Transparency News 3/15/17

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

VCOG is pleased to announce the launch of a new blog that will collect stories about how people use public records and why. We'll hear from citizens, journalists, advocates and those who handle FOIA requests for state and local governments. The blog is called Truth in the Field, and it's edited by VCOG board member Shelley Kimball.
Read Shelley's introduction to the blog on the blog's home page.

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State and Local Stories
 
Richmond City Auditor Umesh Dalal said Tuesday that his office’s efforts to review the city’s tax enforcement and collection measures have been stymied by city finance officials, who have for months declined to allow him access to the relevant tax records. In response, administrators pointed to a state law that says they don’t have to share the information with Dalal’s department: The code allows auditors access to the records only if such a review is specifically requested by a locality’s finance director. And the city’s finance director, John Wack, and his superiors made clear they are not interested in such a review.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Justice Department unsealed a fresh indictment Tuesday charging eight current and former Navy officials - including an admiral – with corruption and other crimes in the "Fat Leonard" bribery case, escalating an epic scandal that has dogged the Navy for the past four years. The Navy personnel are accused of taking bribes in the form of lavish gifts, prostitutes and luxury hotel stays courtesy of Leonard Glenn Francis, a Singapore-based defense contractor who has already pleaded guilty to defrauding the Navy of tens of millions of dollars. The indictment lists page after page of bribes allegedly consumed by the defendants – seven senior officers and one enlisted sailor - including $25,000 watches, $2,000 boxes of Cohiba cigars, $2,000 bottles of cognac and $600-per-night hotel rooms.
Virginian-Pilot



National Stories


portion of President Trump's 2005 tax return, released by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday, shows that Mr. Trump paid $38 million in federal income taxes on reported income of $150 million.
New York Times
The release of two pages of President Donald Trump's 2005 tax returns has sparked a legal dispute, with the White House and a major television network squaring off over whether a law was broken. The White House said MSNBC's publication of the pages Tuesday night violated a federal law that prohibits the unauthorized release of tax returns. But the cable network, which revealed the 1040 form on Rachel Maddow's show, claimed First Amendment privilege.
Yahoo News

A pro-business group's lawsuit set an important precedent last year that messages on a federal employee's private email account can be subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act. However, the suit came up short Monday on its original goal of persuading a federal judge to order an actual search of the private email account in question. The Competitive Enterprise Institute filed suit in 2014 to obtain work-related emails that Office of Science and Technology Policy director John Holdren maintained on an account belonging to his former employer, the Woods Hole Research Center. In a decision Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler said she would not require the feds or Holdren to actually search his account for emails not turned over to the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The judge said she was satisfied with representations from the agency's general counsel and Holdren that his "customary practice" was to forward such messages to his official account, in compliance with agency policy.
Politico

California water regulators rescinded a $1.5 million fine levied against one of California's top tomato processing companies they said had been polluting groundwater after the company uncovered documents contradicting officials. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board imposed the fine last year against Morning Star Packing Co. for expanding two wastewater ponds from 60 to 100 acres without permission and improperly disposing of millions of gallons of waste. The company said Tuesday the decision to rescind the fine came after its lawyers received a report through a Public Records Act request that showed water board staff member summarizing a meeting in which Morning Star informed them of the pond expansions at the plant in Williams.
McClatchy

Paul Houston was “stunned” when he saw Sheridan’s response to a Colorado Open Records Act request concerning his ongoing effort to ban photo radar and red-light cameras in that suburb of Denver. On Feb. 8, he had asked for City Clerk Arlene Sagee’s emails over the previous seven months that mentioned any of 10 specific search terms, including “Houston,” a court case number or the words “initiative” or “signatures.” Sagee’s estimated cost for filling the records request? Nearly $20,000 with a $6,750 deposit due upfront. The Sheridan clerk’s response to Houston’s records request highlights an all-too-common scenario: Emails can vanish with the click of a mouse, and the cost to recover them can be prohibitively expensive in some government jurisdictions, especially smaller ones with modest budgets for information technology. “I asked for only the clerk’s emails from the last few months. How could it be simpler?” Said Sheridan. From the city’s perspective, it wasn’t simple at all. In a Feb. 13 letter, Sagee told Houston that she deletes her email communications “shortly after I’ve read them.” And because the city “does not archive its emails,” an outside IT contractor would have to spend three hours per day to retrieve, segregate and redact 217 days’ worth of emails.
Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition


Editorials/Columns


This year Sunshine Week runs from March 12-18 and aims to "promote open government and push back against excessive official secrecy," according to its mission statement. The seven-day campaign, launched in 2005, reminds citizens of the importance of government transparency — on the local, state and federal level. Sunshine Week celebrates your right to know about government decisions and officials' deliberations. For journalists, the laws that protect citizens' rights to see records and attend meetings are one of many tools we can use. For citizens interested in the accountability of public officials, those laws are vital. Here's a reminder on the importance of this weeklong initiative, taken from our own recent headlines: The Freedom of Information Act — a hallmark of sunshine laws — helped uncover the misuse of your tax dollars as a result of closed-door dealings undertaken by the Peninsula Airport Commission.
Daily Press

On March 12, Sunshine Week began. It highlights the importance of keeping government records open to the public and strongly enforcing freedom of information or Sunshine laws. This national observance is important for one good reason: Taxpayers deserve to know what their government is doing, and they can’t know it if the government does not open meetings and records. Thus, good Sunshine laws are a must.
Daily News Record

In Montgomery County, people unhappy with some personnel moves made by Clerk of Circuit Court Erica Williams circulated petitions last year to force a recall hearing. A judge threw them out, ruling they’d been improperly filed. In Bath County, people unhappy because the board of supervisors voted to eliminate the county’s top tourism post likewise circulated petitions to force a recall hearing for three supervisors. In January, a judge threw them out, ruling the complaints raised did not rise to the level of necessitating such a hearing. There’s a common theme that connects those two otherwise unrelated political disturbances, but it may not be the one you think. It’s this: To get the officeholder in question removed early, opponents had to go through a judge. Virginia, unlike some states, does not generally have recall elections. A few cities have provisions for recall elections in their charters, but those are notable exceptions.
Roanoke Times
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