Transparency News 11/20/15

State and Local Stories

Glen Lyn's town manager will become mayor after resigning his current post. Howard Spencer, won a special election Nov. 3 with 13 write-in votes, according to the Giles County Voter Registrar’s office. He will be sworn in "soon," he said. A recent contact list for the Glen Lyn town administration from government publication Virginia Review showed Spencer was the town manager, parks and recreation director, public works director and purchasing agent for the locality. Virginia law prohibits local elected officials from entering into a contract of employment with the body they are a part of — like a town council. However, there is an exception: If the person has the job before he is elected, he can keep the employment contract, according to state law. Spencer’s situation is uncommon in Virginia, according to Roger Wiley, a Richmond attorney specializing in local government law. “I’ve never heard of that happening before,” said Wiley, who has worked as a local government attorney for about 40 years.
Roanoke Times

In a move that didn’t surprise many in the legal community, the Town of Culpeper filed a motion seeking to “nonsuit” or drop the pending civil lawsuit filed against Commonwealth’s Attorney Megan Frederick and her assistant prosecutors this summer. The town’s writ of mandamus filing – a request to have the court require the prosecutors to do what the town perceived was their job – asked the circuit court to appoint a special prosecutor, disqualify attorneys in the Culpeper County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in all cases involving Culpeper Police Officer Matthew Haymaker and force the office of Megan Frederick, commonwealth’s attorney, to create a special budget to pay for special prosecutors in cases involving Haymaker. On Nov. 17, Town Attorney Martin Crim filed a Motion For Order of Nonsuit in circuit court. As of press time, Circuit Court Susan Whitlock had not signed the order.
Culpeper Times


National Stories
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Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp will issue an alert formally notifying more than 6 million Georgia voters that their personal information, including Social Security numbers and birth dates, were illegally released last month by his office. The decision to send the notification comes two days after his office was alerted to the problem by two voters who filed a class action lawsuit alleging a massive data breach. The notification is also required by state law.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Chicago's mayor said on Thursday he will release video footage of the October 2014 fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old black teenager and not fight a judge's order to make the video public. Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a police officer, including multiple times in the back. Police said he was lunging at them with a knife, but a lawyer who has seen the video says it shows McDonald moving away from the police with a knife in his hand. McDonald's death came at a time of heated national debate and protests over police use of lethal force, especially against blacks. Freelance journalist Brandon Smith sued the police after they denied his request for the video under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, and a judge decided in Smith's favor on Thursday.
Reuters

When the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of records about Americans’ emails came to light in 2013, the government conceded the program’s existence but said it had shut down the effort in December 2011 for “operational and resource reasons.” While that particular secret program stopped, newly disclosed documents show that the N.S.A. had found a way to create a functional equivalent. The shift has permitted the agency to continue analyzing social links revealed by Americans’ email patterns, but without collecting the data in bulk from American telecommunications companies — and with less oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
New York Times


Editorials/Columns

Roanoke just became the eighth community in the nation to pass a resolution officially calling for state and federal legislation that promotes responsive and responsible government by reducing the influence of unregulated campaign contributions and establishing limits on government officials who transition to the private sector. Now, we’re calling on more communities, both here in Virginia and nationwide, to join us in this crucial fight. Virginians shouldn’t settle for toothless ethics reforms. We can and must do better by overhauling Virginia’s campaign finance, transparency, and ethics laws.
Bill Bestpitch, Roanoke Times