All Access

For some, it looked like politics; for others, like a House of Delegates pushing up against the limits of what 100 lawmakers could handle in a short, 46-day session. But the number of bills that died without a recorded vote and, in many cases without even getting a hearing, rose sharply from previous years, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch analysis of data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project and of legislative actions recorded by the General Assembly's Legislative Information System.

NOTE: Transparency Virginia calculated numbers for the House from 2015 to 2021 and found the following totals for bills left in full or subcommittee without a hearing or vote:
2015: 117
2016: 153
2017: 152
2018: 296
2019: 248
2020: 207
2021: 116

Citizens for Fauquier County has been named the Laurence E. Richardson Citizen Award honoree by the Virginia Coalition for Open Government in the coalition’s annual open-government awards. Citizens for Fauquier County is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization representing hundreds of people interested in local conservation efforts. In 2022, Citizens for Fauquier County filed a FOIA petition against the town of Warrenton over access to emails about a proposed special use permit for an Amazon Web Services data center. The case reached the Virginia Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel ruled the town improperly interpreted the scope of the working papers exemption.

Following a hearing in Fredericksburg Circuit Court yesterday, City Council will release documents requested by a resident under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. According to the court order written and signed by Judge Gordon Willis on February 27, Council will release “(1) two pages of interview questions and (2) nine pages of handwritten notes pertaining to the FOIA request.” Council continues to maintain that the documents are “lawfully exempt from mandatory disclosure under FOIA” but that the body is “exercising its discretion” to release them to Gormley, according to the order. The Advance received a copy of the order on Friday morning from Andrew Bodoh, the attorney representing resident Guy Gormley in his petition seeking the release of documents related to the appointment of Susanna Finn to fill the vacant Ward 3 City Council seat. On Friday afternoon, Kerry Devine, Fredericksburg mayor, said there was “no intent to circumvent or not be responsive” to Gormley’s FOIA request. Devine said process of filling the vacant seat was “a learning process” and that “there may be changes” to the process if another seat were to become vacant.

Richmond’s new mayor and new-look City Council huddled together for nearly an entire day Friday for a freewheeling and occasionally frank conversation about how city government can work better. The water crisis has also renewed broader questions about how the city communicates, both externally and internally. Councilor Sarah Abubaker said that way of doing things isn’t working and “people are hungry for that transparency and authenticity.” Leaders should send a message to staff, she said, that if they made honest mistakes while trying to make the city better, they’ll be protected. Avula said part of the answer is “not being so afraid of FOIA,” referring to the state’s Freedom of Information Act law that requires the release of most documents dealing with government business. In his previous public health and social services roles in state government, Avula said, there was sometimes a wariness of putting things in writing to avoid triggering FOIA. But he suggested officials can simply watch what they say when creating public records.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the Trump administration is arguing that its much-hyped Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is exempt from public records requests. Justice Department lawyers stated in a court filing Thursday that DOGE is no longer subject to FOIA requests after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January moving DOGE, formerly U.S. Digital Services (USDS), out of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB is subject to the public record law, unlike most of the offices and agencies within the Executive Office of the President.