport News might be interested in the decisions made by the councils of both cities, but now they can only watch broadcasts within their city,” the editorial said.

Danville interviews brought into the open

Appointment of interim local-government officials isn’t always easy, even when the informal voting is behind closed doors (and that’s permissible, according to a ruling from the FOI Advisory Council).

In localities where public input is valued, school boards, municipal bodies and boards of supervisors formally seek applicants, interview some or all of the candidates in public, then may or may not go into closed session to reach informal agreement on a preferred choice. (FOIA requires only that the formal vote occur in public – although it should require more.)

In places where secrecy’s the norm, applications aren’t sought, interviews never take place in the open. Voter backlash inevitably follows — along with negative newspaper editorials.

Some learn from the experience, some do not.

To its credit, Danville City Council learned from its mistake.

Two years ago, the council filled a vacancy in secret, prompting The Danville Register & Bee to complain, “We didn’t get to meet the applicants in an open forum; we didn’t get to watch Council interview the 11 candidates. ”

Twice burned (another appointment also got mishandled), the council changed the city code to require open interviews.

When another vacancy came along, council interviewed the applicants in open session. A positive editorial followed.

Suffolk holds nearby retreat

The city council’s out-of-area retreats drew a lot of criticism in years past. Some complained of taxpayer cost. Others lamented lack of access to citizens.

Council got the message. For the latest planning retreat, a site was picked in nearby Williamsburg.

De-fusing the NIMBY fights

Not-in-My-BackYard arguments almost always pop up when sites suddenly are proposed for prisons or regional jails (just ask Roanoke County, where several hundred citizens recently marched on the courthouse).

With a legislator’s help, the NIMBY backlash was avoided in one Western Virginia locality.

Extra public hearings were held, other prison sites were visited and employee work conditions were researched.

“Whatever your opinion on the proposed Grayson County prison,” The Galax Gazette editorial page said, “you have to agree that county supervisors are handling the matter in a thoroughly professional manner.”

“From the start, when Del. Bill Carrico, R-Fries, first announced that he was hoping to steer the project and its 300-plus jobs to western Grayson, the supervisors have held all their discussions in public and kept the public informed every step of the way. ”

“E-governance” in Culpeper

Town council’s embracing the idea of “paperless meetings.”

Nine council members and two officials are getting laptops, at a cost of just under $2,000 each.

Town and county board documents are posted online (for members and the public). The county boardroom, where both town council and the board of supervisors hold their regular meetings, will be equipped with wi-fi and plasma screen TVs so the audience can follow along with meeting information as elected representatives view it at their seats on computer screens.

Town Manager Brannon Godfrey said any word processing would be an appropriate use for the town-issued computers, but he cautioned council about downloading programs from the Internet.

“All the information on (the laptops) is subject to FOIA requests,” he noted.

U.Va. Judiciary Committee holds its first open trial

The University of Virginia’s Judiciary Committee held a four-hour open trial in September, apparently the first such open trial in UJC ’s history.

Angela Carrico, UJC chair, said “it was good for the UJC to let some people see how our trial process works.” In the trial, a Tibetan activist was found guilty of violating two University Standards of Conduct and was sentenced to 20 hours of community service. The graduate student had tried to chain himself to a banister in the Dome Room of the Rotunda during a speech by the Chinese ambassador. The UJC hears all cases involving violations of the Standards of Conduct, and can impose any sanction, ranging from oral admonition to expulsion.