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FOIA Friday: Roanoke email chains and Colonial Beach budget files [1]

['Staff Report', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2024-02-23

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.

Roanoke withholds, then produces, email chain

Following a Freedom of Information Act request, the city of Roanoke initially did not provide news outlet Roanoke Rambler an email chain between the city manager and several council members discussing a potential investigation into how the Rambler had obtained the former parks director’s resignation letter.

The Rambler had requested correspondence from the city manager and mayor about the director’s resignation, his letter and the Rambler.

“After the Rambler retained an attorney, the city released the four additional emails,” the news site reported. “The city also waived a FOIA fee of $93.28.”

Roanoke’s attorney said the email chain had not previously been produced because an email from the mayor had been sent by an assistant and other council members were not named in the Rambler’s FOIA request. The initial email in the chain was written by the city manager and “contained nearly all the keywords The Rambler asked for in its initial request.”

Colonial Beach manager’s refusal to provide unlocked spreadsheet of town budget likely violated FOIA

In an advisory opinion, Virginia’s FOIA Council found the town manager of Colonial Beach likely didn’t comply with FOIA when she refused to provide a council member an unlocked Excel version of the town’s budget.

“The town manager appears to have repeatedly refused to provide the public records in the medium identified and requested by you and cut off further communication,” wrote council Senior Attorney Joseph Underwood and Executive Director Alan Gernhardt in their opinion.

The opinion was requested by Colonial Beach Council member David Williams, who told the council he had repeatedly requested an Excel version of the town budget but was refused by the town manager. The town manager provided a PDF version of the budget but said the Excel version was “proprietary”; she later sent the council a locked Excel file that members could view but not download, save, sort or search. In an email reply to another request from Williams, the town manager insisted she had satisfied the requirements of FOIA and would only discuss the issue further in a closed meeting of the council, adding, “Otherwise, this will be my last written correspondence regarding this matter.”

The FOIA Council noted the state’s law requires public bodies to “produce nonexempt records maintained in an electronic database in any tangible medium identified by the requester … if that medium is used by the public body in the regular course of business.”

“It appears that an unlocked Excel version of the town’s budget would be a medium used by the town manager’s office in the regular course of business,” the FOIA Council opinion notes. “Otherwise, the town manager, CFO, and office personnel would be unable to enter and remove data from the Excel spreadsheet or to update or revise any budgetary information throughout the drafting and approval process.”

Consequently, it concluded, “If the town manager or other officials in the town’s budgetary office utilize an unlocked Excel version in their regular course of business, then it would appear that the town manager failed to comply with FOIA when she did not provide the requested record in the identified medium.”

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.

Repeated denials of arena proposal records

Numerous requests by NBC4 Washington for documents and records related to the proposed deal to bring the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Virginia have been denied. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration refused to provide PowerPoint decks, letters or notes related to meetings between the administration and Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Wizards and Capitals, or emails between the two.

While NBC4 noted “no explanation or citation of any legal exemption was given,” Virginia’s FOIA law includes an exemption for “working papers and correspondence of the Office of the Governor.” Public bodies are required to cite any exemptions they are invoking to withhold records.

NBC4 also requested the documents reviewed by the Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission, which approved the deal between the state and Monumental. According to the TV station, the commission “provided the one-page agenda, but that was all. There’s no mention of a billion-dollar project on the agenda.”

“All meeting materials” from the closed meeting were withheld by legislative staffers, who told the news station, “The law does not require their disclosure.”

The deal being proposed would require Virginia to create an arena authority that would issue $2 billion in bonds to develop the project.

The city of Alexandria has also denied requests from NBC4 for documents, saying they are proprietary and confidential. Attorneys later released a $108,362 contract to do an economic impact analysis, and the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership issued a redacted version of the analysis.

Have you experienced local or state officials denying or delaying your FOIA request? Tell us about it: [email protected]

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[1] Url: https://virginiamercury.com/2024/02/23/foia-friday-roanoke-email-chains-and-colonial-beach-budget-files/

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