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"Maybe that person does have an ideological agenda, but VFOIA shouldn’t care and government shouldn’t care."
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Earlier this year, conservative activists swarmed Loudoun County School Board meetings to protest an array of policies. Now they’re overwhelming the Loudoun County Public Schools Public Information office with Virginia Freedom of Information Act requests. More than 500 VFOIA requests have been filed with the school division so far this year, compared to an average of about 90 annually between 2012 and 2018. About 40 percent of them have been filed by a half-dozen individuals who are members of or allied with Fight for Schools, which has led efforts to recall members of the School Board over the policies they have protested. School division Public Information Officer Wayde Byard said the increase in VFOIA submissions prompted caused the school system to double the number of people who process the requests. “LCPS is not seeking further resources at this time but has begun billing VFIOA requesters because it cannot handle the current volume free of charge,” Byard said. Megan Rhyne said requesters’ motives don’t matter when it comes to the law. “Maybe that person does have an ideological agenda, but VFOIA shouldn’t care and government shouldn’t care,” she said.
Loudoun Now
Another month, another apology from an elected official in Warsaw for offensive behavior. This time, it was Mayor Randy Phelps who reversed course after last month’s town council meeting where he said the town citizenry “have always been lazy.” He made those comments during a discussion about public attendance at the meetings and the impact of changing the time from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. Belinda Reynolds, a lifelong Warsaw resident, who was part of that exchange in November, appeared before the town council again, demanding a public apology from the mayor. “Because lazy we are not,” she declared. “And your apology on Facebook was not an apology,” she said. Reynolds told the mayor calling the citizens lazy is bullying. And feeling bullied is one reason why many people don’t come to speak out at meetings. The residents may not always come to town council meetings, but they have elected officials to do what’s right for the town, she reminded Phelps. “We live in a world of schedules and when the agenda for meetings is only posted on Facebook four days before the meeting, it doesn’t give people a lot of time to plan or check out the topics.” If council members want respect from citizens, you have to give it back to us.
Northern Neck News
Two bidders who sought Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee monument have filed a lawsuit, seeking to void a recent City Council vote that donated the statue to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to be melted down and transformed into a new work of art. Based on their interpretation of Freedom of Information Act law and the Virginia Procurement Act, the plaintiffs have also requested a temporary injunction preventing any more changes to the Lee statue. No hearings are currently scheduled in Charlottesville Circuit Court.
The Daily Progress
Rockingham County has settled a lawsuit accusing former staff members of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, according to legal documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Virginia Department of the Treasury Division of Risk Management. The lawsuit was filed in January in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. Former Rockingham County employee Ashley Adams and her representatives at the Spiggle Law Firm in Arlington were granted $100,000 stemming from issues between her and two bosses. The settlement is neither an admission of nor to be construed as guilt on behalf of the county, according to the final agreement document signed by Adams on Oct. 24. Rockingham County staff declined to comment, while Adams' lawyer could not be reached through multiple emails and phone calls in November and December.
Daily News Record
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