House Speaker Howell issued a memo late last week reminding subcommittee chairs to record votes (name and vote) for all motions to report (pass), report with amendment, or report and refer to a different committee. Read it here (click on the above link).
City of Newport News legislative agenda: Oppose changes to FOIA protection for ongoing criminal investigations
In the 2010 and 2011 sessions of the General Assembly, bills were introduced that would amend the definition of “criminal investigative file” so that the requirement to release information applies to records relating to active or ongoing investigations or prosecutions. The Virginia Press Association has continued to lobby the Freedom of Information Advisory Council for Code changes that would allow for greater access to information.
A blanket requirement to release information before the conclusion of an investigation shows willful and reckless disregard for public safety. Negative consequences of such legislation include the potential to endanger law enforcement officers, to endanger potential witnesses, the potential to alert persons engaged in criminal activity that they are under investigation, the opportunity for suspects to flee, and the opportunity for those engaged in criminal activity to destroy evidence. If a complaint ultimately proves to be unfounded, information released before the investigation is concluded might still bring harm to the character of persons later found not culpable.
The City of Newport News asks that the General Assembly refrain from expanding public access to information that is part of active or ongoing investigations or prosecutions.
(Source: nngov.com)
The White House announced in a press release today that the Government Accountability and Transparency Board, an entity summoned into being through executive order that is supposed to assume the Recovery Board’s mantle of reducing government waste and increasing transparency, had held its first meeting. But the board isn’t obliged to conduct its business in public, an administration spokesman wrote in an email.
Join the Virginia Coalition for Open Government and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in honoring a true hero of the First Amendment and of Open Government: Bob O’Neil
Click the image to go to the event’s website, where you can get information on sponsorship opportunities and ticket sales.
Federal CIO Vivek Kundra identified ten principles for improving federal transparency in his testimony before a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee today. The bullet-list is below. Click above for fuller explanation.
The July 2011 issue of VCOG’s Sunshine Report is on our website.
Virginian’s updated Freedom of Information Act is on the Virginia Coalition for Open Government’s website. Provisions that went into effect July 1 are highlighted throughout.
Interview with this year’s SPJ George Mason Award winner, Craig Merritt.
A couple of weeks ago, I sent the Patrick County school system an email note congratulating them on their FOIA-tracking website.
In addition to offering VCOG’s services for FOIA or records-management training, I added:
What a great way to reach out to the public. We love seeing proactive programs like this.
No one responded to the message, but I guess it made an impression. Check out this audio file on WHEO radio.
A legislator’s vote is the commitment of his apportioned share of the legislature’s power to the passage or defeat of a particular proposal. The legislative power thus committed is not personal to the legislator but belongs to the people; the legislator has no personal right to it.
