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Christiansburg Town Council: Spending YOUR money before they get it.

07 Jun

Revisiting a re-visitation of the Meals Tax increase is on the agenda on the Tuesday, June 8th, Special Meeting of the Christiansburg Town Council. Rather than go through all the gory (although sickly humorous) details of why this is necessary, read the editorial at the Roanoke Times.com: Editorial: Christiansburg’s budget shenanigans. You can always watch the video at MyVAResources.com’s Videos of Public Meetings page, Part 5 on the 6/1/10 Town Council Meeting is the key element. On another note in the same sad song: Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on June 7, 2010 in Christiansburg, VA, Citizen Participation, Environment, FOIA, Local Government, VA government, VOTE, Your Tax Money

 

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Christiansburg Town Council talks fees for credit card payments.

06 Jan

I kept waiting for someone to bring up a couple of issues about this, but they never did during the Joint Public Hearing held on January 6, 2010. The discussion was concerning the application of fees for those people who wish to pay their town bills using a credit card. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on January 6, 2010 in Your Tax Money

 

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Health care public option: So elected officials wanna opt out for me…and for you?

23 Oct

I do not like this at all. Who made elected officials so omnipotent that they should blatantly decide whether or not any citizen that they represent wants those officials to remove the possibility of a public option in health care.

Well, that seems to be one of the options being discussed. There is that darned word ‘options’ again. It sounds like politicians want to exercise their options to prohibit me from exercising my options. Maybe I’m missing something in this but something just doesn’t seem right.

I have no problem with the voters of a state deciding whether or not they wish to have a public health care option available to them. I have a great deal of problem with elected officials making that decision for me or any other citizen.

If the put the public option in and leave the opportunity for states to opt out, that should require a referendum by the public. The VOTERS should be the ones to decide, not elected officials who may or may not be tempted to make a choice based upon pressure from big interest groups.

In fact, since some elected officials seem to be so sure that the American people do not want a public option, maybe it should just be put on a national ballot and simply let people decide.

Some of these arguments against a public OPTION are so stupid that I find it embarrassing to think that the rest of the world is seeing this kind of discussion. Here’s some of the points I feel are important:

  1. If elected officials are so sure American’s do not want this, why not simply let the option go through, and the failure of people to choose that option will prove their argument?
  2. If we can trust insurance companies to do the right thing and police themselves, why did this ever come up as an issue? How did we get to this point?
  3. What is the big idea of trying to stop an OPTION when the Declaration of Independence clearly supports “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
  4. Add to #3 that the first line of the Virginia Declaration of Rights reads “That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

There are some central themes here that tell me that it is citizens who should make the choice, not elected officials. Elected officials cannot be expected to get out to talk to every single citizen to ascertain what citizens want. Perhaps, a hundred or more years ago, that would have been possible, but not with today’s populations. In order for elected officials to do their jobs properly, they need to remember that it is simple things like: “freedom” which includes the RIGHT TO CHOOSE; “life” which means to be alive (something that health care seems to be pretty much directly related to); and, happiness (i.e., free from what worries and fears that one can be free of) which seems to be directly related to being healthy, being restored to a state of health, or, at least, being as comfortable as possible with whatever state of ill health with which a person has to live.

Another thing or two elected officials need to remember arethat lies, deception, and misdirection eventually come back to haunt you. We as citizens will watch, we will remember, and we will get out and vote! Just give us the truth and let us make our decisions about our lives. Do not be so out of touch with those you represent that you miss seeing and listening to those for whom the existing health care options are simply NOT financially feasible. We have far too many people in this country who cannot afford to eat, pay for housing, buy clothes, or buy Christmas presents for their children. For those people, being able to come up with the money to provide decent health care in the existing forms available is not an option .

We, as a country as only as strong as the “least among us”. People who cannot afford health care are not asking for money for enhancing body parts, unnecessary plastic surgery, or other such things. The issue is simply basic health care.

