FOIA Friday: Records show years-long history of overdue balances of ex-Richmond city official

File cabinets. (Getty)

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.

Former Richmond city spokeswoman was warned repeatedly about credit card use

According to records obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch , former city spokesperson Petula Burks and executive assistant Raymond Dark received several warnings about overdue balances on their city-issued purchasing cards.

The newspaper reported that Burks’ card was suspended after a backlog of unpaid charges and accidental use. She resigned July 1 after accumulating nearly $100,000 in service charges “from consulting and advertising firms operated by her former business partner.”

Records revealed that Burks started to fall behind significantly in reconciling charges in April 2023, with unsettled transactions worth $9,415.75.

In the following months, Burks still had thousands of dollars remaining to clear up, leading officials to consider suspending her purchasing card.

Further investigation by the Times-Dispatch found that oversight was unclear for purchasing cards and that Burks failed to resolve transactions after mistakenly using her card for a hotel stay and rental vehicle. City officials also found that Dark disregarded email communications about overdue payments, which resulted in the city suspending his card.

The Mercury’s efforts to track FOIA and other transparency cases in Virginia are indebted to the work of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government , a nonprofit alliance dedicated to expanding access to government records, meetings and other state and local proceedings.

Media outlet argues for access to Virginia execution recordings

NPR, an American public broadcasting company, and a team of attorneys are seeking through an appeal access to several execution tapes recorded by Virginia Department of Corrections prison employees, after an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the records in the Charlottesville Circuit Court.

In 2021, the Virginia legislature voted to abolish capital punishment.

The media outlet is joined by the First Amendment Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law, which is administered by attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, appealing the lower court’s decision.

Last year, NPR unsuccessfully sued the department to release the recordings.

“I think these records are very valuable because this process is largely happening within sort of a black box,” said Ian Kalish, a clinical supervising attorney at the Reporters Committee, in an RCFP interview. “It’s important for the public to understand what happens in these situations because these actions are being taken in the name of the public. I think just being able to facilitate that type of oversight is quite important.”

The Virginia Department of Corrections disclosed that it recorded 32 tapes concerning 27 executions. NPR journalist Chiara Eisner published an additional four recordings that a former prison employee donated to the Library of Virginia.

Attorneys representing NPR argued on Tuesday that state law allowing the exclusion of certain records from mandatory disclosure does not exempt actions conducted by the department, such as the employees’ recordings.

However, the Office of the Attorney’s General disagrees.

“The General Assembly has afforded broad protection to all records of persons incarcerated in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and that exception applies here,” said Margaret O’Shea, assistant attorney general, at Tuesday’s hearing. “It gives DOC the discretion if it so elects to withhold these records, balancing out the various competing privacy interests at issue.”

Governor’s office reacts to D.C. claims to unsuccessful arena proposal

MuckRock’s records request digging into the unsuccessful arena project slated for Alexandria this week uncovered past rebuttals from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office, which claimed last February that D.C. officials made “numerous assumptions” on the project, and how it leads to a “extremely misleading narrative.”

MuckRock, which is a nonprofit news site, received from the governor’s office over 300 pages regarding the proposal that would have brought the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Virginia from their home in Washington D.C.

Youngkin and supporters touted the positive aspects of the project, namely that it would generate a fiscal impact of $12 billion and create roughly 30,000 jobs. The deal would have required the General Assembly to create an arena authority that would have the ability to issue $2 billion in bonds for the project.

However, the proposal failed because the legislature and governor weren’t able to compromise on a deal, amid public concerns about the negative impacts on the environment, taxpayers, transportation, and quality of life.

Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the owner of both the Wizards and Capitals franchises, agreed to keep the teams in the District of Columbia.

Have you experienced local or state officials denying or delaying your FOIA request? Tell us about it: info@virginiamercury.com

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