Transparency News 1/27/16

State and Local Stories

Yesterday a House committee advanced a bill to make the applications of gubernatorial appointments to boards and commissions subject to disclosure under FOIA. A Senate committee passed a bill to require electoral boards to post draft minutes online (the bill will be amended to adjust the timelines for posting, as well as to make allowances for those localities with limited online access).

Up today, another run at a bill specifying a certain amount of time for public comment periods at public meetings, and two bills changing the way public notices must be advertised. All three of these bills are in the same subcommittee at 4:00.



Portsmouth Councilman Bill Moody has hired an attorney to help him fight a $1,500 fine that his City Council colleagues imposed on him earlier this month. On Monday, Kevin Martingayle of Bischoff Martingayle sent a letter to Portsmouth City Attorney Solomon Ashby and the council. The letter questions whether the council has the authority to fine Moody. It says the council’s actions could be challenged legally. “Please understand that the existence of any rule enacted without clear authority and in apparent violation of free speech principles is a very serious concern, and to the extent that Councilman Moody’s civil rights have been and are continuing to be violated, all responsible individuals may be held liable for damages, plus all attorney’s fees and costs incurred,” Martingayle wrote.
Virginian-Pilot

The Newport News City Council never took a public vote to authorize a $2 million settlement to a man in a recent wrongful conviction case — a common practice in Newport News for resolving lawsuits against the city that Freedom of Information Act experts say may violate state law. The council authorized the city attorney to negotiate up to a certain, undisclosed amount of money to settle the lawsuit in a closed session last year, but never took a public vote, City Attorney Collins L. Owens Jr. said. Newport News city code designates who must authorize city settlements up to different amounts, but stops at $250,000. Owens said the council must authorize settlements greater than $250,000. Owens said that during the closed-door meeting last year, council members were asked one by one whether they authorized attorneys representing the city and several former police employees to settle the lawsuit up to the undisclosed dollar amount.
Daily Press

Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards formed a team of researchers at Virginia Tech, to, as he puts it, “go all in for Flint.” He collected hundreds more water samples, providing his expertise and funding. He set up a website to update the public on his findings and hold the government accountable. As he did in D.C., he became investigative reporter, activist and scientist. He filed Freedom of Information Act requests for documents and emails of state and city officials to find out how much they knew and what they could be covering up. Turns out they knew a lot and did nothing. “We just enabled them to really get to the truth,” he said. “We couldn’t sit by and let another D.C. unfold before our eyes.” He is again largely funding this effort out of his own pocket. 
Washington Post


National Stories
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Records from the president's National Security Council (NSC) are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday. The court denied an appeal from a group at the City University of New York School of Law, which was seeking records from all National Security Council meetings in 2011 and all records related to U.S. targeted drone strikes.  The three-judge panel concluded that the NSC is not subject to open records laws because its sole function is to advise the president and it has no independent authority — a key requirement for being subject to FOIA requests. 
The Hill


Editorials/Columns

When you own the only daily newspaper in town and that town is the seat of state government, you command people’s attention: candidates, elective officials, lobbyists, government employees and contractors. Bryan — like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him — was low-key about it, as one would expect from a Virginia aristocrat. In an Old Richmond lilt that allowed occasional barnyard epithets to pass smoothly into the ear, Bryan delighted in the newspaper’s coverage of political intrigues and the often-pungent views advanced by an editorial page whose conservatism usually reflected his own. Bryan, who often said he might have been a politics columnist, led The Times-Dispatch with a light hand, deferring to editors and respecting the chain of command. But he could be firm. Bryan stoutly defended reporters whose work irritated governors, legislators and power brokers. He went to the U.S. Supreme Court — and won — a press freedom case in 1980 that further opened the courts to the public. In 2009, he renounced the newspaper’s editorial advocacy in the late 1950s of massive resistance to court-ordered desegregation of public schools.
Jeff Schapiro, Richmond Times-Dispatch

By now, the astonishing 30-page indictment of the city’s treasurer and former city councilman has been widely circulated. Among other things, it alleges that Burfoot accepted more than $400,000 in kickbacks while serving on the Norfolk City Council and as its deputy treasurer. Each allegation against a public official, of course, is individual. This page called on Del. Phil Hamilton to resign in 2009, before he was indicted by federal officials. The same was true for Gov. Bob McDonnell. In both cases, the allegations of corruption were simply too much for either man to remain in office as an effective public servant. A recall effort is under way by one of Burfoot’s many political enemies. It’s within Burfoot’s power to end that campaign. He should resign.
Virginian-Pilot

When the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take on the case of former Gov. Bob McDonnell earlier this month it set the stage not only for a dramatic final chapter in his political corruption saga, but also for a healthy helping of insight on what, exactly, this court believes is political corruption as opposed to politics-as-usual.
Free Lance-Star