It is a crying shame when a country provides Viagra through Medicare, but  the woman with an unplanned pregnancy and no insurance could look at being financially devastated, possibly even end up losing custody of any other children she has simply because there was no health care option. If you are against abortion, then think about how the public option could help in cases such as this.

Don’t bother telling me that stuff like that doesn’t happen. I saw it when I was a child abuse investigator. Families devastated by medical bills that ended up unable to provide adequately for their children. I’ve seen children removed from homes and placed in foster care or with other relatives simply because parents could not afford to pay medical bills. I’ve seen families thrust into abject poverty trying to cover those bills, unable to feed and clothe their families DESPITE working one or more jobs where the person working could not afford the family plan. I’ve seen the loss of pride and dignity as people who have worked hard to provide for their children suddenly had their lives crash around them. I’ve seen people resort to illegal activities as a last resort to try to pay those bills and provide for their families.

Come on, all you elected officials, give us a chance to make our own choices. This has gone on for far to long. It is time to quit talking and start doing!

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Posted by on October 23, 2009 in Health Care, VOTE

 

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Why not have a public OPTION when it comes to health care?

29 Jul

It isn’t just those people who do not have health care who might choose a public option and that makes big insurance companies nervous. That’s about the only reason I can think of for so much money being funneled into trying to block this.

Why would people choose a public option?

More and more ‘big businesses’ are hiring a large percentage of ‘part-time employees. These part-time people are not eligible for benefits such as health care with many of these companies. So, we end up with people having to work 2 or 3 part-time jobs because full-time jobs aren’t available and they can’t afford insurance without working multiple jobs. In many of those part-time positions, a person would be luck to be able to make insurance payments with the payment from one part-time job while the other one or two would provide the income necessary to survive on a daily basis.

People who have health care but can’t afford the co-pays were a substantial percentage of those I transported to the Emergency Room via ambulance when I worked as a paramedic. Why? Simple. The co-pay for doctor’s visits and the problems of having to take time off of work to get into the office when the doctor was there created financial stress. If the person could hold off until it was serious enough to warrant going to the ER, it was likely to be a lower copay (many insurance companies require no co-pay for ‘emergencies’) and the ER is open during hours the doctor’s office isn’t. If you are a working parent and trying to juggle what ‘sick time’ you have between your needs and those of your children, you can quickly get to the point where you are losing income.

Sure, there are walk-in clinics available….in some areas….at some times. If you happen to have transportation to get to one located in other areas and if you happen to be able to get there at the time that the clinic is open, you can go there but, that doesn’t fit for everyone.

What about those people who don’t have any insurance? They don’t go in to the doctor because they can’t afford it. Once they are sick enough they make it to the ER. All of these result in driving ER costs up. Those costs are spread out over all of those people with insurance premiums. If everyone had insurance, there could actually be a reduction in insurance premiums, if CEO’s are willing to let that money go back to consumers, you would see the savings.

There are some additional ‘hidden’ cost to either having insurance that is not affordable to use except in emergencies or not having insurance at all. As a child abuse investigator, I can tell you that over 50% of the cases I worked on involved situation where stress resulted in abuse, or the absence of affordable health care resulted in parents being accused of being abusive or neglectful. Stress is one of the primary contributing factors to abuse of children and adults. it is associated with alcohol and drug abuse. One of the most common sources of stress in our County is due to finances. Medical care/insurance is a primary source of financial stress.

All of the abuse/neglect cases cost taxpayers in employees, services (psychological, social, medical, and judicial). Simply removing or reducing one stressor could make a huge difference.

The Health Care issue is not just about Health Care! There are a lot of other factors that come into play. We desperately need health care reform. I, for one, also think that citizens deserve the right to choose if they wish to participate in a public option. That does not mean that everyone should be forced to join, simply that people should have the right to make that choice for themselves. For politicians to prevent people from making that choice for themselves is not fair. It is not right.

