Transparency News, 8/8/2022

 

Monday
August 8, 2022

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state & local news stories


For years, a piece of city-owned land sat dormant on McLean Street in Portsmouth. The property was large — a little over 31 acres — but it needed work and took a long time to sell. Finally, after one deal fell apart, another developer appeared: the Miller Group, a Virginia Beach company that plans to put nearly 200 townhomes on the site. And the city’s economic development authority gave the new buyer a much better price. It sold the land for a fraction of its assessed value — less than a fourth what the earlier buyer was going to pay and about $380,000 less per acre than the agency sold nearby land for a new casino. And afterward, the city assessor slashed the assessed value of the land by nearly 50% — an unusual move that went outside typical Portsmouth assessment practices. But those involved with the controversial deal, which was cited as one of the reasons for City Manager Angel Jones’ firing, defend it by pointing to the expected tax revenue of about $730,000 a year. The EDA apparently didn’t get an appraisal on the property before selling it, according to interviews and a Freedom of Information Act request. Ray Smith, chair of the EDA, said the authority doesn’t have a practice of obtaining appraisals for all land it sells, instead doing so if certain factors exist. At least one neighboring city says it routinely gets appraisals for land deals, while others say it’s not a given.
Daily Press

As one of eight gubernatorial appointees on the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, James Minor gets a vote on an anticipated permit request for a natural gas pipeline expansion south of Petersburg. Public records show that he’s been lobbying elected officials to support the project; he and the company that wants to build it won’t say if he was paid for the work. Minor also sent the Petersburg mayor a draft op-ed and asked him to put his name on it, and emailed some City Council members with TC Energy talking points in support of the project. The Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog that advocates for renewable energy, discovered Minor’s work for the company in records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to officials in Petersburg. The organization, which researches utility campaign donations, front groups and political influence, shared the records with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Beginning with the first full board meeting of the 2022-23 academic year — which will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 23 in Newport News, Virginia — Virginia Tech will livestream all full board sessions held in open session, including information sessions for the full board, Virginia Tech has announced. Access to the livestream will be available on the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors website.
Cardinal News

Fauquier County Board of Supervisors Chair Chris Granger plans to resign at the end of August, he announced Friday.  Granger’s resignation from the county board follows the disclosure on social media by his wife, Brandie Schaeffer, Warrenton’s former town manager, that she has been hired by Amazon Web Services. Schaeffer resigned as town manager July 12.  The couple’s resignations from their respective positions come several months after Amazon filed an application with the town for a special-use permit to build a data center on 33 acres at Blackwell Road and Lee Highway. 
FauquierNow

editorials & columns

"The FOIA exemption is 'permissive, not mandatory.' Such records 'may be disclosed by the custodian in his discretion, except where such disclosure is prohibited by law.'"

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and Police Chief Gerald Smith owe Richmonders a real explanation about a regrettable month of confusion — a series of moments that have fueled doubts about administration and department credibility. To truly restore trust in government, all details must come to the fore of this situation. Media organizations including The Times-Dispatch are pursuing Freedom of Information Act requests for emails, text messages and notes related to the alleged mass shooting plot. The mayor’s office decided to apply a Virginia Freedom of Information Act “working papers” exemption, which allows officials to withhold such documents for “personal or deliberative use.” We’re unmoved by that choice. As Steven Benjamin, a legal analyst for NBC12 said, this is a matter of public interest, and Richmonders deserve to know what happened. Moreover, as a recent RTD news report highlighted, the FOIA exemption is “permissive, not mandatory.” Such records “may be disclosed by the custodian in his discretion, except where such disclosure is prohibited by law,” the Code of Virginia reads.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

If you don’t live near Richmond and get your news from its regional media market, the last time you probably heard of a place called Dogwood Dell was a little over a month ago when Virginia’s capital city made national news for boldly claiming to have foiled a mass shooting. As Chief Gerald Smith and Mayor Levar Stoney explained to a phalanx of television cameras on July 6, a tip from a “hero citizen” allowed police to apprehend two Guatemalan men illegally in the United States and foil their plot to take high-powered firearms to Dogwood Dell, a bandshell and amphitheater in a city park, and unleash hell on hundreds attending an evening Independence Day concert and fireworks display. The story seemed almost too good to be true. Now, a month later, a city prosecutor has given us reason to believe it’s not true. Why have city government and police officials steadfastly stiff-armed persistent media requests to answer those questions and elaborate on the case?
Bob Lewis, Virginia Mercury

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