FOIA Friday: Chesapeake mayor faces questions for asking staff to help family member

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.

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.

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.

Chesapeake staff helped mayor’s relative navigate legal dispute with Georgia city

According to records obtained by WHRO , Chesapeake Mayor Rick West asked the then-city attorney Jay Stroman to investigate a sewer-related legal issue his stepbrother had with authorities in Nahunta , Georgia in 2022.

“I did not ask him to do anything but to give me an opinion of what I could tell my stepbrother,” West told The Virginian-Pilot . “That’s all I asked him to do.”

Ultimately, the case led to the mayor’s stepbrother resolving the issue, after Nahunta officials approved a permit for him to install a septic system during construction on a 29-acre property, a request they’d previously denied.

The records received by the WHRO, which included emails, memos and text messages that began on Aug. 9, 2022, were between the mayor, Stroman and Chesapeake staff including Deputy City Attorney Ellen Bergren, who typed up a summary on the issue and provided opinions on relevant city ordinances.

Jonathan West, the mayor’s stepbrother, thanked Stroman for his assistance in an Aug. 12 email, writing “I am not sure of what or how you got it approves (sic), but the Ga Dept of Health called me yesterday to let me know that my septic tank permit was approved.”

Stroman wrote in response that his office was “happy to help,” WHRO reported. Stroman also shared that his office “reached out directly to city officials in Georgia and filed their own Freedom of Information Act requests for local ordinances.”

The Pilot said West made the request of Stroman two months after voting against renewing Stroman’s appointment in June 2022.

The city does not have a formal written ethics policy. Last week, the council voted in favor of an investigation into Stroman’s emails and one member is calling for the resignation of Mayor West, WHRO reported .

Stroman, who is now employed with the city of Charlottesville, has been on administrative leave since April in response to an investigation into an unspecified complaint, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow .

Policy changes lead to significant budget changes at Longwood

Longwood University officials moved $2.5 million from nearly 200 departmental local funds accounts to address administrative and overhead expenses, the Rotunda found after a records request to the public institution.

University President W. Taylor Reveley IV told the Rotunda the decision followed the Board of Visitors’ vote to change its “Use and Investment of Local Funds” policy providing university officials greater control over how donated funds are used and less for academic departments and offices.

University officials told the Rotunda that the policy change is aimed at aligning the use of funds collected through donations and state-allocated funds.

At the same time, Longwood was observing the Virginia legislature, which was considering repealing a change to a budget provision that would have required family members of disabled veterans seeking a college education to first complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) under the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program. The program provides college tuition waivers to the spouses or children of permanently disabled military veterans or those killed in action.

Reveley also told faculty, staff and contract employees in an email that each university, including Longwood, bore the costs for running the program and that those costs started to increase.

The university president said Longwood’s annual bill reached seven figures and “accelerated greatly” in the past year.

“​​In the swirl of everything going on with Richmond, I didn’t stop to think in the way that I should have that it would be good to make sure campus, the faculty and staff kind of understood that there was a process change going on that happened to be happening at the same time that a very unusual once-in-a-blue-moon situation was unfolding with the state,” Reveley told the Rotunda.

Some of the transactions found in the university’s 108-page response to the Rotunda included $5.00 from an “Outdoor Ed” account within the College of Education, Health, and Human Services, to $370,000 from Academic Affairs’ “Transformational” account.

Rotunda said other transactions included $100,000 from Athletics’ “Men’s Basketball” account, $35,000 from the College of Education, Health, and Human Services’ “Nurse Sim. Lab” account, and $30,000 from Academic Affairs’ “Moton Operat.” account.

Housing authority continued business despite potential conflict of interest

According to records obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch , the Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority continued to contract with a Richmond businessman’s company months after he joined the Authority’s board.

Since 2009, the RRHA has paid over $400,000 to Old Dominion Electrical Supply Company, which is owned by Harold Parker Jr., a previously appointed commission member on the authority. Around $9,000 of those payments were issued after Parker joined the authority.

The RRHA’s CEO Steve Nesmith told the Times-Dispatch that the partnership between the authority and the electric company ended in the fall of 2022, when he became the CEO.

Nesmith learned about the authority’s partnership with Parker’s company and approached him about it in November 2022. He said Parker planned to avoid any conflict by recusing himself on any issues about the electric company.

However, it was not enough for Nesmith, who recommended the RRHA not engage further with Parker’s company.

Parker responded “‘CEO, if that’s your advice, I will adhere to that,’” Nesmith told the newspaper.

Parker did not provide a comment to the Dispatch.

The authority’s ethics and conflict-of-interest policies states that “any RRHA employee, officer, Board Member, or agent, and any RRHA contractor or prospective contractor who knows, or reasonably should know, that they are party to an arrangement which constitutes a Conflict of Interest … must promptly disclose such arrangements to RRHA and HUD.”

Nesmith said that Parker properly disclosed his ties to the business and that RRHA knew about it when Parker was appointed.

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

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