You may or may not agree with me. However you feel about this let your elected officials know. Take the time to make a call or send an email. This should be the people’s choice not the choice of whoever has the most money to spend on advertising. (It is ironic that the very companies you pay When your insurance company pays the bills are the ones paying for those ads?)

You may also want to take a few minutes to look at a website called Opensecrets.org. This site shows you where the political contribution elected officials receive come from. There are some interesting relationships between the positions elected officials are taking on this and where their funding comes from. And, yes…all of that contribution stuff is made available by FOIA.

By the way, all this talk about a ‘rush’? We could wait forever for insurance companies to ‘police themselves’. If they were going to do it, they would have done it by now.

I’ll be interested in hearing what you have to say.

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Posted by on July 29, 2009 in Health Care

 

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City of Virginia Beach: An example of Government and FOIA working together.

27 Jun

During these last few days of FOIA coverage, I would be remiss if I didn’t take a few minutes to talk about some of the positive steps that I have found where a local government is really working to insure the FOIA is used in their jurisdiction. The City of Virginia Beach is one such jurisdiction.

The City of Virginia Beach formed a committee to assess Internet Access of Public Information. The report they generated is available online and provides a good example of how government can work with citizens and the FOIA to help keep people informed. Although the study focuses on Real Estate issues, it is certainly a format that could be applied in a multitude of areas where the FOIA is concerned.

As with any legitimate study, they looked at the pros and cons, and they looked at what other jurisdictions were doing in order to develop recommendations for their City to apply. Their recommendation include a wide range and even allows for those businesses that utilize that data to be the ones to carry the greater financial burden, rather than taxpayers. The option would provide some special features for those businesses that use the system fairly extensively, but would be a pay option.

One of the interesting things I found was the part of the report where it was noted that under the FOIA, there are more things required to be posted online when the jurisdiction has a website where they conduct routine business. Under this portion of the law, it would appear that the jurisdiction could have what is essentially an advertising website and would not be required to post public documents on the website.

It is this last that brought to my mind the rationale used by Town of Christiansburg government for having a website and the capabilities to handle bill paying online for about 10 years and never utilizing it. Of course, now, the software they purchased for handling online payments is obsolete and new software would have to be purchased in order to add the ‘bill pay online option.

So, taxpayer money was spent to buy software that was never used, that is now worthless, and more taxpayer money will need to be invested if bill paying online is ever to be available for Christiansburg residents. Not only is it the loss of taxpayer money for the purchase of the program, other tax money was essentially thrown away. What was spent in mailing costs, paper, printing, copying, envelopes , staff time, etc. was lost as there was no paperless option available for bills to be sent out automatically via email, or available to citizens through the website, and payments to have been made on the website. Now, in order to save some of that money, the Town will have to purchase new software and start over.

A friend of mine once told me nobody does something for nothing. In this case it rather looks like the Town made a ‘show’ of responding to citizens by setting up a dead website and buying software. Rather than have to post all of those documents online and have them readily accessible to citizens, they elected to let the ‘pay on line’ option and the ‘website’ all but die of neglect. Was it really worth all of that taxpayer money to keep from having to post meeting notices, agendas, minutes, and other public documents online? If so, why? Who benefited while citizens lost? Gotta wonder!

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Posted by on June 27, 2009 in FOIA

 

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What can FOIA mean to you? Here is one example concerning stormwater in Christiansburg, VA

24 Jun

Well, that will depend upon what area your interest direct you to
explore. For instance, over a year ago, I did a FOIA request of the
Town of Christiansburg for Minutes of Town Council and planning
Commission Meeting Minutes from 2001 through 2008. I received all of
the Town Council minutes and some of the Planning Commission minutes.

Rather
than have to dig through those documents when I have a question or am
looking for a pattern, I scanned them and set them up as searchable
.pdf documents. This gave me a fairly useful tool for allowing my mind
to wander.

For instance when searches were done on stormwater and flood/flooding:

Did you know that from July through December of 2001, there was no mention of any of those words in the Town Council Minutes.

