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Richmond’s former Freedom of Information Act Officer Connie Clay filed a whistleblower complaint against the city Friday morning in Richmond Circuit Court. The 17-page complaint claims Clay was unlawfully terminated by Petula Burks, the city’s strategic communications and civic engagement officer, on Jan. 19 for "refusing to engage in illegal and unethical activities in violation of FOIA." Clay said she was told when she was fired that "she was not a good fit." In the lawsuit, Clay also alleges the city routinely failed to comply with state FOIA laws and intentionally withheld information from the public.

Clay alleged the termination was "in retaliation for reporting and refusing to engage in illegal and unethical activities in violation of FOIA." The complaint pointed to several specific examples, including internal resistance, Clay said she encountered while trying to produce FOIA documents regarding Richmond's meals tax. As CBS 6 reported earlier this week, the City is regularly not meeting required FOIA deadlines and sometimes ignores legitimate requests altogether.

The Purcellville Town Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a new and more extensive council policies and procedures manual. Director of Administration Hooper McCann recommended creating a separate handbook for the town’s advisory panels. The council also discussed adding a “disclosures” item to the meeting agenda, at the request of council member Christopher Bertaut. “You’d be disclosing any meetings with individuals who have business before or potentially in the near future will have business with the town,” Bertaut said. Other council members questioned the “potential business with the town” part of the disclosure requirement.

If Gov. Glenn Youngkin signs the legislation, Virginia could allow closed hearings for the decertification of law enforcement and jail officers. The measure also allows records relating to decertification to not be disclosed. Senate Bill 88 from Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, builds on a previous measure that she carried, now law, that allows for decertification of law enforcement officers for misconduct. When officers are under consideration to be decertified, they go through a process overseen by Virginia’s Department of Criminal Justice Services. Locke’s bill this year would add that those meetings can be closed. The measure has passed the House of Delegates and the Senate. Youngkin can decide to sign it into law, seek amendments or veto the bill. Proponents of the bill argue that it would stop bottlenecks in the decertification process. But others express concern what the ability to close meetings might mean for transparency.

Before he became director of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality in 2022, Michael Rolband headed a consulting firm that did work for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Some say Rolband’s past relationship with the pipeline creates a conflict of interest for the leader of a state agency that enforces environmental regulations — rules that DEQ has cited Mountain Valley for violating in the past. Rolband — who was present at a Feb. 23 public hearing but did not speak from his seat at the dais — twice declined invitations for an interview with The Roanoke Times, made by emails to DEQ’s public information officer on Feb. 6 and Feb. 26. But in documents provided to the newspaper in response to a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request, he acknowledged shortly after taking his job that his past dealings with Mountain Valley raises “a perceived conflict of interest.”

College football fans around the country rejoiced when EA Sports hinted at the return of the beloved NCAA football video game franchise in 2021 on social media. This will be just the second time Old Dominion will make an appearance in a college football video game. The Monarchs were in NCAA 14, which was released after they announced a move from the CAA to Conference USA, although Old Dominion played as an FCS independent in 2013. With Old Dominion now confirmed to be in the game, The Virginian-Pilot filed a Freedom of Information Act request with ODU to obtain more details about what you’ll see when you play a game as the Monarchs.

How to FOIA: A visual guide for obtaining public records // I’ve filed thousands of requests in my career. Here’s how I do it, step by step.