Transparency News 9/22/16

Thursday, September 22, 2016


 
State and Local Stories
 
Twenty years ago, facing a rash of legislation that would adversely affect the public’s right to know, a group of advocates, public officials, academics and other civic-minded citizens began working to develop an organization to give the cause of transparency greater voice in Virginia. Tonight, that group – the Virginia Coalition for Open Government – marks its anniversary with a dinner in Richmond. The festivities will include a tribute to Ginger Stanley, the former head of the Virginia Press Association and one of the organization’s founding members. The event is intended to be a celebration, and well it should be. Certainly the group can be proud of its accomplishments in making and keeping government in Virginia more open and accessible.
Virginian-Pilot

The Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal requested by the Daily Press in a yearlong dispute over whether the state’s Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court must release a database of court case information. The decision was issued Sept. 19, about two and a half weeks after lawyers representing the Daily Press argued that the state’s highest court should hear the case.
(NOTE: VCOG signed on to a brief urging the court to accept the case.)
Daily Press

The Greene County Board of Supervisors heard from two residents of the Golden Hills subdivision at its Sept. 13 meeting questioning its use of the closed meeting sections to discuss the business of public roads in that subdivision. “I hope that this can end the conversation that these are private roads and we can move forward on that,” he said. “However, while that said, that’s not why I’m here to talk today. I’d like to speak today to make the public aware of two issues my neighbors and I have encountered while we’ve been going through this process of public roads.” The first, he said, is the appearance the board is not complying with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act by discussing items during closed-door session that are not appropriate. David Underwood, another Golden Hills resident, said a second concern the neighbors have is the fact that the FOIA request response did not include all the information the county could have about this subject. “I know there was information, in particular the plat showing that the roads were dedicated to the public, that information was never given in my FOIA request,” Underwood said. “Mr. McPeeks has spoken with the FOIA board on this, and it’s of their opinion we need to be given the FOIA requested statements that were made as far as how far back this information went. Where is that information?”
Greene County Record



National Stories


The Michigan House passed a package of bills Wednesday that for the first time in Michigan would subject the governor's office and the Legislature to state open records laws. The Free Press reported in 2014 that Michigan was one of only two states in which both the governor and the Legislature have blanket exemptions from public records disclosure laws. The bills — 10 in all — would expand the Michigan Freedom of Information Act to apply to the governor and his executive office staff and set up a new Legislative Open Records Act to apply to lawmakers and the Legislature.
Detroit Free Press

A leading conservative on Texas' Board of Education floated the idea of walking out of an upcoming discussion on a controversial Mexican-American studies textbook to "deny the Hispanics a record vote," according to an email a watchdog group released Wednesday. The board is set to vote in November on a high-school level Mexican-American studies book. The left-leaning Texas Freedom Network used an open records request to obtain an email in which David Bradley, a Republican from Beaumont, suggests skipping the vote to a Republican colleague. If enough board members boycott the proceedings, the book would be defeated without a recorded vote.
Fox News

Government needs to adopt a share first mentality for departmental data. Its easy exchange should be the default, not the arduous and exceptional result of lengthy administrative and legal battles to pry data from legacy computer systems and siloed departments. Departments within a single government entity should be able to freely use data that's been scrubbed of sensitive personal information, although clear policies concerning the process for anonymizing the information, as well as how long and under what conditions it will be archived, are necessary.
Governing


Editorials/Columns

Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one whose feet have been dragging on the ground lately. And a federal judge isn’t happy about it. Richard Leon gave lawyers representing the State Department a tongue-lashing over the glacial pace at which it has been producing documents in response to a Freedom-of-Information Act request.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

 

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