Transparency News 7/22/16
Friday, July 22, 2016
A longtime member of the Virginia inspector general’s staff and two independent contractors have filed a whistleblower complaint alleging their employer failed to properly investigate the death of Jamycheal Mitchell in a Portsmouth jail cell last year. The complaint also alleges that State Inspector General June Jennings and one of her deputies have misled members of the General Assembly and violated federal privacy laws and state open-records statutes. It was filed Wednesday by Cathy Hill, senior project manager and auditor with the Office of the State Inspector General, and consultants Ann White and William Thomas. They asked Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring to investigate their allegations and “realign the OSIG with the principles and values under which it was formed,” according to a copy of the complaint, which was obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Just days after threat of legal action by The Schilling Show and attorney, Matt Hardin, Charlottesville City Hall has released an un-redacted copy of attorney Tom Wolf’s contract. Wolf has been retained by the city to confiscate property belonging to Mark Brown and the Charlottesville Parking Center through an attempted manipulation of eminent domain. Having previously hidden Wolf’s $425 per hour rate behind a false shield of “attorney-client privilege” under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Charlottesville City Attorney, Craig Brown, ultimately relented.
Schilling Show
Weeks after declining to reveal how much it is spending on legal fees to maintain its stake in the Water Street Parking Garage, a city official has now come forward with how much the city is spending on its battle with the Charlottesville Parking Center. According to an April 28 engagement letter, attorney Tom Wolf is charging a $425 hourly rate for his services. Another attorney listed in the letter, Jack Robb, has a rate of $340 per hour. Associates and paralegals incur a cost of $230 and $100 per hour, respectively.
Daily Progress
An attorney defending the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority board in a lawsuit brought by its former law firm said Thursday that she can’t account for $7 million that was supposed to pay off a bank loan guaranteed by the agency to buy waterfront property in Portsmouth, even though the city agreed to pay it eight years ago. The law firm involved in the deal, though, says the money went to pay off the loan to buy the former Holiday Inn site off Crawford Street, as intended. Attorney Verbena Askew, who is defending the authority, delivered a report to its board Thursday night, as well as thick binders filled with documents that she said show the board was kept in the dark and didn’t authorize any transactions involving the Greater Portsmouth Development Corp. Askew raised concerns that the housing authority’s former law firm had represented both entities.
Virginian-Pilot
National Stories
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, which was designed to give the public the right to scrutinize the records of government agencies. Almost no one needs public records more than an organization like ProPublica, whose mission is producing work that “shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.” Yet almost every reporter on our staff can recite aneurysm-inducing tales of protracted jousting with the public records offices of government agencies. Local, state and federal agencies alike routinely blow through deadlines laid out in law or bend them to ludicrous degrees, stretching out even the simplest requests for years. And they bank on the media’s depleted resources and ability to legally challenge most denials.
ProPublica
Editorials/Columns
As Michael Martz reported for the RT-D, “The Supreme Court of Virginia may be divided on whether a group of Republican legislators and voters can challenge Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s blanket restoration of voting rights for felons, but the justices appear to have little patience with the governor’s decision to withhold a list of more than 206,000 felons covered by his order.” Justice William Mims, a native of Harrisonburg, went right to the point in questioning the governor’s lawyer, as reported in the RT-D: “I, for one, do not understand how it is that a document of such importance can be shielded from the litigants and the citizens of Virginia,” he added. Neither do we, nor many other media organizations, including the RT-D, that have sought release of what is a public document. That list is a key component to the case, as several reports have documented errors in the implementation of this mass restoration: “Such as the inclusion of several currently imprisoned criminals and at least two fugitive sex offenders with Richmond ties,” the newspaper reported.
Daily News Record
State and Local Stories
A longtime member of the Virginia inspector general’s staff and two independent contractors have filed a whistleblower complaint alleging their employer failed to properly investigate the death of Jamycheal Mitchell in a Portsmouth jail cell last year. The complaint also alleges that State Inspector General June Jennings and one of her deputies have misled members of the General Assembly and violated federal privacy laws and state open-records statutes. It was filed Wednesday by Cathy Hill, senior project manager and auditor with the Office of the State Inspector General, and consultants Ann White and William Thomas. They asked Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring to investigate their allegations and “realign the OSIG with the principles and values under which it was formed,” according to a copy of the complaint, which was obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Just days after threat of legal action by The Schilling Show and attorney, Matt Hardin, Charlottesville City Hall has released an un-redacted copy of attorney Tom Wolf’s contract. Wolf has been retained by the city to confiscate property belonging to Mark Brown and the Charlottesville Parking Center through an attempted manipulation of eminent domain. Having previously hidden Wolf’s $425 per hour rate behind a false shield of “attorney-client privilege” under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Charlottesville City Attorney, Craig Brown, ultimately relented.
Schilling Show
Weeks after declining to reveal how much it is spending on legal fees to maintain its stake in the Water Street Parking Garage, a city official has now come forward with how much the city is spending on its battle with the Charlottesville Parking Center. According to an April 28 engagement letter, attorney Tom Wolf is charging a $425 hourly rate for his services. Another attorney listed in the letter, Jack Robb, has a rate of $340 per hour. Associates and paralegals incur a cost of $230 and $100 per hour, respectively.
Daily Progress
An attorney defending the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority board in a lawsuit brought by its former law firm said Thursday that she can’t account for $7 million that was supposed to pay off a bank loan guaranteed by the agency to buy waterfront property in Portsmouth, even though the city agreed to pay it eight years ago. The law firm involved in the deal, though, says the money went to pay off the loan to buy the former Holiday Inn site off Crawford Street, as intended. Attorney Verbena Askew, who is defending the authority, delivered a report to its board Thursday night, as well as thick binders filled with documents that she said show the board was kept in the dark and didn’t authorize any transactions involving the Greater Portsmouth Development Corp. Askew raised concerns that the housing authority’s former law firm had represented both entities.
Virginian-Pilot
National Stories
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, which was designed to give the public the right to scrutinize the records of government agencies. Almost no one needs public records more than an organization like ProPublica, whose mission is producing work that “shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.” Yet almost every reporter on our staff can recite aneurysm-inducing tales of protracted jousting with the public records offices of government agencies. Local, state and federal agencies alike routinely blow through deadlines laid out in law or bend them to ludicrous degrees, stretching out even the simplest requests for years. And they bank on the media’s depleted resources and ability to legally challenge most denials.
ProPublica
Editorials/Columns
As Michael Martz reported for the RT-D, “The Supreme Court of Virginia may be divided on whether a group of Republican legislators and voters can challenge Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s blanket restoration of voting rights for felons, but the justices appear to have little patience with the governor’s decision to withhold a list of more than 206,000 felons covered by his order.” Justice William Mims, a native of Harrisonburg, went right to the point in questioning the governor’s lawyer, as reported in the RT-D: “I, for one, do not understand how it is that a document of such importance can be shielded from the litigants and the citizens of Virginia,” he added. Neither do we, nor many other media organizations, including the RT-D, that have sought release of what is a public document. That list is a key component to the case, as several reports have documented errors in the implementation of this mass restoration: “Such as the inclusion of several currently imprisoned criminals and at least two fugitive sex offenders with Richmond ties,” the newspaper reported.
Daily News Record
Categories:
