(C) Virginia Mercury This story was originally published by Virginia Mercury and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . FOIA Friday: New legislation and menorah lighting cancellation emails [1] ['Staff Report', 'More From Author', '- December'] Date: 2023-12-22 One of the less noticed features of the Virginia Way is the long-running tendency of the commonwealth’s leaders to conduct their decision-making behind closed doors. While the Virginia Freedom of Information Act presumes all government business is by default public and requires officials to justify why exceptions should be made, too many Virginia leaders in practice take the opposite stance, acting as if records are by default private and the public must prove they should be handled otherwise. In this feature, we aim to highlight the frequency with which officials around Virginia are resisting public access to records on issues large and small — and note instances when the release of information under FOIA gave the public insight into how government bodies are operating. FOIA bills filed ahead of General Assembly The 2024 legislative session is set to begin Jan. 10, and bills to amend the state’s Freedom of Information Act are already being filed. Senate Bill 36, from Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, would clarify that three or more members of a public body can appear at and participate in a public meeting without being subject to the public meeting restrictions of the Freedom of Information Act as long as “no transaction or discussion relating to the transaction of public business among three or more members of the public body in attendance takes place.” The bill stems from local government concern over a Supreme Court of Virginia ruling in Gloss v. Wheeler that found five members of the Prince William Board of Supervisors “knowingly and willfully violated” FOIA by attending and participating in a police citizens’ advisory board meeting without fulfilling public meeting requirements laid out in state law. The case has been the subject of extensive discussions among local governments and members of Virginia’s FOIA Advisory Council. House Bill 40, from Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, would exempt from FOIA disclosure any complaint to the Virginia Board of Elections about the use of campaign funds prior to a public hearing. It would also exempt all records on the complaint if the board dismisses it during its preliminary investigation. Judicial Watch obtains emails about menorah lighting cancellation under FOIA Conservative nonprofit Judicial Watch obtained 91 pages of emails to and from the city of Williamsburg regarding a local event organizer’s rejection of a request to hold a menorah lighting at the 2nd Sundays Art and Music Festival. The decision sparked international backlash and condemnation from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who called it “absurd and antisemitic.” The emails, which Judicial Watch requested under the Freedom of Information Act, contain numerous expressions of anger at the city as well as city officials’ attempt to distance themselves from festival organizer Shirley Vermillion’s decision. “Sunday, December 3 we became aware that a community organization made a decision regarding the content of its planned event. Lovelight Placemaking’s decision was theirs alone,” the city replied to many of the complaints. “The City of Williamsburg has no role in curating the artists, vendors, or participants of 2nd Sundays.” One Williamsburg city council member, Caleb Rogers, wrote to several people that he was “hopeful the decision will be reversed as I recognize the celebration of Jewish holidays should not be seen as a political position, no matter where they happen in the world.” The records also contain a lengthy email from Vermillion to city officials that seeks to explain the decision. “I am not a TV or news watcher at all. .. I knew that there was a conflict going on … I have seen no footage, and when I presented it to my board, family and significant others. They quickly said have you lost your mind we absolutely are not going to two sides in anyway,” she wrote. “We are sticking to our mission of only promoting Music &arts that we have done for 14 years. I am very sad that all of the comments are also now involving the city.” The Mercury’s efforts to track FOIA and other transparency cases in Virginia are indebted to the work of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government , a nonprofit alliance dedicated to expanding access to government records, meetings and other state and local proceedings. Families of executed individuals call for release of Dept of Corrections tapes After NPR aired excerpts from four audio tapes of executions recorded by the Virginia Department of Corrections and later donated by a department employee to the Library of Virginia, the state seized the tapes and refused to release 27 other secret recordings. The news organization then sued the Virginia Department of Corrections, which argued the recordings were confidential prison records and that it wanted to protect the privacy of the executed individuals and their families. But four of those families told NPR they wanted Virginia to release the tapes publicly. “They were less concerned with their own privacy and more interested in being able to hear whether the state had acted correctly when it put their loved one to death,” the outlet wrote. “If it’s like a precaution, to make sure that each place is following the procedures, I was thinking, then why are they keeping them hidden?” asked Tracy Evans, who had children with Edward Bell, a man who shot a Winchester police officer in 1999 and was executed in 2009. “So what’s really going on?” NPR has since appealed the judge’s ruling to the Virginia Court of Appeals. Have you experienced local or state officials denying or delaying your FOIA request? 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