Eight new discretionary exemptions got added to the state's Freedom of Information Act on July 1  two for meetings, six for records.

None of the eight significantly restricts previous access policy  but that's because most were tightened before getting a final OK from the General Assembly and Gov. Mark Warner.

FOIA took its biggest hit from rewrites of eight older exemptions, particularly ones dealing with security-related issues.

A major setback also occurred at the end of the legislative session when a new public body got a free pass from FOIA  a "privilege" generally afforded in the past to grand and petit juries, the crime commission, certain family assessment teams and much of the state parole board.

This time, it was the Department of Corrections' so-called Commitment Review Committee that gained a sweeping exclusion from open-government rules. That means "any documents, evaluations, assessments and proceedings" involving continued commitment of a violent sex offender are off-limits to public scrutiny.

The FOI Advisory Council has since agreed to look for ways to craft a narrower exemption for the commitment committee's confidential work  without permitting it total secrecy.

A rewrite of exemption #57 allows so-called "critical infrastructure" records to be confidential if voluntarily submitted by Virginia-based utilities or other private-sector businesses. The exemption is intended to prevent terrorist threats to critical assets such as dams or nuclear plants; the danger, however, is that citizens will be blocked from accessing information that could protect them.

The amended language isn't as far-reaching as a new federal law, which trumps weaker state laws and provides immunity from civil liability. But no identifiable harm was ever cited to justify non-disclosure  and no sunset provision was added to make certain these "vulnerability" records do not stay exempt forever.

School boards also got a separate FOIA exception for school-building security plans that qualify as "critical infrastructure" records. But both it and the critical infrastructure exemption are limited by an amendment pushed by the Virginia Press Association that nothing would prohibit disclosure in the aftermath of personal injuries, fires, explosions, natural disasters or other catastrophic events.

Several bad bills died quiet deaths or got shipped to the FOI Advisory Council for more study  or more quiet deaths. Among them: a bizarre plan to try to stop disclosure of Virginia election results until California voting ended (it won House passage but died in a Senate committee).

Good legislation met a better fate:

" Minimum penalties were increased for FOIA violators. First-time offenders face a $250 penalty; previously, it was $100. Repeat offenders face a $1,000 penalty; previously, it was $500.
" Del. Winsome Sears' (R-Norfolk) tough new disclosure rules got adopted for future disciplining of bad doctors.
" Future governors were told to withhold only "strictly" personal records from the state's archives.
" Video conferencing rules were further relaxed (through 2005). Sen. Steve Newman (R-Lynchburg) and Del. Joe May (R-Loudoun) later co-wrote a letter urging state boards and commissions to make better use of the state's pilot project to demonstrate that access can be enhanced, not harmed, with electronic meetings.
" Media access rules got spelled out for Virginia's polling places.
" Open-meeting rules also were clarified for members of local electoral boards.
" Campaign-finance laws were tightened to require disclosure of fund-raising and expenditures for referendums, thus closing a loophole created by a Supreme Court of Virginia ruling.

House Democrats opened their caucus meetings throughout the session, except when discussing personnel issues.

House budget conferees, Republican and Democrat, opened their negotiations  but most of the Senate's budget negotiators kept joint discussions shut down, though Sen. William Wampler (R-Bristol) was an exception to that rule.

Use of the Internet to disseminate public information also made headway in the '03 session.

Virginia DOT was told to post highway funding and construction updates on its Web site; the state comptroller must disclose detailed online information about agency fees; and agency regulations will be posted more routinely.

Significantly, state officials were ordered to provide easy Internet access to future budget proposals, cross-referenced, "with language that can be easily understood." (Budget information is already online, but not in user-friendly formats.)

The '03 legislative session also demonstrated the effectiveness of the FOI Advisory Council. Between legislative sessions, FOI Advisory Council subcommittees worked out a couple of compromises that legislators approved without change.

For a complete list of legislators' bills, as tracked by VCOG, please check this Web site:
http://www.opengovva.org/legislative/legislature2003bills.html