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The Southampton County School Board continues to offer a public comment period for those who wish to address the board, but the board reached a consensus earlier this year that it would not broadcast the period on its YouTube livestream. Starting in August, the audio and video cuts out on the livestream for the duration of the period, and this has continued with the board’s subsequent meetings. In an interview with The Tidewater News, Board Chair Dr. Deborah Goodwyn addressed questions about the matter by making a point of putting the discussion in context. When asked when the board decided not to broadcast public comment, Goodwyn said, “This is a board discussion, so there was never a vote. It was a consensus that the board reached after discussion.” Megan Rhyne said she was troubled by two things in Goodwyn’s responses to questions from The Tidewater News. “One is the notion that this change is necessitated by the need to counter mis- or disinformation,” she said. “The other troubling thing is this notion that reaching a consensus is somehow different from the board making a decision without a public vote.”

In a temporary win for the University of Virginia and upset neighbors, the future of two massive student housing developments in the city of Charlottesville is very much in doubt. That became clear Monday night at a six-hour City Council meeting that ran late into the evening and led to bickering between university representatives and one of the project’s developers. After exiting the meeting, the two parties squabbled in the hallway outside of City Council chambers. Stephen Bus, managing principal of Chicago-based Up Campus Student Living could be overheard arguing that UVa’s proposed buildings in the Ivy Corridor are similar in scale to his team’s proposal. A large crowd gathered for public comment on Monday, the majority of whom were older adults and property owners critical of both proposals. They worried about the size and location, as well as traffic and infrastructure implications that would result from the developments.

A letter between elected officials in Harrisonburg has laid bare the nuanced difficulties of city power dynamics, as well as an issue of parental privacy rights and ethical questions regarding the conduct of elected officials. Both sides say they must protect people at the heart of the issue. On one side is a father who says that this kerfuffle is a private matter between him, his child, and the school system. On the other side is a school board chair, who says one of her responsibilities is to protect employees in the Harrisonburg City Public School system. School Board Chair Deb Fitzgerald sent a letter to Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed on Nov. 10 detailing an alleged incident between an HPCS employee and a member of the Harrisonburg City Council. In the letter, Fitzgerald said a “city resident who is both a parent and a council member” made “bullying remarks” to a division-level director, as well as to the school system chief of staff on separate occasions. While the letter — obtained by The Citizen through a Freedom of Information Act request — did not name the councilman, interviews conducted regarding the letter have confirmed the councilman is Chris Jones. In text messages also obtained by an additional Freedom of Information Act request, Mayor Reed texted city council members regarding the original FOIA request sent by The Citizen. In those texts, Jones told his fellow council members that it was “a very serious situation surrounding the treatment of my [child] by HPCS.”

Dozens of new and first-time lawmakers coming into the General Assembly present lobbyists with an opportunity to influence policy this upcoming session. The House of Delegates class of 2024 will have 34 new members, although some are returning to the Legislature after losing races in 2021. The 17 senators entering that chamber for the first time are even more pronounced, although 11 had previously served in other government roles. The turnover means some legislators may be unfamiliar with parliamentary procedure and policy. “That is a tremendous loss of not just institutional knowledge, but knowledge of the Code of Virginia, knowledge of its economy and knowledge of all the entities across the commonwealth that one learns throughout a lifetime of service,” said Chris Saxman, a former delegate and the executive director of Virginia Free, a pro-business group.

Virginia extended its contract to keep Lawrenceville Correctional Center under private management until July 2024, despite efforts by lawmakers and protests by advocacy groups. Construction and operation costs would be lower than public prisons, said the former state corrections director in 1997, according to archived Richmond-Times Dispatch reports. The director thought the private prison would introduce “an exchange of ideas and friendly competition” to improve public and private facilities. But in recent years the facility has been criticized for the reported understaffing, building maintenance, drug overdoses, safety issues and violent activity. There were 300 staff employed at Lawrenceville in 1998. The prison was promoted as a way to supply local jobs, according to archived reports. VADOC deducted $4.3 million in contract breaches due to understaffing since 2018, according to memos obtained by Virginia Mercury. Over $600,000 of those violations were from a lack of medical staff. VADOC would not say what it considers an adequate staffing ratio when contacted, and said to contact the GEO Group. The GEO Group did not respond to an email or phone call request by time of publication. Low compensation levels were cited as an obstacle to recruit and retain staff.

It's that time of year when we seek nominations for our annual FOIA Hero awards. Nominate your citizen, press or government FOI hero by clicking the link. Award winners will be recognized at our conference in April 2024.
DEADLINE IS JANUARY 31.

Monday, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) made its fourth Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release of documents related to the transfer of Obama-era Presidential records from President Biden to NARA, beginning in November 2022. NARA has received approximately 25 FOIA requests related to NARA’s receipt of these records. We are processing the requests on a rolling basis and posting any non-exempt, responsive records at https://www.archives.gov/foia/biden-vp-records-covered-by-pra. Today’s release consists of 15 pages of communications with NARA’s Office of Inspector General about the Penn Biden Center records.