Transparency News, 6/24/2022

 

 

Friday
June 24, 2022

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state & local news stories

 

"Town officials remain silent on the case and the terms of any agreement reached with the former council clerk."

Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew voiced support Thursday for four officers who used force to remove a man from a car and used a Taser on him during a traffic stop this week, which has drawn outcry after video of the incident was shared online. The chief held a news conference Thursday addressing the incident after videos surfaced online of four Newport News officers forcefully pulling a Black man out of a vehicle, wrestling him to the ground and shocking him. An individual who recorded a video can be heard saying officers had beaten, kicked and choked the man for more than five minutes. Drew, who said he had reviewed footage from three body-worn cameras, said officers’ actions were within the department’s policies and procedures. The chief is withholding release of the body camera footage at this time.
The Virginian-Pilot

Circuit Court Judge Carl Eason on June 22 dismissed Windsor resident Lewis Edmonds’ latest petition to recall Isle of Wight County School Board member Michael Vines. Edmonds, who’s now twice tried to have Vines removed from his seat this year, filed his first petition on March 15, accusing the school board member of having made “wildly inappropriate, defamatory, and discriminatory” remarks at meetings and of “malfeasance” for having left most of his required statement of economic interests form blank. The petitions had each taken issue with Vines’ having claimed during a discussion of his push for School Board member raises at a Feb. 8 constituents forum for members of his and board member John Collick’s voting districts that he was “an IT manager” who makes “$100,000 a year,” even though he’d left the employment section of his Dec. 13 economic interests form blank. At the same meeting, he’d invited his out-of-county relative Brandon Randleman to speak, but asked sheriff’s deputies to escort Smithfield-area parent Laura Fletcher from the lectern after she revealed she did not live in either district. Suffolk Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Lily Wilder, who was named a special prosecutor for both petitions, tried unsuccessfully to persuade Eason that Vines’ conduct amounted to “incompetence” by potentially having a “chilling effect” on parents’ right to free speech. “That right is limited. … Someone’s got to control the meeting,” Eason countered. 
The Smithfield Times

The Virginia State Police review of the May death of a Kentucky woman at the Duffield Regional Jail is a criminal investigation. A family member of 43-year-old Sherri D. Cook is disputing some details in the VSP’s Wednesday press release on Cook’s death. State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller, responding to a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request Thursday by the Kingsport Times News, confirmed that the probe into Cook’s death on May 20 is a criminal investigation. Jennifer Fine, Cook’s first cousin, said Thursday that the State Police version of events was wrong in several areas.
Times News

A federal court dismissed a former Front Royal clerk’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the town on Wednesday after parties reached a deal. Terms of the agreement including monetary payments, if any, remain undisclosed. Jennifer Berry Brown (nee Berry) alleges in her lawsuit filed Jan. 4, 2021, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, that former Town Councilman William Sealock sexually harassed her on more than one occasion in 2019 and that when she reported the claims that town officials retaliated and fired her on Feb. 4, 2020. Harrisonburg attorney Timothy Cupp represented Brown and filed the lawsuit on her behalf. Cupp said, through an office employee on Thursday, that he would not make any comment on the case. Town officials remain silent on the case and the terms of any agreement reached with the former council clerk. The Town Council held a special meeting on June 13 to consider taking action on one item: an administration request to change the current budget by authorizing a $150,000 payment, using reserves, to the Virginia Risk Sharing Association “for legal fees related to litigation.” Council members made no comments about the matter before the vote. The next day, Town Manager Steven Hicks referred media requests for more information to Finance Director B.J. Wilson. In an emailed response, Wilson states he could not comment further on the payment.
The Northern Virginia Daily

The Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors chair on Monday afternoon canceled a meeting hours before it was scheduled to begin after learning the body lacked a quorum. It’s not certain when the meeting, a continuation of the body’s regular June session where they planned to discuss details surrounding Rush River Commons’ request to change the Town of Washington’s boundary to accommodate an expansion of the development, may be rescheduled. At least three members of the body are required to attend in person for a quorum, and they were prepared to hold the meeting in a hybrid format with two members participating remotely. But Piedmont Supervisor Christine Smith on Monday afternoon around 2 p.m. — just hours prior to the scheduled 6 p.m. meeting — sent an email to members of the body saying she would be unable to attend “due to circumstances beyond my control.” When contacted via Facebook for additional clarification on her absence, Smith said she was unable to attend because of “personal reasons.”
Rappahannock News

On the heels of a scathing audit report, Richmond Public Schools is admitting that its own internal check has found that more than 1,600 laptops that were purchased have vanished, and that it does not know the whereabouts of another 10,558 laptops that are listed in the inventory. Chief of Staff Michelle Houdacsko outlined the procedural changes for improving inventory control to the School Board Monday, but also pushed back on the audit finding that RPS bought excess Chromebooks for students that are gathering dust in storage at schools or in a warehouse.
Richmond Free Press

A zoning request and special use permit for a new storage facility on Rt. 53 at Turkeysag Trail ran into difficulties at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Wednesday night (June 15), as complaints that arose during the public hearing convinced the supervisors to put a pause on the project. Cory Johnston, who has owned an electrical contracting business in Fluvanna for the past several years, has been based out of a self-storage space near Lake Monticello. The desire for a more permanent home led him to purchase 6.4 acres of land next to the University of Virginia Community Credit Union on Rt. 53 and with the help of Shimp Engineering, develop a plan for his own self-storage facility and office space. During the public hearing, two partners in Gate Plaza LLC, which owns the properties on the far end of the Food Lion shopping area, both criticized the way in which the county had handled Johnston’s application. Cyndra Kerley said the county had failed to follow their own rules and regulations during the application process, hadn’t notified her and her partners as required by law, and had also failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request within the required five business days.  County Attorney Fred Payne said the failure to meet the FOIA deadline was “quite simply an oversight.” 
Fluvanna Review
 

editorials

 

" The stonewalling by local and state officials underscores the necessity of strong transparency laws that allow for an independent review of pertinent records, videos and recordings."

As the investigation into the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, continues, there are already lessons that every state and every community should take to heart, including here in Hampton Roads. The stonewalling by local and state officials underscores the necessity of strong transparency laws that allow for an independent review of pertinent records, videos and recordings. The absence of laws that favor access puts too much power in the hands of officials, who can decide what to disclose and what to keep secret. In Virginia, the Freedom of Information Act says that, “The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government.” In 2021, the General Assembly made an important change to the section of the law regarding police investigation files, making closed case files accessible to the public. But in March, the legislature voted to reverse itself, returning decisions about disclosure back in the hands of law enforcement.
The Virginian-Pilot
 

 

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