In the 2002 calendar year, there were 18 instances where stormwater/flood/flooding issues were addressed with the Town Council.

In the 2003 calendar year, there were 12 instances where stormwater/flood/flooding issues were addressed with the Town Council.

In the 2004 calendar year, there were 3 instances where stormwater/flood/flooding issues were addressed with the Town Council.

In the 2005 calendar year, there was 1 instance where stormwater/flood/flooding issues were addressed with the Town Council.

In the 2006 calendar year, there were 3 instances where stormwater/flood/flooding issues were addressed with the Town Council.

In the 2007 calendar year, there were 2 instances where stormwater/flood/flooding issues were addressed with the Town Council.

In the 2008 calendar year, there were 5 instances where stormwater/flood/flooding issues were addressed with the Town Council.

Now,
I will be looking at these much more closely for a future report but
what is abundandently clear is the fact that most of these
‘discussions’ came from citizens who were suffering the negative
effects of stormwater/flood/flooding.

There were a few
occasions, during times when ‘stormwater’ was made a major issue by
citizens, that stormwater was brought up by Council members in relation
to rezoning/development issues.

I will note that during the time
that Mayor Linkous was in office, these issues were brought up more
frequently, and the people bringing them up during those times were:
Mr. Ballengee, Mr. Barber, and Mrs. Carter. Also, it should be noted
that the large ‘growth spurt’ which generated massive amounts of
impervious surfaces began around 2005.

Many of the areas
mentioned in the minutes are still having problems with
stormwater/flood/flooding (as noted in the recent flooding problems
reported in Christiansburg.

So I found some information. What
good is it? Well, by itself, it isn’t much. If you take the time to
make use of some of the other documents open to the public, you can
begin to get a bit of the bigger picture. These other documents are
found on the internet and include things like the latest DCR provided
rules and regulations for stormwater management (comparing that to the
Town of Christiansburg Code has been a real experience!) and the
various State Codes specific to stormwater management and flooding.

What
is troublesome is the number of times that Town Council members heard
about citizen fear of stormwater issues related to new development and
went ahead and approved the development with the understanding that the
Town Manager would make sure that all was done correctly to insure
safety. This is the same Town Manager would couldn’t manage to upgrade
the Town’s Storm Water Ordinance.

At the 3/4/2003 Town Council
meeting then Councilman Ballengee specifically asked about any problems
related to recent heavy rains. The Town Manager noted that there had
been minor flooding and minor road destruction and that all reports
were handled according to Town procedure. There does not appear to be
any further discussion of what this “Town procedure” might have been.

One
quickly gets the same impression from those historic minutes that one
can get from recent Town Council minutes. That impression is that the
Town Council hears about issues, the Mayor trustingly hands the issue
over to the Town Manager, and no further discussion ensues.

At
the most recent Town Council Meeting, I specifically asked Council what
was being done to keep the flooding from reoccurring. The question was
fielded by the Mayor and passed off to the Town Manager who simply
responded that the flooding was being investigated. Nothing was offered
to report that any steps were being taken to deal with the issue and
yet town work crews have been seen in multiple locations trying to pump
out the accumulated silt and debris from storm drains. Routine
inspection and maintenance? If there is such a thing within the Town,
then has that schedule been modified as the amount of silt and debris
from construction sites have multiplied? Are we still doing things the
way we have for the last 30 years? Personally, I’ve never seen this
type of work performed before, but I’ve only been living here for the
last 10 years and I have not been watching every storm drain every
minute of every day:)

One thing I will say is that I have the
utmost respect for those workers who are doing the job. They are not
the ones who created the problems. They were not the “DECIDER”
determining what constituted a problem with runoff from sites or
whether proper measures were taken to curb that runoff before it got
into the system and created problems. They are simply the ones who have
to clean up other people’s messes.

Nope, I haven’t been off
the FOIA topic here. I’ve just given an example of how anybody can use
that information that he/she has the right to obtain. There are a lot
of other examples out there. You can start looking at some of them on
my citizen’s information website MyVAResources.com. Or take a closer look at how the FOIA process has worked in Christiansburg at the Citizen Initiative for Transparency site.

