Transparency News 7/3/17

Monday, July 3, 2017

Transparency News will return Wednesday, July 5.

State and Local Stories

The full text of the current version of FOIA can be found on VCOG’s website.
(Note: some exemption numbering is subject to correction)

A Henrico County Circuit judge has ruled that state lawmakers are not individually subject to the state's Freedom of Information Act, agreeing with an argument by attorneys for state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, that only a "public body," not an individual public official, has a duty to respond. Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government and one of the state's foremost authorities on FOIA, said she had never before heard the argument put forth by Dunnavant's lawyers, which the judge agreed to. "The very foundation of FOIA’s records provisions is that it applies to everyone in government, not just the entities as organizational wholes," she wrote in a blog post.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The $4.5 million loan to People Express Airline that was paid off by taxpayers was not used for landing fees and terminal services at other airports as former Newport News airport Executive Director Ken Spirito has said. Spirito told the Daily Press earlier this year that some $3 million of the loan went to other airports where People Express planned to establish service. But he also said that the Peninsula Airport Commission, which guaranteed the loan, did not keep formal tabs on what the startup did with its $5 million line of credit from TowneBank. The Daily Press contacted all of the airports that People Express said it planned flights to. Only Pittsburgh reported receiving any money from the now-defunct airline in that period.
Daily Press

Tech-oriented and data-savvy folks soon will have the chance to dive deep into a new Charlottesville portal that will disclose public information about policing, property, traffic, parks, demographics and the environment. The launch of the city’s open data portal later this summer is part of an initiative that started last year to make the city government more transparent and encourage the growth of the city’s tech industry. But what is open data? And how will it benefit people not involved in the tech sector? “It’s basically putting data that’s inherently public out there,” said Jessica Otey, a systems administrator for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville. “I’m really into the idea of bridging the gap between the government and individuals. In reality, government is just individuals employed by us,” she said. “They do the things on behalf of all of us.”
Daily Progress

Backers of a proposed charter change that would force action on Richmond Public Schools’ outdated facilities are suing state election officials for access to a restricted list of registered voters. The suit seeks immediate access to the list and poses a legal challenge to the constitutionality of limitations on who may access the information, which is publicly available at local voter registrar’s offices in a different format.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Williamsburg-based charity website GuideStar USA Inc. is being sued after adding — and later removing — "hate group" labels to more than four dozen nonprofits. Earlier this year, the website flagged 46 nonprofits as having been identified as "hate groups" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Banners at the top of the nonprofits' profiles on the portal linked back to the SPLC site, according to The Associated Press. GuideStar, which is based in New Town, maintains a database of 1.7 million U.S. charities including financial information, their mission and leadership.
Virginia Gazette


National Stories


The New York City Police Department has settled a lawsuit over its compliance with the state Freedom of Information law by agreeing to accept and handle record requests by email and to create a written description of its procedures for doing so. The department’s approach to transparency has been under public scrutiny, and the settlement ends a suit filed last year in State Supreme Court by a man who had made a half-dozen requests for police records related to the use of a powerful sound cannon known as a Long Range Acoustic Device. The man, Keegan Stephan, said in the suit that the department failed to justify withholding the records he requested and that a “policy and practice” not to accept or respond to Freedom of Information requests by email violated a 2006 provision of New York State law. Mr. Stephan also argued that by not allowing email requests, the police had increased “the time, effort, and expense involved” in obtaining records.
New York Times

Last week, over 1,500 journalists convened in Phoenix for the 40th Investigative Reporters and Editors conference. And while leaks, scraping, and a number of other cutting-edge techniques were all on display, many attendees brought great FOIA and public records ideas with them. Here’s some of the suggestions I picked up, including stories you can use for inspiration.
Muck Rock

Cybersecurity specialists are warning that President Donald Trump’s voter-fraud commission may unintentionally expose voter data to even more hacking and digital manipulation. Their concerns stem from a letter the commission sent to every state this week, asking for full voter rolls and vowing to make the information “available to the public.” The requested information includes full names, addresses, birth dates, political party and, most notably, the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The commission is also seeking data such as voter history, felony convictions and military service records.
Politico

Donald Trump's White House is stocked with 25 staffers who hold the title of "assistant to the president," according to a disclosure released Friday, which also revealed that nearly two dozen aides all earn an annual salary of roughly $180,000. The White House posted the salaries of its executive office staff in a 16-page document detailing the earnings of nearly 400 individuals — 18 are “detailees,” a distinction for people who were pulled from other agencies or organizations to temporarily serve in a White House role. The document was also shared with Congress, an annual requirement of administrations since 1995.
Politico


Editorials/Columns


The state Supreme Court ruled against us this week. Not against us, the Daily Press — against us, the citizens of Virginia. Including you, gentle reader. Yes, it was the newspaper that filed, pursued and appealed the case, which sought access to a statewide database of information abstracted from circuit court clerks' files. But the true issue is the public's right to see a record — the database — that belongs to the citizens of Virginia. It is our hope that the General Assembly will have a a greater understanding of this issue, and our elected leaders will have clear enough vision to see that it is wrong to refuse to share public information with the citizens they serve.
Daily Press

“Big Brother Is Watching You Vote” could be the unofficial slogan for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Kris Kobach, who is heading up the commission, recently sent a letter to all 50 states asking for a list of all their registered voters — along with their addresses, birth dates, political party registration, voting history, felony status, military status, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. The commission wants to make all that information public. Gosh, what could possibly go wrong? Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe wisely has said no.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

It’s been a year since we poked around Short Hill Mountain trying to explain something. Residents who live near the ridge wondered what was happening there. It was hard to ignore the construction equipment that stripped trees from the ridge line, destroying the view, for the installation of something. Something. A data center? A communications relay station? A telephone transmission utility substation? Who knows? Something. In coming weeks, the county is expected to approve the final land-development application of the secret project, a document exempt from public disclosure. Accountability and explanations should come first. It’s the secret, not the knowing, that raises suspicions and fears.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
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