Transparency News, 1/30/2023

 

Monday
January 30, 2023

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state & local news stories

 

VCOG's annual legislative chart of FOIA and access-related bills

Two Virginia General Assembly bills seeking to strengthen the state’s Freedom of Information Act will advance to the House calendar. Virginia FOIA laws, also known as sunshine laws, require public institutions to disclose public records, and provide access to government meetings unless an exemption applies. Del. Danica Roem, D–Prince William, introduced House Bill 2006 and HB 2007, which reported out of a committee on Thursday. Government agencies can charge to provide public records. HB 2006 asks for such charges to have an electronic payment option. HB 2007 proposes that a public body state on its website how it assesses fees. “I support both of these bills, both of which are trying to chip away at the way in which the increasing costs of FOIA requests are putting government information out of the reach of the taxpayer,” Megan Rhyne, the executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, stated in an email interview.
The Free Lance-Star

A proposal to make more information public when Virginia judges violate ethics rules passed the House of Delegates Friday on a bipartisan vote. Currently, almost all records of the state’s Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission (JIRC) are kept strictly confidential unless they involve a proven breach serious enough to rise to the Supreme Court of Virginia for a formal censure or removal from the bench.  Each year, the seven-member commission files a report detailing how many complaints about judges it received. But those reports aren’t required to identify which judges were disciplined, what rules they broke or what their punishment was. The bill sponsored by Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick, would instruct the commission to include that information in future reports. The bill was approved by a 67-31 vote, with most Democrats in the no column but more than a dozen voting yes. The opposition appeared to be more about Williams’ conduct the day before the vote rather than the substance of his bill. On Thursday, Williams refused to yield the floor to take a question about the JIRC bill from Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, bucking the tradition of engaging colleagues who may be seeking clarity, debate or technical fixes to a piece of legislation.
Virginia Mercury

The Fauquier County Circuit Court case involving Citizens for Fauquier County’s request to review over 3,000 emails between former Town Manager Brandie Schaeffer and Amazon representatives was delayed until after the town of Warrenton’s legal counsel has had a chance to confer with the Town Council regarding a legal conflict and respond to the court’s inquiry. On Wednesday, Circuit Court Judge Alfred Swersky of Alexandria told the nonprofit Citizens for Fauquier County and the town’s legal counsel that after reviewing the case, it “dawned” on him that the law is not explicit about who has the authority to designate someone as the “chief executive officer” of a municipality. Swersky also noted he could not find guidance or precedent that granted him the power to determine who is the chief executive. “I can’t believe the absence of authority on this,” Swersky said during the hearing.
FauquierNow

After a judge barred the public and news media from an April 2021 bond hearing for a Newport News police officer charged with murder, the question quickly arose: What happened at the secret proceeding? Now we know. The Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot challenged the courtroom closure on First Amendment grounds. The Virginia Supreme Court sided with the newspapers last year, ruling the hearing should have been open — and ordering its transcript to be unsealed. The discussion at the hearing, the transcript shows, centered on two events that prosecutors found in Sgt. Albin Trevor Pearson’s personnel record. A 2012 case in which the officer was reprimanded for driving in his unmarked police car after drinking. He wasn’t working at the time, and whether he was on call was in dispute. A 2015 case in which Pearson was accused of pulling his police handgun on restaurant patrons he was feuding with, again while off-duty.
Daily Press

A Chesapeake Planning Commission member filed a lawsuit against City Council this week in which he alleged the governing body repeatedly violated the law by not turning over documents he requested through the Freedom of Information Act. Commission Member Levin Turner said the requested documents were circulated during an Oct. 25 closed door City Council session by Councilmember Debbie Ritter in an effort to prevent him from getting seated on the commission. Turner, who unsuccessfully ran for council in 2018, was appointed to the commission following that meeting anyway, despite the reservations expressed by Ritter. According to the lawsuit, Ritter circulated two documents to explain her concern with Turner. According to the lawsuit, Turner filed a FOIA request asking for the two documents on Nov. 4 — 10 days after the meeting was held. Just two hours after he submitted his request, he received a response saying the documents hadn’t been given to the city, and as a result the city had no records to provide, the lawsuit said. But about a month after Turner’s initial request was made, the city provided him with photos of the two records he’d asked for. According to the lawsuit, a council member used their cell phone to take pictures of them during the closed council session. The member isn’t identified in the lawsuit.
The Virginian-Pilot

Residents of a home in Boones Mill have filed a $66.9 million lawsuit over a news story that aired on ABC News in January 2022, saying that the use of an image of their house in the piece about the ripple effects of the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol falsely depicts them as individuals who, among other things, discriminate against people of color.  According to the suit, Crystal Minnix and her father, Eugene Muse Jr., co-own the home – a white house, emblazoned with red stripes with blue shutters decorated with white stars. The defamation, assault and endangerment, and negligence lawsuit was filed against Devin Dwyer, an ABC News senior Washington reporter, as well as Elizabeth Thomas and Jacqueline Yoo, producers for ABC News, who put together the news segment headlined “Cops’ role in Jan. 6 attack divides Virginia town with ties to Confederacy.” Bridgette Craighead, the owner of EL3ven11 Beauty Lounge in Rocky Mount, and Black Lives Matter Franklin County, an organization Craighead founded, are also named as defendants. Craighead was interviewed during the story but did not mention the patriotic house. 
Cardinal News

stories of national interest

Illinois' Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, is a powerful tool of transparency and accountability. It allows anyone to request access to government records. The information can be in the form of documents, datasets, or even communication via email and text. But, in Illinois, the judicial branch of government is exempt from the law. Courts in Illinois - at the county and state level - are not currently required to comply with disclosure requirements that apply to every other branch of government. This exemption is not the norm nationwide. Statistical information from the courts is subject to open access laws in 27 states, and 15 more have court rules and policies that make the data available.
ABC 7
 

editorials & columns

In almost every edition of our weekly Prince William County newspaper, you will find several public notices. They contain important information about various local government meetings and actions as well as, on occasion, upcoming foreclosures, court cases and attempts by local stores and restaurants to obtain licenses to serve alcohol. For decades, Virginia law has required such notices to be published in local newspapers, where both the casual reader and someone looking for them can find them. The law – strengthened in 2019 with support from the newspaper industry – sets specific requirements newspapers must meet in order to qualify to publish these notices. However, a proposal in the General Assembly this session would allow online-only websites to join newspapers as an option for publishing these legal notices. This is a bad idea for a number of reasons.
InsideNoVa

 

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