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Posted by on June 24, 2009 in FOIA, Land Use

 

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Ever wonder what Virginia Courts have ruled in FOIA cases? Or, how FOIA is being changed?

23 Jun

Well, the Virginia Coalition for Open Government is THE place to look. There are 3 blue squares at the top of their screen labeled: Virginia’s FOIA, In the News, and …Etc. Directly under each of these is a description of the offerings held there. Under Virginia’s FOIA there is one section on FOIA opinions from state courts. Click on “Court Opinions” in the dropdown menu and you will be provided with a list of Court opinion links.

Perhaps one of the best know current issues involves BJ Ostergren where it was ruled the person could continue to publish the Social Security numbers of prominent persons, but not private ones. This was done by Ostergren to protest the laws allowing land records containing full social security numbers to be published on the interenet. (One of those good for the goose, good for the gander moments!)

Another link under the Virginia’s FOIA is the 2009 Legislative Roundup. Here is where you can see bills that newly activated, are in front of the Governor for signing, or at the legislature being worked on, that will affect FOIA and your rights.

The Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Protection Act – this serves to protect employees that report Fraud and Abuse (bet you figured that out by the title, eh?) Unfortunately, it sees to only apply to people employed by the State. It includes a long list of records that are excluded from FOIA as part of that process. These are specific to the investigation involved and the records that would normally be available to the public are not affected.
Remote access to land records: Prince William County may establish a pilot program assessing fee. This newly adopted Act provides for charges to be attached to the online records by the general public. Not only is there a fee for viewing, there is an additional fee to download images similar to the existing copying fee. (If the internet was suppose to help people get easier access, this one is a real slap in the face to citizens. Sure, all those companies that access these types of things can afford the related fees. Not all citizens can do so. One of the things already keeping people away from documents is the cost. This looks like a great way to insure that big business gets the information that many citizens cannot afford. Healing the digital divide by making information available while then turning around and setting it up so that it replaced by an economical divide is one giant step backwards. One of the biggest reasons to use the internet is because often citizens do not know what it is that they need. It can require hours of looking at information. Having it available on the internet means that that can be accomplished without tying up employees to help for hours or even days at a time, helping the person. How is it saving money, or generating revenue, to charge for something that is saving worker time and money (paper, ink, copy machines all become the cost of the person/group looking rather than the taxpayer). I personally hope this one is put to the curb after the trial period, or significant modifications are made to insure that ALL citizens, regardless of income level, have the same degree of access. A sliding scale fee comes to mind. Ironically, the required report on this pilot study only requires a summary of the level of participation, costs, and revenues. Nothing is in place to determine who now finds themselves without access or how much has been saved in personnel and processing by having the data online in the first place.
Expenditures; annual report thereof provided by school board to be made available to public.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 22.1-90 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 22.1-90. Annual report of expenditures.

Every school board shall submit at least once each year to the governing body or bodies appropriating funds to the school board a report of all its expenditures. Such report shall also be made available to the public either on the official school division website, if any, or in hard copy at the central school division office, on a template prescribed by the Board of Education.

That is just a sample of some of the information you can find on this website. More discussion is coming. In the meantime, look for yourself. Don’t count on someone just telling you the way things are…check out the facts. (Darn, there I go again, slipping into that Christiansburg Town Council area again. Just wait until after July 4th! I’ve got a lot of time to make up and a lot of articles ready to be posted.)

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Posted by on June 23, 2009 in FOIA

 

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Virgina FOIA Evaluation … more on the low scores.

23 Jun

The University of Florida plays host to the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project. This is another one of those sites that evaluates states on the basis of how much ‘sunshine or shade’ exist in the government. You can look at the information on a particular state, compare two states or look at one category of the law over all 50 states.

