(C) Virginia Mercury This story was originally published by Virginia Mercury and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . FOIA Friday: Culpeper sheriff’s payouts to brothers, a VMI investigation and more [1] ['Staff Report', 'More From Author', '- November'] Date: 2023-11-03 One of the less noticed features of the Virginia Way is the long-running tendency of the commonwealth’s leaders to conduct their decision-making behind closed doors. While the Virginia Freedom of Information Act presumes all government business is by default public and requires officials to justify why exceptions should be made, too many Virginia leaders in practice take the opposite stance, acting as if records are by default private and the public must prove they should be handled otherwise. In this feature, we aim to highlight the frequency with which officials around Virginia are resisting public access to records on issues large and small — and note instances when the release of information under FOIA gave the public insight into how government bodies are operating. FOIA reveals payouts for Culpeper sheriff’s brothers More than 20 employees of the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office got payouts this year for accrued leave, sick and comp time, according to records the Culpeper Star-Exponent obtained through FOIA. But the biggest payouts went to two brothers of Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was indicted this summer on federal bribery charges. One of the brothers received $47,980 after retiring in April but was quickly hired back to a part-time job. The other brother was paid $38,154. Jenkins denied that he was showing any favoritism toward his relatives. Though Culpeper County’s government doesn’t allow lump payouts for accrued leave time, the sheriff’s office is a separate entity and has no policy on the subject. VMI refuses to release report on student newspaper controversy The Virginia Military Institute is refusing to disclose the results of its internal investigation into a controversy over a student newspaper, The Cadet, that won a top journalism award for articles criticizing the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. According to Cardinal News, a member of VMI’s board had accused college staffers of feeding negative information to other news outlets amid scrutiny of the award and questions about the student paper’s ties to an alumnus who sued VMI when his consulting firm failed to win a contract for diversity initiatives. The investigation was handled by VMI’s own inspector general, and a school spokeswoman said “the report and its findings are not subject to public disclosure.” VMI also refused to release a redacted copy of the report and said it would only be presented to the college’s board in a closed session. Richmond says it doesn’t need to release records of overtime pay Transparency activist Josh Stanfield has filed a lawsuit against the city of Richmond that among other aims seeks to force the city to provide information about overtime compensation it paid municipal employees in 2023. According to the petition, Stanfield sent a FOIA request to the city asking for the “names, overtime pay, salary, and total pay for FY2023 for all City employees.” While the city’s FOIA officer provided names and salaries, she did not provide the requested information about overtime pay, saying in an email that “the HR professional who provided the records does not believe that she is required to release overtime pay because it could constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy.” The Virginia Freedom of Information Act states that no provision of the law should be interpreted as denying public access to “records of the name, position, job classification, official salary, or rate of pay of, and records of the allowances or reimbursements for expenses paid to, any officer, official, or employee of a public body.” Richmond has previously declined to release overtime pay information: Several years ago, WTVR reported that although a city audit found 57 employees had each worked more than 700 hours of overtime in 2017, the city would not release information because they were concerned about it being tied to identifiable individuals. In 2012, York County similarly declined to release such data, arguing that overtime doesn’t fall under the list of information required to be disclosed under FOIA. Numerous other local governments, including Henrico County, have previously released records of their overtime pay. Have you experienced local or state officials denying or delaying your FOIA request? Tell us about it: [email protected] [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/11/03/foia-friday-culpeper-sheriffs-payouts-to-brothers-and-more/ Published and (C) by Virginia Mercury Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/virginiamercury/