Transparency News, 9/21/2022

Wednesday
September 21, 2022

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state & local news stories

"Loudoun County has received 187 FOIA requests related to the certification of voting equipment and poll books pertaining to the 2020 general election, more than seven times than the 25 requests it has received between 2018 and August 2022."

Convicted embezzler Robert Jeffrey Jr. lost a legal challenge Tuesday to his removal from the Roanoke City Council and a special election to replace him that begins this week. A judge dismissed Jeffrey’s challenge as the result of a Tuesday hearing. In so doing, the court affirmed that Virginia’s law that casts out officeholders turned convicted felons remains in effect against Jeffrey, who is currently serving his 30-month sentence. Yet, further Jeffrey appeals are a possibility, his attorney said.
Roanoke

The Loudoun County Office of Elections has been slammed with a record number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about the equipment, process and guides used to certify the 2020 general election outcomes since Aug. 1 mostly from one individual, according to a review of those requests by Loudoun Times-Mirror. While neighboring jurisdictions in Fairfax, Prince William and Fauquier counties also have seen an increase in similar requests, interviews and reviews reveal those figures do not compare with those received by Loudoun. This is a pattern that the Virginia State Board of Elections also observed. Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 13, Loudoun County, which has a population in excess of 420,000, has received 187 FOIA requests related to the certification of voting equipment and poll books pertaining to the 2020 general election, more than seven times than the 25 requests it has received between 2018 and August 2022, County Administrator Tim Hemstreet said in an interview. In comparison to Loudoun, Fairfax County, where more than 1.14 million people reside, received 62 such requests, while the much smaller Fauquier County has received 24 requests since May of 2021. Prince William County Office of Elections did not share the exact number of such requests it has received this year, but noted that such requests are "ten times or more what it received in past years" with the 2020 general election accounting for a high proportion.
Loudoun Times-Mirror

A misdemeanor charge of assault and battery against Waynesboro Schools Superintendent Jeff Cassell was dismissed Tuesday by a judge in Waynesboro District Court. Neil Williams had requested the charge against Cassell in early August when he appeared before a magistrate. The warrant was issued by the magistrate and served on Cassell on Aug. 8. Both had submitted protective order requests to the District Court that have since been withdrawn. Williams said Cassell had stalked his household and was involved in an adulterous affair with his wife. Williams and his wife are in the process of a divorce. Cassell’s protective order petition showed a series of encounters. He detailed instances of Williams coming to his neighborhood, following him to school district offices and putting Penthouse magazines on Cassell’s vehicle and porch. Last June, Williams filed a four-page complaint against Cassell with more than 100 pages of attachments to the Waynesboro School Board. 
The News Virginian

With local residents still divided over plans for Lee Circle, the Richmond Planning Commission on Monday delayed action on whether to adopt a temporary landscaping plan for the area that remains fenced off to the public. Planning Commission Chairman Rodney Poole said the primary reason for the continuance is because another public panel, the Urban Design Committee, was unable to formally review the plan earlier this month because it did not have a quorum for its regularly scheduled meeting. 
Richmond Times-Dispatch

A former Hanover County sheriff’s deputy who was decertified is suing the county’s local NAACP branch and its president for defamation. The lawsuit from Christopher Ryan Payne, filed Monday in Richmond Circuit Court, claims Hanover NAACP President Pat Hunter-Jordan falsely labeled him as an “officer who violated the civil rights of citizens” during a press conference in late February. . . . Public records show Payne’s decertification was for reporting inaccuracies and the sheriff’s office confirmed that an internal investigation was initiated after an audit found discrepancies between body camera footage and Payne’s reports.
WRIC
 

stories of national interest

"If you want to be transparent, here’s what you need to do: You have to get past, ‘We comply with the law.’ You have to go above and beyond the law. There’s all kinds of records that are withheld that don’t have to be withheld."

South Dakota’s ethics board won’t publicly disclose the “appropriate action” it took after finding evidence Gov. Kristi Noem intervened with a state agency to influence her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license, a lawyer for the board told The Associated Press. The state’s Government Accountability Board was created to provide a check on any misconduct by state officials, and the question of whether to discipline the Republican governor presented its first major test. A lawyer hired by the board, Mark Haigh, responded to an open records request by telling the AP this week that the board’s response would remain “confidential.”
Associated Press

Juul Labs on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration over the agency's refusal to disclose documents supporting its order to take Juul's e-cigarettes off the shelves in the U.S. market. The FDA in June ordered Juul to take its e-cigarettes off the shelves in the U.S. market amid a push to cap nicotine in cigarettes.  Juul accused the FDA of violating the Freedom of Information Act by withholding a majority of the "scientific disciplinary reviews" underlying the sales ban, according to the complaint filed in a court in Washington, D.C.
Axios

Critics, news organizations and attorneys are calling for more transparency from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, especially when it comes to public records.  Since she took office in 2019, Loevy & Loevy has filed 104 lawsuits against the administration for denying access to documents requested through Freedom of Information Act filings, according to Matt Topic, an attorney at the firm and founder of its Freedom of Information Act practice.  “If [Lightfoot administration agencies] were truly committed to transparency, I would be finding something else to do,” Topic said. “I served on a transition committee for this mayor. If you want to be transparent as a city in this country, here’s what you need to do: You have to get past, ‘We comply with the law.’ You have to go above and beyond the law. There’s all kinds of records that are withheld that don’t have to be withheld.”  
WTTW