While I was going through all the offerings of this site, I found something so simple that I had overlooked it previously. As I am now in the stage of discussing Virginia FOIA, I thought it might be worth discussing now: the definition of Public Records. This site gives the following definition of Public Records in Virginia:
The Virginia Freedom of Information Act defines “public records” to mean all writings and recordings that consist of letters, words or numbers, or their equivalent, set down by handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostatting, photography, magnetic impulse, optical or magneto-optical form, mechanical or electronic recording or other form of data compilation, however stored, and regardless of physical form or characteristics, prepared or owned by, or in the possession of a public body or its officers, employees or agents in the transaction of public business. Va. Code Ann. § 2.2-3701 (2002).

Some interesting features arise when you look at the State of Virginia and how it scored on public access of records. The site uses a scale of 7 to evaluate these.

7 = Sunny – completely open
6 = Mostly Sunny – mostly open
5 = Sunny with clouds – somewhat open
4 = Partly Cloudy – neither more open nor more closed
3 = Cloudy – somewhat closed
2 = Nearly Dark – mostly closed
1 = Dark – completely closed

Some of the lowest scores for Virginia included:

  • Political caucuses of state legislature which are not considered to be openmeetings
  • Hardware and Software Requirements:  policy-makers protect public access to computers when designing government computer sytems
  • Internet, Regulation of Professionals: information about the licensing or regulation of doctors, lawyers, etc. be online
  • Private Schools: no reference to private schools exists within open records laws.

Of particular interest to me was the score of 3 (Cloudy – somewhat closed) on Open Meetings, Informatl Meeting (Public Meetings) that I believe serves as a major loophole for government to circumvent the right of citizens to know.

The gathering of employees of a public body shall not be deemed a “meeting” when the purpose of such a gathering does not include the discussion or transaction of any public business and the meeting was not called or prearranged with this purpose. VA. Code Ann. § 2.2-3701, Va. Code Ann. § 2.2-3707 (G) (i) (2007).

Okay, so 3 or 4 Town Council Members meeting to go for long walks or work out together at the Rec Center, when no one else is around are likely to avoid discussing business? Come on…give me a break. All they would have to do to prevent any sense of impropriety would be to be sure that someone else was there????

Forgive me. I digress. I said I would write about FOIA through July 4th, not the Town of Christiansburg, but the Town of Christiansburg government IS subject to FOIA. If state FOIA laws need to be changed in order to prevent this type of perception, then so be it.

It should be noted that out of all the 50 states, Virginia is 7th highest on this score. None of the states scored more than Partly Cloudy (neither more open nor more closed). Nebraska’s law has a bit more strength when it specifically says:

Informal meetings, chance meetings and social gatherings “shall” not be used for the purpose of circumventing the Open Meetings Act. Neb.Rev.St. § 84-1410 (4) (2006).

South Carolina expands on this:

No chance meeting, social meeting, or electronic communication may be used in “circumvention of the spirit of requirements” of the open meetings requirements to act upon a matter over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power. Code 1976 § 30-4-70 (c) (2007).

Nebraska and South Carolina are the highest scoring states in this category. The lowest scoring states (Nearly Dark) are Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, and Mississippi.

To get back to Virginia FOIA law itself, our resident experts are (in my opinion) the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. In particular, a great starting place for learning about FOIA and what it can mean to you as a citizen, they post a FOI Citizens’ Guide online. They have a lot of other useful and necessary information available that I will discuss more in following articles.

The FOI Citizens’ Guide provides an overview of the rights of citizens including direct links to the relevant state codes. It also provides information on how to enforce your rights. Take some time to check out this site and while you’re wandering around on the internet, you might want to check out the Citizen Initiative for Transparency site that is now available. You may find some interesting links and resources there as well.

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Posted by on June 23, 2009 in Citizen Participation, FOIA

 

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Open Government Issues around the Nation and Within the State

22 Jun

I spent some more time on the Sunshine Review site mentioned in my last blog and found an interesting area where news is provided that relates to open government and the FOIA: The Sunshine Review – The Bad News. Again, this is a work in progress to which anyone with computer access can contribute. Even though this first page of the section deals with national issues, Bedford County School System seems to be the hottest topic around.

