Transparency News 7/20/17

Thursday, July 20, 2017



State and Local Stories

A General District judge in Accomack County said he will rule by early August on a case involving a man who made dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests to two state offices — the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Testimony and arguments were given during a nearly five-hour hearing Friday in Accomac. Dr. William H. Turner filed a writ of mandamus with the court about the requests. Turner claims the Attorney General "is attempting to block my inquiry into $1.8 million in missing funds that has been doled out to about 175 Circuit Court judges in the last eight years," according to a letter he wrote to the News Leader of Staunton in May. Turner sent requests for information about judges' finances to individual Circuit judges as well as sending multiple requests under the Freedom of Information Act to the Virginia Attorney General's office and the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia beginning in 2015, according to Turner's letter.
Delmarva Now

The Richmond City Council has decided to keep the terms of City Auditor Umesh Dalal’s resignation secret, declining a request for a copy of Dalal’s departure agreement, which would describe any payouts or financial incentives Dalal may have been given as part of his decision to step down. In refusing the request for the document from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, City Attorney Allen Jackson cited an exemption in the state’s Freedom of Information Act that allows but does not require the city to withhold the document. The exemption only applies to contracts with employees that settle employment disputes, but in a statement after the vote, City Council President Chris Hilbert stressed that Dalal’s resignation was voluntary. Jackson said he could not comment on the apparent contradiction — though the denial of the request suggests that while Dalal’s resignation may technically have been his decision, it settled a matter the City Council considered to be an employment dispute.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

President Donald Trump on Wednesday questioned the motives of states that have refused to comply with his voter fraud commission's request for extensive personal voter information, suggesting they have something to hide. "One has to wonder what they're worried about," Trump told the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. He said, "There's something, there always is." Virginia is among the states refusing to turn over data to the commission. Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, previously said, "At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump's alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression."
Virginian-Pilot

Hopewell City Attorney Stefan Calos submitted his resignation to Hopewell City Council Wednesday morning, citing “the abuse that has been inflicted upon this office by some city councilors.” Calos’ memo, which was submitted to City Council, cites several incidents that allegedly occurred during his tenure as part of a larger pattern of circumstances “that have made it untenable” for him to continue in his role as city attorney, a position he has held since 2015. The attorney’s resignation also constitutes the resignation from the city’s employ of legal firm Sands Anderson. According to Calos’ contract, which The Progress-Index obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Hopewell agreed to retain Sands Anderson “primarily in the person of Stefan M. Calos” as “chief legal advisor to the City Council, the City Manager, and departments, boards, commissions, and agencies of the City in all matters affecting the interests of the City.”
Progress-Index

Employees of the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator — including Abingdon Mayor Cathy Lowe, who is the incubator’s director — aren’t eligible to receive benefits from the Virginia Retirement System, so VRS will refund contributions paid to the town on behalf of current and past employees. VRS officials declared that the incubator’s employees were not eligible to receive retirement benefits in a July 12 letter to Washington County Board Supervisor Vernon Smith, who requested an opinion.
Herald Courier



National Stories
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We here in the (Rochester) Democrat and Chronicle newsroom found it very cathartic to write in March about our Freedom of Information requests that had been ignored, misplaced or mishandled. Better yet, it seemed to generate some results — one of the requests I wrote about got resolved that day, and another one was reinvigorated. As promised, here are some updates, and a few new complaints.
Democrat & Chronicle

The state Wisconsin Department of Justice has started publishing a list of pending record requests online. The agency announced in a news release Wednesday that it has added the list to its website and will update it weekly. The list contains the name of the requestor, a description of the records being sought and when the request was made.
McClatchy

A reporter from the White House press corps went rogue Wednesday when she livestreamed audio from the day’s press briefing. Ksenija Pavlovic, a former political science teaching fellow at Yale and founder of the news site Pavlovic Today, used the Periscope app to stream the briefing audio, also tweeting a link to the feed, according to the Washington Post. The seemingly rebellious act marks a significant development in relations between the media and the White House. Trump’s spokespeople have ordered the press corps not to film or broadcast live audio at every White House briefing since June 29. Reporters have balked at recent restrictions on coverage of the briefings, urging that the White House allow live broadcasts. But they have complied with the rules, despite carrying smartphones that can stream video or audio in seconds.
Fox News