State legislators are accusing the University of Virginia of dodging a request for records related to its $2.3 billion Strategic Investment Fund.
A letter signed by 11 lawmakers claims the university’s records dump last week included many omissions, such as responses by UVa President Teresa A. Sullivan. Continue…
[…]
Read More… from Lawmakers dissatisfied with UVa’s response to Strategic Investment Fund inquiry
Now that Senator Tim Kaine has joined the presidential ticket, his long public career is receiving new scrutiny. One aspect of that career is Kaine’s record on open government.
[…]
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.
[…]
Read More… from Roll Over: Charlottesville Reluctantly Reveals Attorney Wolf’s Hourly Rate
Lawyers representing the Daily Press are gearing up to convince a panel of state Supreme Court justices later this summer that the full court should hear the newspaper's case seeking access to a statewide database of court information.
[…]
Read More… from Daily Press battle for court records database ongoing
Virginians should be immensely proud of a Virginia Tech professor and his research team’s members for their role in exposing the poisoning of Flint, Mich., residents who were forced to drink toxic water that was laced with dangerously high levels of lead.
The leader of the team is civil engineering professor Marc Edwards. He volunteered his time and considerable money (estimated at $150,000 of his own funds) after being contacted last summer by a Flint mother who conducted an Internet search for help after becoming concerned about the water coming into her home.
[…]
Read More… from Column: Flint case shows records should be open to all
Hopewell’s City Council erred last January in discussing electing its leadership behind closed doors, a Circuit Court judge has ruled in what open-government advocates believe to be the first legal test of its kind.
[…]
After two Peninsula circuit court clerks broke with almost all their counterparts and released compilations of case records, Virginians discovered that only about one in 20 rapes ever result in a conviction.
[…]
Read More… from Top Stories of 2015 in Virginia: FOIA – lots of attitude, and a challenge
Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, took issue on Friday with the “matters before the public” rules approved by the Board of Supervisors.
[…]
Read More… from Virginia Coalition for Open Government calls board’s new rules “far-reaching”
Seventeen organizations that support open government in Virginia have formed a coalition to increase transparency in the General Assembly and foster greater citizen participation.
The coalition, called Transparency Virginia, wants legislators to give more advance notice of committee and subcommittee meetings and to record the votes when panels quietly kill bills.
[…]
Of the 28 official Danville boards and commissions listed on the city’s website, about half of them hold meetings during work-day hours — while open to the public, most people with daytime jobs would find them difficult to attend.
Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, said while her organization does not have a “best practices” stance on what time government bodies should hold their meetings at the most convenient times possible for the largest number of people.
[…]
Read More… from Open government advocate: Hold meetings when more residents are able to attend
