Recognizing FOIA heroes

Your neighbors know a thing or two about open government.

Every year, the Virginia Coalition for Open Government recognizes citizens and representatives of government and media for their contribution during the past year to the cause of open and accessible government.

The citizen winner is Jill Hill of Fairfax.

When the county school board made the surprise decision to close an area elementary school, Hill and several other concerned parents filed FOIA requests looking for answers. Some FOIAs were answered, others were not, and some showed emails being exchanged at a rate that resembled an electronic meeting.

Hill’s pursuit of answers even led some board members to publicly complain to The Washington Post about the fact that their emails were public records.

Hill filed suit against the county, and while the judge ruled the emails were not an electronic meeting, the judge did find that some of the withheld records should have been disclosed, and some of FOIA’s public meeting provisions had been violated.

Hill’s efforts demonstrated the power of citizens using FOIA to hold government accountable.

The government winners are Northern Virginia-area delegates Jim LeMunyon (R-Chantilly) and Mark Keam (D-Vienna).

As first-year delegates in 2010, the pair banded together to present a bill that would put legislators’ voting histories online and make them searchable. The measure made it through the House unanimously before being killed in the Senate.

The two reintroduced the bill in 2011 and began an aggressive campaign to enlist support across a broad spectrum of interest groups and political ideologies. Wary, though, of a repeat in the Senate, the bill was converted into a House resolution and passed unanimously. The resolution directs the House clerk’s office to have the system up and running by 2012.

The delegates’ bipartisan efforts demonstrated the best of coalition building in support of open government.

This year, the media winner is The Roanoke Times, who prevailed in a lawsuit against the City of Radford over the city’s refusal to release records.

All award winners will be recognized at VCOG’s annual conference, which is Oct. 29 at Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville. The cost is $35 for VCOG members and $45 for non-members and includes lunch and the opportunity to buy reduced-rate tickets to tour the main house.

We will have panels on access to the former UVA professor’s climate-change email, a reverse press conference where local officials ask local journalists questions about FOIA, access and transparency, and we’ll have an update from the Library of Virginia on the effort to create an online archive of the Kaine administration’s email.
Get more details & register here.

We also have an event Nov. 10 in McLean on records management. The session is geared toward government employees, but the public and press is welcome.
Get more details & register here.