At the bottom of the page, you’ll find a list of states and by clicking on Virginia, you will be taken to a list of the myriad of issues related to government accountability within the State of Virginia. Although labeled The Bad News (and there is a lot of that covered), you can also find some bright spots like this Jan. 17, 2009 entry:

Secrecy breeds distrust

“The most refreshing change in Franklin city government over the past six months has been the City Council’s emphasis on openness, transparency and accessibility.

That collective spirit has begun to restore the broken trust between citizens and City Hall that manifest itself in the May election, when two newcomers running on a platform of greater citizen involvement scored runaway victories.

The City Council’s challenge now is to demonstrate that openness is an ongoing commitment, not an election-year show.”

I will end on that note and hope that more such reports will be found in the future. “Broken Trust” is a long festering wound throughout all levels of government. It will take time to restore. YOU can help speed the process by being an active participant in government. Good government merely begins in the voting booth. Like a garden, it must be carefully tended to be productive. Plant those seeds in the voting booth, but then be prepared to follow through with monitoring and intervening when necessary to grow a good, healthy, and responsive government.

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Posted by on June 22, 2009 in FOIA

 

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How FOIA could have gone wrong!

18 Jun

There is a nice read online:
Freedom of Information: How Americans got their right to know by George Kennedy.

It takes you through a brief history of FOIA but also what COULD have happened to FOIA along the way. A lot of fancy words accompanied the signing of the FOIA. On the surface, the rhetoric would make it appear that Pres. Johnson was happy to sign such a wonderful piece of legislation.

It is clear there was a long and hard battle (starting in 1955) to bring the FOIA to the point of being signed on July 4, 1966. Although a weak and watered down version of what was desired, it was a crucial first step. In the article noted above, it is reported that there were a lot of concerns about the number of exceptions that were likely to be requested and put into place. If enough of them existed, the very document meant to support Freedom of Information COULD have become the law that actually strengthened the government’s right to secrecy!

Fortunately, we had some editors of major newspapers (a highly competitive field) that set aside competition and joined forces to keep pressure on to make FOIA what it was meant to be, a way for citizens to learn what was going on in their government. This drive continued to grow and apply pressue until the FOIA was actually strengthened rather than weakened with the 1974 amendment. Now, with the ‘internet age’ fully upon us, the numbers of those striving to find information, lookiing for truth is expanding. It has the potential to be inside every business, every home, ever vehicle, every backpack, and many phones. (Case in point, the information we are still receiving from Iran despite what appears extraordinary government efforts to stop those leaks of information.)

Virtually nothing happens or is done these days that someone can’t find out about. It seems to me the logical response would be for government to maintain itself as openly as possible to public scrutiny. It is far better to be open with errors and ommissions now than to have them reach out and grab you in the future.

Now, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and some Territories all have their own versions of the FOIA at the state level. Florida was the first to do so in 1967. the “Sunshine Laws” of Florida remain considered some of the best in the country. However, not all state FOIAs are created equal.

Just by moving to another state, you could suddenly find yourself losing rights you had in the state in which you previously lived. In other cases, you could have spent all of your life in a state with limited FOIAs and relocate to a state like Florida where Sunshine has long been the standard.

How can a person keep up with it all? Easy answer – one person cannot do it. It requires many people watching and working to keep the information flow going. However, each person can access some of the information at places like the Sunshine Review Click on Virginia (the word) or Virginia on the map to get information specific to the State of Virginia.

This site, like most of the wiki sites is a work in progress. People are constantly updating the data you find here, so it is a good idea to check back often. Within the Virginia pages you will find: Statewide, School Districts, Counties, and Cities. (Yes, I’ve already written in to request that Towns be included:)

A closing thought:
“A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both.” Pres. James Madison, August 4, 1822

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Posted by on June 18, 2009 in FOIA

 

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