Transparency News 6/12/17

Monday, June 12, 2017



State and Local Stories

Days after he said he stepped away from the TowneBank loan to People Express Airlines because of his position as a bank officer, Newport News City Councilman Bert Bateman emailed updates on the deal to airport, airline and bank executives. The Peninsula Airport Commission, which guaranteed the loan, used $4.5 million in taxpayer funds to pay it off when People Express defaulted. Bateman's emails included information about bank accounts that Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport executives were setting up to hold state funds, money from the taxpayer-funded Regional Air Service Enhancement committee, and federal grants meant to subsidize People Express' actual flight operations. The Peninsula Airport Commission provided copies of the emails in response to a Daily Press Freedom of Information Act request.
Daily Press

A couple of Warren County supervisors tried unsuccessfully this week to limit what the board could discuss behind closed doors. The Board of Supervisors took the usual action at the beginning of its regular meeting Tuesday to approve the agenda that included a closed session. County Administrator Doug Stanley requested that the board add two items under its closed session agenda – discussion of a prospective business or industry where no previous announcement has been made and consultation with legal counsel. The meeting agenda released last week limited the closed-session topics to personnel matters and acquisition of property. The board can change the agenda at the beginning of the meeting. After about 10 minutes of discussion and debate over Robert’s Rules of Order and the board’s own by-laws, supervisors voted 3-2 to add the items as recommended. Shenandoah District Supervisor Thomas Sayre sought twice to bar members from including Stanley’s late additions to the closed-session agenda by invoking Robert’s Rules of Order and the board’s own by-laws. Following the regular meeting and a work session, the board went into closed session. The two supervisors left when it came time to discuss the topics added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting.
Northern Virginia Daily

For many city workers embroiled in legal claims, there is life after a lawsuit. Some have even held on to their jobs, despite being involved in city payouts that dwarfed their yearly salaries.
Virginian-Pilot

Federal authorities have charged a Sherando High School graduate with fraud for submitting false voter registration applications. Andrew Spieles waived his right to indictment and plans to plead guilty to one misdemeanor charge on June 20 in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg, according to multiple documents filed Thursday.
Wincehster Star



National Stories
​

Many journalists know the feeling: There could be a cache of documents that might confirm an important story. Your big scoop hinges on one question: Will the government official responsible for the records respond to your FOIA request? Now, thanks to a new project from a data storage and analysis company, some of the guesswork has been taken out of that question. Want to know the chances your public records request will get rejected? Plug it into FOIA Predictor, a probability analysis web application from Data.World, and it will provide an estimation of your success based on factors including word count, average sentence length and specificity.
Poynter


Editorials/Columns


American writer Walter Lippman once wrote, "The best servants of the people, like the best valets, must whisper unpleasant truths in the master's ear." His quote describes perfectly the mission of a newspaper and its staff. That mission remains at the heart of why Americans should be concerned about the state of the Freedom of Information Act around this nation.
Marisa Porto, Daily Press