Transparency News 9/15/17

Friday, September 15, 2017



State and Local Stories

Amid concerns about Chesterfield County’s own internal audit investigation, the county hired an outside audit firm to independently review a resident’s complaint. The county’s internal audit department determined that citizen watchdog Brenda Stewart’s complaint regarding the school system’s Supplemental Retirement Program was unfounded, but the department did not produce a report. Stewart had lodged the complaint in February through the county’s Fraud, Waste and Abuse hotline.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Prince William County School Board Chairman Ryan Sawyers is taking another school division official to court, pressing for access to some of board attorney Mary McGowan’s emails. Sawyers filed a petition for a writ of mandamus against McGowan on Sept. 13, asking a Prince William County Circuit Court judge to order the attorney to grant him access to any email correspondence between her, the rest of the school board and Superintendent Steve Walts. The chairman, who is also running for Congress as a Democrat, is already locked in a legal battle with Walts, claiming the administrator is blocking him from viewing his predecessor’s email correspondence. But this new legal action targets McGowan, as Sawyers argues in the filing that she has “arbitrarily and capriciously” withheld access to her legally privileged communications with the board and Walts.
InsideNoVa

After speaking with The Virginian-Pilot about a fired employee who has since been charged with embezzlement, the Housing Authority board’s City Council liaison literally lost her seat at the table. The board banned Lisa Lucas-Burke from closed-session personnel discussions and relegated her to a back row at public meetings, and now some council members are pushing to demote its chairman.
Virginian-Pilot

In a departure from recent years of protocol, Amherst County supervisors now will conduct interviews for more than a dozen appointed boards, commissions and committees in closed sessions. Prior to last Tuesday’s unanimous vote, supervisors conducted interviews for available positions in open session. Each person interested in appointment answered predetermined questions from supervisors so those attending the meeting could hear the candidates’ responses. Following the public interview process, supervisors appointed members in open session. “Let’s try it in the closed session,” Supervisor John Marks said. “Let’s see if it has an impact on the number of people that apply for these openings that we have and go from there.”
New Era-Progress

More electronic devices will be banned from Suffolk's Mills E. Godwin Jr. Courts Building starting next week, Sheriff E.C. Harris said Thursday. Cameras and cellphones have long been banned from the courthouse, but with technology advancing all the time, Harris said, he has been compelled to ban all electronic devices from the building — with a special emphasis on smartwatches. He expressed special concern over the new Apple Watch Series 3, which is reported to have the capability to function as the wearer’s cellphone, no matter where the phone itself is located. With current models, the phone has to be fairly close by. Harris said he couldn’t take the chance that someone sitting in a courtroom during testimony could call a witness sequestered in a witness room and allow that person to hear everything in the courtroom, potentially tainting their upcoming testimony. 
Suffolk News-Herald

The Attorney General's Office has authorized Virginia State Police to investigate a complaint made against a Norfolk City Councilman. Late Wednesday, the special prosecutor assigned to the case confirmed State Police will begin investigating. While prosecutor Michael Doucette has been looking into this issue for a while, because Smigiel is an elected official, he needed authorization from the Attorney General's Office to get VSP involved.
WVEC


National Stories
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It's no longer illegal in Minnesota to disturb a public meeting, the state Supreme Court has ruled, reversing the conviction of a Little Falls woman who was charged with disorderly conduct for protesting before the City Council. The 54-year-old law was deemed overly broad and potentially criminalized free speech, the court ruled Wednesday. Hensel, a grandmother and peace activist who frequently protests at Camp Ripley, said she never thought she would actually get charged when she moved a folding chair to the open space between the public galley and the City Council's dais. Her reasons for sitting there were part of a long-standing practice of challenging city officials over civil rights issues, which in the past have included the right to post numerous antiwar signs in her yard.
Governing

The New York Police Department on Thursday for the first time made public body-camera video showing a fatal shooting involving some of its officers, a release that the patrolmen's union criticized as jeopardizing officers' due process rights.
Reuters